so the fta is going to look at that. it was concealed well. but the funding problems that muni has is long-term. december 2009, service cutbacks, six lines discontinued, others shortened. may 2010, 10% service cuts. no funds to restore service. current fiscal year, $24 million midyear fiscal crisis. right now coming up in a few months. state cutbacks and transportation funds, $400 million deficit, plus multi-year budget deficits in the coming years. that is a known. muni will be hammered in the coming years. riders will be affected. meltdown's are continuing often, and why? aging fleet.

$2 billion in deferred investment. $660 million in a structural investment for fleet replacement. the central subway is also considered a high risk project by the mta in their january letter of 2010, and they are saying, the city will not cost -- fund any of the overruns. look at the products across the country. what are the risks? they are high. the central subway, the funding is very peculiar. high speed rail is connecting these -- commissioner campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is dorothy shank. i have lived in san francisco for 30 years. i think most of the people in here know that san francisco

redevelopment ruins the fillmore district and they put in high- rises and all sorts of job. this is going to happen to chinatown if this project goes through. do not kill chinatown the way fillmore was killed. commissioner campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning. i have been a resident of district 3 for 30 years. i have seen my share of boondoggle proposals, but this one takes the cake. when you are taking $1 billion of federal money to fund a project that does not even provide transportation to the main hub on market to chinatown, this is a complete and utter disaster. thank you. commissioner campos: thank you. next speaker. if there is any other member of the public that would like to speak, simply line up.

you have two minutes. >> good morning. thank you. i am going to repeat some of the stuff that was talked about, but it is worth repeating. i belong to a senior action network, all of whom questioned the impact on its elderly and and disabled who rely exclusively on public transit. as an elder myself, i have grave concerns about the fact that the central subway bypasses the market street corridor of multiple transit lines. the nearest station to market street on the central subway line is that union square, which requires a separate step to get on the subway. one needs to walk or take a transit vehicle to union square. additionally, station platforms

are so long, up to 1,000 feet, it would be a burden and even painful to get to a train. i also understand that to get up and down from deep underground would take considerable time. what if an escalator or elevator is out of service? is it also possible for the central subway to accommodate people with packages or who are disabled or elderly? who then have to take another means of transportation to get to blocks between stations. i can tell you right now, i will not be amongst that number of passengers who transit claims they will accommodate. thank you very much -- supervisor campos: thank you

very much. welcome to the rules committee, sari, plans and programs committee. >> i think that chinatown certainly needs improvement in the munis service, but i do not think that this is it. high-speed rail construction is already under way and it means jobs now in the city for construction workers. if they could work immediately at the terminal, let's see -- i am not sure what this would do with a reduced budget on market street, but i think that you need to consider that. it serves the marina and the northeast. i know that what i am in chinatown and come back on the bus, china town gets off at some other to find the easiest way.

having to walk so far down to get on the subway. this will reduce the buses at stockton street. money spent on this is needed city-wide to bring transfer is for everyone. the fact that there is no contact at all with minor subways is a problem. the third street rail really needs to go to the route that has now. >> thank you very much. anyone else in the public that

would like to speak that has not spoken? good morning. >> good morning. i am a board of director for the telegraph hill directors in north beach. we are fully in support of savemuni.com and we are against this subway. we are against this subway. this is a horrible idea. this only supports anyone east of nob hill and russian hill from the longitudinal perspectives. what about the folks in the sun set? what about the folks in the outdoor arena? this is the largest funding for a public transportation project and it is onlyç 4 1/3 or 1/5 of the city to go north and south.

the executive used some interesting language, saying that we are going after a prize. which is what makes it so right. it is very clear that even if they were to come to their senses and say -- this is a bad project, they feel that they have to go after a prize of federal funds. clearly that tells you that if they use the word prize or federal funds, you have to look at that and say, as soon as they use that it is a justification that they know the project is not a good idea. that they are completely wasting federal money. leslie, if this goes over budget by even 10%, the easy calculation is $160 million. none of us are driving on the new bay bridge.

triple the cost? it has been one quarter of a century since the planned this. supervisor campos: next speaker, please. >> good morning, commissioners. i am here to represent the community tenants' association. i think that if all goes to show that over 20 years of community support for this project, in 2005 we collected 2000 signatures. it connects neighborhoods like the valley, bayview, chinatown to the rest of san francisco and regional transit. this makes it a transit justice project. yes, boring tunnels is expensive, but it is worth saving neighborhoods.

