dynamic. a couple of final things. a very, very important announcement, commissioners. the president's draft budget, which was released yesterday essentially on the transportation side includes $30 million for the bus rapid transit project. that is a very nice a lot of money, a great piece of news. it includes $200 million for the central subway, which is another excellent piece of news. the budget needs to go through congress, but the fact that the administration has put this much financial clout behind the projects is a clear indication of how important they are to the administration. we are looking forward to seeing the projects move forward. on the other side, the administrative draft will be released at the end of this month in february, and we expect that the public documents, public draft, will be circulated in april. so we are moving forward

expeditiously with that project and making sure that we can capture the funding largesse from the federal government on the project. also to reiterate, we have concluded the commercial close on the presidio parkway project, and the financial close will be on schedule to happen toward the end of the summer. and finally, i would like to introduce two people that have joined the authority team. first of all, matt lee, who joins the capital projects division as senior engineer. he is a san francisco local. he has lived in six of the 11 districts over 30 years. he is, like commissioner cohen, a grade wait locally, and he has an underdegree from the

university of cal davis, and a masters in engineering from san francisco state. he has spent part of his life in the public sector and some in the private sector. he is great to work with, and i am delighted to welcome him to the authority team. i was like to introduced alex chiu. he is part of the outside counsel bureau, and we are delighted to have him as well. commissioners, that concludes my report. >> welcome, gentlemen, to the staff. commissioner mirkarimi: colleagues, any comments or questions for the executive director or myself? any public comment? seeing newspaper, public comment is closed. madam cleerk, read item five. >> approve the 2011 state and federal legislative program, an action item.

commissioner mirkarimi: any discussion? seeing none, any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. roll call, please. >> 11 ayes. commissioner mirkarimi: very good. read item number 6, please. >> award a contact to 12i carshare not to compete $1,700 for e-fleet carsharing electrified project and authorize executive director. >> any discussion? no discussion.

any public comment? closed. so moved. >> item number after. appoint wendy tran to the advisory economy. >> any discussion on this item? seeing none, any public comment. public comment is closed. take the same call. very good. so moved. item number 5eu8. >> allocate $35 in prop k funds with conditions to the transportation agency for the citizen of the 14th and market street curb bulb project. commissioner mirkarimi: long overdue. any discussion. public comment? public comment is closed. so moved. next item please. >> amend the baseline funding plan for the san francisco municipal agency central subway project.

affirm the authority's communicateding commits. commissioner mirkarimi: any discussion on this item? public comments? one after the other. >> my name is art michelle. i am a member of the citizens advisory group for the central subway, and i want to take the opportunity to ask you to support the funding for the central subway project, which will be -- will provide much improvement for the central corridor across the most congested portions of the city. thank you. commissioner mirkarimi: next speaker please. commissioner wiener, i see your name on there. can wait until after public comment? >> yes. commissioner mirkarimi: as you see fit. >> good morning. i am with the richmond association. i am also the chair of the land

use committee. i am here today -- i am normally more interested in land use issues, but this muni -- this central subway i think people who take muni haven't heard, and they are not fairly represented, and i think their concerns have to be addressed. in regards to the central subway, i think the transportation authority, m.t.a., muni has to provide accurate and honest information to the board of supervisors. i am not sure if all the pros and cons have been discussed thoroughly. this is such a huge budget item that is going to have impact for the future of muni. central subway may benefit some people. i don't know what percent.

perhaps 5% or 10%. but the 90% or more, their concerns i don't think are being considered, and they are not being addressed. i didn't realize i only had two minutes. i have to say i admire the public defender and his courage to stand up and point out an issue or problem that needed to be addressed. and in the same way, with the members of the board of supervisors, understand and see the future effect of this central subway and that you also could understand the problems. if you see an issue, if you oppose this, please stand and oppose this. thank you. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you, sir. next speaker, please? >> good morning, commissioners.

my jamaica is jackie saks. i am not only a member of the citizens advisely authority, but i helped prop b and re-authorize prop k years later. the 3rd straight light rail was part of problem b. i have been working on this since day one, and i have gone to all their meetings and their workshops. there is no -- like michael said at the plans and programs meeting, there is no reason to stop now. let it go forward. let the project be completed, because this is what the money is there for. this is what it is allocated for, and i see no reason why you should not oppose it. please vote for it. thank you. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker, please. >> howard wong with save

muni.com. the central subway, as we all know, started as a politically inspired project, not a transportation project. over the years, growing opposition in the neighborhoods and even many of our elected officials privately and our top transit leadership privately have acknowledged that this is a very poor transit project that disconnects the entire market street corridor from the muni system. that doesn't even serve the needs of chinatown, but it is driven for political reasons because of federal funding. meanwhile, $636 million of state and local funding is being taken from high priorities. we have $2 billion of deferred san francisco needs. we have a crumbably

infrastructure. buses are goingoff line regularly and computers are failing. in eight years if rebuilt, the central subway will not provide transit improvements to several hundred miles of muni transit lines. 1.7 miles of the system should not hold up the necessary improvements that we need for muni right now and within the next few years. we have tunnels that are crumbling. in an emergency i fear that we may have a very crippled system . rails, traction, old tunnels -- tracks, old tunnels. leadership has to look beyond the political and federal funding issues and look at how we can extend the limited resources we have now to help

