this challenges doable with advocacy. as the executive director said, the program has a means of leveraging this money, it has a means of advocacy to include the $34 million and prop1a to the state budget. the california transportation commission has already demonstrated it likes the central subway program. with the approval of the $27 million in march. under prop1b, although it is a voter-allocated issuance, and that needs to be brought to its full capacity.

>> commissioners, i will be very brief. i doubt that there will be too many projects before the transportation commission that can come into the meeting with this much promise of federal money. that is really what is so fundamentally right about this. we are -- in terms of how you solve a transportation funding challenge, this is an idea to get in front of the treasury body, getting in front of bond capacity, and this is a great way to leverage those bonds. on that basis, i think it is an effective strategy. commissioner chu: in terms of the next steps, with 1a, 1b

funding, making sure that they are in the budget, if they are already not, and second, the bond allocation, issuance. >> that is right. commissioner campos: great, thank you very much. colleagues, questions? before we open up to public comment, commissioner avalos could not be here. he has a sick child at home. i wonder if we could have a motion to excuse him? thank you. any public comment? without objection. if we could now go to public comment. i do not know if we have speaker cards or any of them members of the public that would like to speak, you each have two minutes.

please come up. you each have two minutes. >> good morning, again, supervisors. my name is joan would, i live in north beach. i am here representing friends of washington square. this latter group's interest arose because of the plans to extend the machines stay. i think that was a way to persuade the power brokers that eventually this somewhere will go on and on to fisherman's wharf. anyway, the federal

transportation agency wrote to muni back in january the central subway was inherently risky. that letter had led to the decision that we had to put up this good faith money in order to get the federal money. "the chronicle" article seems to think that they have the money, "and the examiner" was not so confident. muni does not have a good track of handling money. i went out to one of their facilities on illinois and that has been open for business for many years, but they do not have any business. it is a view for project. they have 10 open spaces available for vehicles. three of them were open, but there were no vehicles there. this was at 4:00 in afternoon. it is just an underused facility. i also think, to assume that

they are going to get state bond money, they need to see letters from the state confirming that. the fed's will be remiss if they do not ask for verification if this money is available, and to shortchange muni riders by taking money from other projects to put into the subway -- a commissioner campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning, my name is wilma pang. this project was supposed to be through chinatown. i want to say something in chinese. [speaking in chinese]

[speaking in chinese] i just said, i am 70 years old -- what i am saying is, if i take the s or l car from the sunset, i must get off at powell street in order for me to go up to union square to catch the subway, right? then i have to go down to union square, take the subway and then go to chinatown, get off on washington street. if i want to go shopping, i have

to go to pacific and stockton. after three or four backs, back to washington street to go to the subway, then to union square, walk up, and then to powell street to take the l car. i want carmen chu to explain to the sunset residents -- the bulk of the chinese come from the sun seset. most chinese will say, the hell with the subway, i will take the bus. commissioner campos: next speaker please. >> my name is bernard myers. i am a member of the people of task force of the board last year. our concern in that task force

was to help the continued robustness of the entire public transportation system in the city. the allocation of substantial amounts of public funds, to me, to this project -- and i will let others speak about what is wrong with the product itself, but the allocation of these funds, the potential of being held for any cost overruns, has the potential to impoverished the system for years to come, which will not allow a lot of jobs to take place. just to justify it on the basis of leveraging federal funds is almost an end in itself, as this the gentleman indicated, does not do it. you should not be so blinded by the idea that the money, the product itself, is not worth it.

the other thing that i am really amazed about, all of the supervisors who have transportation -- parts of the transportation system in their district, are perfectly willing to allow the system to not be able to robustly rebuild and expand those systems, just to allow this one idiot boondoggle project to take place in a part of the city for the purpose of leveraging funds. i have to say, i have a suspicion that there may be other agendas here because this is always touted as good for chinatown, it is going to destroy the stockton corridor. commissioner campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> i am a transportation

engineer. last thursday, there was a meeting of the central subway citizens advisory group. at the meeting, we expressed our doubts that the subway would cut muni operating costs, and again asked for a breakdown of the cost estimates. in response, he assured the group that "by making people more efficient, it would cut costs. in response to our question, he referred us to be reports. we have completed an initial review of those reports, but first, a bit of history. a draft eir published in 2007 showed the subway share saving money. that astounding benefit was repeatedly broadcast by others

-- published a year later. the figure was now down to 3.1 8 million a year say but it was still savings, so again, that savings was trumpeted in many public meetings. two months ago, the mta submitted this new structure board, so now we see the subway would increase we have gone from saving 27.82 + $7 million. should be aware of that when you are listening to stop you're being told. as recent as the last week, people were being told of cost savings. is this one example of the many accuracies and distortions that have misled people, including you, that bill -- that chinatown would benefit from this ill- conceived project.

thank you -- commissioner campos: thank you. >> linda chapman. i have lived in not hill for over 40 years. most of us are completely dependent on transit. over two-thirds of the household when we did the census had no vehicle at all. i am very sympathetic with the idea that maybe a well-designed subway corridor could work, but this is not it. if you live around polk, suter, how do you get to the north? you go down to sutter, and then you get on the 30 or 45. now what is going to happen here? you are going to go down to the civic center, get off at washington, and then wait for a bus.

i do not think so. they are going to reduce service through there. i am all for capturing federal money. put it into van ness somehow. you have heard about my last winter rainy trip, when the meltdown occurred, it took me two hours to get to my school. last weekend, i tried to take the van ness bus because of the rain. you do not have it -- expect to have a bad experience at 6:00 at night. the driver told us to get out and take taxicabs. i went on a 4.5 hour odyssey tried to get to berkeley. i never got there. the van ness vrt plan is not going to work. people need more time to get across, not less.

there are 13 places where another bus crosses dan ness. they are dependent on making the signals go for that bus. what happens to the pedestrians? commissioner campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> howard stress. you have to know, with these high speed rail funds, 34, 72, there is already millions of dollars the state is contributing. you should really think about this connectivity fund. these and do not connect, they run in parallel. the central subway is parallel to the extension of high speed. somehow, the fed's are going to learn about that. then this business of $20 million from islais creek. you heard about this and the maintenance facility that needs

new equipment to maintain buses and trolleys. where are you going to get that from? that is a serious problem. the problem with the radio system, muni has been wanting to fix their central control system for many years now. you are taking $10 million from that and saying that they are not important? i do not know how much they have allocated, but $10 million is a substantial proportion of it. last time we spoke, we found the $70 million. you should be able to move people. the total number of people moving should be at less cost. however, with two systems, there will be less people moving, but still not enough, and it will cost 2 $7 million more. as they go out, it goes up. these are serious cash

shortfalls in the system. one thing that wilma forgot, it is 1000 the that needs to be covered. a lot of people will not use this system. i think you are doing something silly, the fed's will catch you on it. commissioner campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> howard wong, a lifelong resident of north beach. the central subway funding, even if you build the system, will reduce 7000 hours of service buses on the stockton and columbus corridors. that is stated in the eir. 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.