it is a responsible way to build up downtown and china square. the chinatown area planned protect the neighborhood as the central subway comes in. the fear of a high-rise developments in the displacement, -- and displacement, it will be watched carefully. the central subway provides consistent right of way travel and access to an efficient and reliable travel. this funding cannot be spent on another project in san francisco. if it goes -- if it is lost, it goes back to a federal pot. supervisor campos: thank you, next speaker. >> wrong. this money can be spent elsewhere in san francisco.

this project was never on the federal list for new starts until political influence waned its way into the government. and this project is not cost- effective. it will never be cost-effective. and it screws chinatown royally. merchants on stockton will be decimated. the residents of chinatown are going to have to travel three football fields to make a connection. no one else does. the muni service on stockton street is going to be cut. and of the residents of san francisco are going to suffer because other projects that are worthwhile are not going to have any funding. this turkey is going to suck the

oxygen out of all of the funding for san francisco transit. and they have not told the truth to the feds. guess who is controlling the congress in january? they are looking at cost effectiveness. this turkey is going down and you should get on board with plan b, save them money for san francisco. thank you. supervisor campos: next speaker, please. i would ask members of the public to please respect the process. there is no applause in the room. give everyone an opportunity to be heard. >> supervisors, we have heard both sides of the central subway matter. the funding for the central subway would be better used to maintain surface transit. basically, this money is robbing

peter to pay paul. the delegates that voted on this matter include organizations from all parts of the city. not just the northeast quadrant. but organizations like the castro neighborhood association, sunset, park side, education action committee, middle post neighborhood association, all parts of the city. there are 46 organizations now in coalition. money is tight. this project is now supported or justified by the citizens. however much it might be supported by the city staff. neither the coalition for san francisco neighborhoods nor any of the speakers, save one, have a course in the race.

rather, we are deeply concerned that this will be a colossal waste of funds. supervisor campos: next speaker. thank you. welcome. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is malcolm. i am here with cindy from the chinatown community development center. we are here to express strong support for this project. i want to address the points made, it embraces a lot of concern for me. the primary characterization that concerns me is that this project will somehow not serve chinatown. this is a project that chinatown is asking for. [tone] supervisor campos: our fault, my apologies. i know that i talk quick, but i did not realize it was that quick. [laughter]

do i need to repeat what i was going to say? i just want to address the point that has been repeated over and over, that this project will not benefit chinatown. despite the fact of we have advocated this over the years, there must be some credit given to the community when they know what they are talking about. this project will decrease ride * from chinatown to other parts of the city. this entire illustration of how people will have to get out of the subway, walked back in, shift over to washington street, it misses a couple of things that really need to add some richness and depth to the narrative. first, they will not have to get out of the subway to get back down. they will be able to transfer directly in an underground tunnel, saving them time. number two, if anyone has written a bus on stockton

street, you know that it is the most humiliating experience for anyone to get on, pushed around, get you and your family on, pushing your way past everyone else. central subway is going to expand transportation options for the chinatown residents. it will make the transportation experience a lot more palatable and, hopefully, even pleasant. it will hopefully address these underlying human conditions that we see every day on stockton. the other thing that i would like to quickly add, many things have been said here about the fda being would be manned -- fca being bogyman, but far from killing chinatown, this project is what is going to allow us to attract hud money towards a

transportation oriented affordable housing developments. thank you. supervisor campos: is there any member of the public that would like to speak that has not spoken? seeing no one, public comment is closed. colleagues, let me turn it over to my harvard classmate, supervisor chiu. supervisor chiu: i would like to thank everyone that came out to speak on this today. i do respect your perspective. i know that she cared deeply about the future of our community. that said, it is no secret that i have been a strong supporter of this project since i was educated about it when i served on the citizens' advisory committee. we know that we are talking about the densest neighborhoods on the west coast. neighborhoods that, since the collapse of the freeway, have had no true public transit

access. over the last few decades we have seen the impact of that on residents, families, merchants, and neighborhood corridors. we have had several decades of the discussion of what we need to do to move that forward. this project represents that work. frankly, this project represents hundreds of meetings and the input of thousands of residents who have come out to support this. part of what we have heard today is how the funding situation is truly ideal. we are fortunate and blessed during this difficult economic recession that we received top ratings from federal authorities and that our transit agencies are on board and united in supporting what we have figured out as a way to leverage the state and federal funds that we are talking about. if we are ever going to be a transit first city, we need to

have this first access in the northeast neighborhoods. i would like to thank my colleagues, the mayor, and federal officials for their strong support of this. i look forward to continuing that work. supervisor campos: supervisor chu? supervisor chu: thank you for coming out here today. i know that you have been working on this for quite some time. i am pleased to see that there is a pathway for word. i know that there are a number of things that need to be bought and, but this has been a good update for this committee. i want to address some of the things i heard in public comments. central subway is also a project that i am very supportive of.