700,000 riders per day. thank you. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you, sir. next speaker, please. >> good morning. my name is wilma pang, and i am from chinatown. i just want to question one thing about the validity of the center subway for seniors. i am older than most all of you, so i can speak on behalf of the seniors. supposedly if i live in sunset, i have to taking the l or the n car, and then get off on powell and mark streets. but there is no connection. so i am forced to walk from market to union square. one way or the other, it is about a thousand feet. then i will take the subway to chinatown, which is clay and washington, a mile and a half. but if i wanted to go to broadway and pacific, where

most shops are, then i have to walk. is there a bus going that way? it is too much trouble. the bus service will not it officially anyway. and then after that, with bags full of groceries, i have to walk back to clay and stockton, then go down all the way to the subway station, take the bus to union square, then walk again to powell and market. i say hey, that is too much trouble for me. i would like to take the bus or just forget about the whole thing. take the bus. but is there a bus system going directly from market street to chinatown? it turns out the bus system will not be as frequent as now. so i want you to consider a

better plan to help seniors. most of us take buses anyway. so if this truly is really serving seniors, thank you. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. forward, my name is linda magellon. i am with the union square business improvement strict. it is a pleasure to be here in support of something for a change. we do support the funding amendment today. we are now in the midst of the utility re-election -- relocation construct for the project. it is not fun. but i think there is no gain without pain, and we expect by the end of this project that the city will be better served, that we will be better served, and that the 30 and 45 lines that run on stockton will always be complemented.

so we encourage you to support this amendment before you today. thank you. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning. my name is cindy lu from chinatown community development center. i am also here to urge you to support the amendment. i want to point out that chinatown is the most denies neighborhood west of manhattan that 82% of the households in the neighborhood do not own cars. for us, it is not just a transit project, but a transit justice project, about getting reliable transit to the people who rely on it every day for grocery shopping, going to the doctors, going to their jobs, meeting their families. like linda, we want to work with the c.t.a. and others to make sure this is a project that works for the neighborhoods. we want to see the almost $1 billion in investment do to our neighborhoods, but we want it to mean jobs, open space and neighborhoods that we can believe in, not just the

transit project ilt receive. i wanted to reiterate that the $1 billion in federal money cannot be spent on any or project, that this is solely for this project, and it a match of three-to-one for every dollar spent by local government. again i want to stress that we want reliability transit for the people in chinatown, and this project is one the community has been behind for over 20 years, and we appreciate your support today. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you. any further public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. the matter is back before the commission. commissioner, weiner? commissioner wiener: thank you. i will be supporting this item, and i do support the central subway. we do need better norton-south service in the -- north-south service and better access to chinatown. i do believe it is important to keep reminding ourselves that

the has not gone or is not going as far as i would hope that it could go at some point in the future. we have a history in the bay area and san francisco of building rail and subway systems that are not extensive enough. we made a huge blunder in building bart and allowing some counties to opt ow. we are now paying the price for not having an extensive enough bart system. we have another transportation system covering a small portion of the city, leaving the west side to struggle without transit system. this line, although i support it, is not long enough. i hope we will do whatever we can to extend it up to fisherman's wharf. i think that is important for the future transportation needs of the city.

i also just want to note an additional concern that i know a lot of people share, that we do not do nearly good enough job taking care of the muni we have now. we are seeing all sorts of infrastructure problems that are causing service problems from our tracks, to our overhead wires, to the doors, because we are just not doing a good enough job in taking care of equipment. remember not prioritizing infrastructure maintenance. i do have concerns about what this will do to muni's operating and maintenance budget. we need to all be watching that and making sure that muni is taking care of its entire system. with all those concerns, on balance i do sfment this project, and i am glad to see it moving forward. commissioner mirkarimi: any further comments, colleagues, or discussion? commissioner david chiu? commissioner chiu: i want to thank commissioner wiener for

his comments and could not agree with them more. obviously as we think about muni's finances, we have to be very careful as we move forward that we think about how are we going to invest in our public transit system really for the next century in a way that will give access to everyone in the city, no matter where you live in the downtown corridor, whether you live close to transit or not. i do think, though, that the central subway project is at the heart of moving our transit vision forward, as was stated by one of our speakers. this is a project that has been in the works for several decades. certainly after the [dog barking] the he could embarcadero dareo freeway project came down. we have something that we can leverage federal dollars for every dollar we invest in it. we have to take advantage of the dedication we have had with