it is important to chinatown and the regional area. we heard public comments about funding, like how this is robbing peter to pay paul. this is not the case. when we spoke to the departments, it was clear that the project and moneys that we were relying on, it does not take away from a previous project. it is the priority of the mta and the city to make sure that the central subway is built and that we have this connectivity. we had heard that federal funding could be easily reallocated. that is also not true. if anyone has been following the central subway conversation and advocacy around federal government, it is not easy to say that we would have $900,000 for one purpose and next week's

ugly spending is a more else, that simply does not happen. we would have to start over and that money would be reallocated to other places. i want to be clear that that is relieve the situation we are dealing with. there are always conversations about the sun set and how residents simply will not benefit from a connection to chinatown. i can tell you, for myself, the number of people taking that transit line in order to get to chinatown, when people say that it will only benefit a certain quadra of the city, that is really just not true. it is beneficial not only to sunset residents, but also to others in the city, making sure that not only can people get to chinatown but that the folks are able to connect to sunset. even though we might disagree on this, for many of the people

that come today, i would hope that we would be able to meet by to eye on the benefits of this project. thank you for all of the hard work from the departments. supervisor campos: supervisor dufty? supervisor dufty: i would like to join my colleague in expressing my support for the central subway project. i think that for the people in my district that want to be able to have that connection to the northeast portion of san francisco, i would say that having worked for much of my career in the transportation industry, the federal transit administration's concern is going to be about maintenance of the rest of the system. something that this board has been very focused on. we will go to our next meeting with a management audit looking at the mta with a focus on maintaining the integrity of the

system. i think that is what fta interest is going to be. we are not building a system to know where, where people do not have traditional riding transit. this is providing higher levels of quality and service to a community that has been very much in the forefront of using transit. i think it is an important keys down to the sustainability of the neighborhoods touched by this, providing even greater access to growth in this -- growth industries of clean and green technology and it will be the focus of our economic program over the next 30 to 40 years. supervisor campos: thank you, commissioner. thank you to the staff for both of this grant -- transportation authority and the mta bus transfer -- presentations. it is great to see both agencies working together well.

we hope that that continues. i would like to thank the members of the public that came out to speak on this. many smart and talented people on both sides of the equation. i do not usually disagree with the speakers that came out against the project. i understand where they are coming from. i will be the first one to say that i do have questions about some of these operational issues. that said, i still support this project. to the gentleman who asked how can someone with public transit going through the system in their districts support something like this -- i want people in chinatown to have the options that my residents have. i think that there is a way to do a project right to to address these similar concerns. with that, colleagues, any other

comments? we will close this item and file it to the call of the chair. can we call item no. 3, please? >> new items and informational items. supervisor campos: new items? any member of the public? seeing no one, public comment disclosed. >> item #4, public comment. supervisor campos: is there any member of the public that would like to speak on anything not in the agenda? seeing no one, public comment is closed. next item? >> item #5, adjournment. supervisor campos: seeing no one, public comment is closed. but -- seeing no one, we are adjourned.

>> welcome to "culture wire." i'm your host meg. for years, free jazz concerts have been providing entertainment in downtown san francisco. people pay local musicians to perform for lunchtime crowds. the goal is not just entertainth. people in plazas are trying to create neighborhoods. what began as a forum for performers who were paid by passing the hat has become a program that provides wide

exposure and more than 500 paid gigs annually for local musicians. from july through september, people in plazas produces almost 300 free performances in the lunchtime hour. the mission of people in plazas generates social congregation. and by having these events, we encourage people to make these plazas everybody's neighborhood. >> recently, the san francisco arts commission was awarded a $ 250,000 grant for the national endowment for the arts. to establish an arts district in the central market corridor between fifth and 10th street. throughout the yearing the arts commission will partner with people in plazas to activate the sidewalks along this stretch with art installation, opening events, live music, and new arts

and antique markets at u.n. plaza. >> this area has been sleighted for many years, at least the past 25 years. i think that this redevelopment project and the n.e.a. grant are very positive signs that we have political will and a lot of momentum to really make the mid market area what it could be, which is a vibrant area where everybody is welcome and it's a place to be in san francisco. >> to get a feel for the future of the central market arts and culture district, be sure to catch out an upcoming concert. for locations and times, visit peopleinplazas.org. to learn more about the central market revitalization initiative, visit sfartcommission.org. thank you for watching "culture wire."

commissioner mirkarimi: good morning and welcome to the transportation authority. i am the commission in the chair. i would like to thank sfgtv for their excellent an ongoing work. >> commissioner david chu. commissioner dufty. commissioner maxwell absent. >> thank you. please read item two. >> approval of