our federal officials to get these resources to san francisco. with that being said, i am happy to work with commissioner wiener and all of us to move forward a larger vision around what public transit ought to look like in san francisco. commissioner mirkarimi: especially to the west side of the city? commissioner wiener: absolutely. mirkarimi first quarter any other comments? commissioner avalos? commissioner avalos: i want to put in a word for the south side of the city. commissioner mirkarimi: any other comments or discussion? seeing none, may we sake this same house, same calls call? so moved. next item, plea. >> number 20, introduction of new items. this is an information item. commissioner mirkarimi: commissioner elsbernd? commissioner elsbernd: thank you, mr. mayor. i would like to ask staff, the plans and programs committee if we could have a hearing on the

cal transition two. things we should discuss. one, whether or not san francisco will follow san mat yo -- mateo's lead. and if we do have to make that decision, or even if we don't and the funding situation at cal tran is still so leak that the potential scenario of no weekend service, no late-night service, just the morning and evening commute service actually does come into play, a discussion of how that impacts muni, and potentially what decisions need to be made with muni's service to try to accommodate what very well may be a new demand on its services. commissioner mirkarimi: well said. i believe we can do that for next month. is that correct, director moskovich? >> we will talk about the programs with commissioner campos' blessing for the

upcoming meeting. commissioner campos: we will be happy to put that on the agenda. thank you, commissioner elsbernd, for raising. commissioner mirkarimi: any other items to introduce, colleagues. public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. continue that to the call of the chair. next item, place? >> item 11, public comment. commissioner mirkarimi: another opportunity for public comment that you might have missed previously. anybody who would like to come to public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. next? >> adjournment. >> i just would like to thank sfgtv for their on going good work. commissioner chen -- cohen, your name just came up. it just flashed. commissioner chen: my comments are brief. i would like to welcome matt

lee to the transportation authority and thank them for hiring him. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you for adding to the welcome. if there are no further comments, colleagues or discussion, the meeting is now adjourned. have a good rest of the day. >> in this fabulously beautiful

persidio national park and near golden gate and running like a scar is this ugly highway. that was built in 1936 at the same time as the bridge and at that time the presidio was an army and they didn't want civilians on their turf. and the road was built high. >> we need access and you have a 70 year-old facility that's inadequate for today's transportation needs. and in addition to that, you have the problem that it wasn't for site extenders. >> the rating for the high

viaduct is a higher rating than that collapsed. and it was sapped quite a while before used and it was rusty before installed. >> a state highway through a federal national park connecting an independently managed bridge to city streets. this is a prescription for complication. >> it became clear unless there was one catalyst organization that took it on as a challenge, it wouldn't happen and we did that and for people to advocate. and the project has a structural rating of 2 out of 100. >> you can see the rusting reinforcing in the concrete

when you look at the edges now. the deck has steel reinforcing that's corroded and lost 2/3's of its strength. >> this was accelerated in 1989 when the earthquake hit and cal came in and strengthened but can't bring to standards. to fix this road will cost more than to replace. and for the last 18 years, we have been working on a design to replace the road way, but to do in a way that makes it appropriate to be in a national park and not army post. >> i would say it's one of the most ugly structure, and it's a barrier between the mar sh and

presidio. and this is a place and i brought my dogs and grandchildren and had a picnic lunch and it was memorable to use them when we come here. what would it look like when the design and development is completed. and we are not sure we want an eight lane highway going through this town. and it's a beautiful area in a national seaport area on the planet. >> the road is going to be so different. it's really a park way, and it's a parkway through the national park. and they make the road disapeer

to the national park. >> and the road is about 20 feet lower, normally midday, you go through it in two minutes. looking back from the golden gate bridge to presidio, you are more aware of the park land and less of the roads. and the viaduct will parallel the existing one and to the south and can be built while the existing one remains in operation. and the two bridges there with open space between them and your views constantly change and not aware of the traffic in the opposite direction and notice the views more. and the lanes of course are a foot wider than they are today. and they will be shoulders and if your car is disabled, you can pull off to the edge.

and the next area, the tunnel portal will have a view centered on the palace of fine arts and as you come out, you can see alkatrez island and bay. and the next area is about 1,000 feet long. and when you come into one, you can see through the other end. it's almost like driving through a building than through a tunnel. and noise from the roadway will be sheltered. and the traffic will be out of view. >> when you come out of the last sort tunnel and as you look forward, you see the golden dome of the palace of fine arts and what more perfect way to come to san francisco through that gateway. >> it will be an amazing

transformation. now you read it as one section, the road is a major barrier and then a wonderful strip along the water. all of those things are going to mesh together. >> right now the road really cuts off this area from public access. and with the new road, we will be able to open up the opportunity in a new way. >> this bunker that we see now is out of access for the general public. we are excited to completely rework this side and to open up the magnificent views. and what we want to do is add to this wonderful amenity and restore this coastal bluff area and respect its