surrounded by water of all three sides. what we have is being turned into condos and forcibly displacing people of modest means. it is almost like class warfare. for people to be able to get caught bill permits unlimited numbers, all of the rental housing, and the justice of it. i love you like to be able to celebrate those caught the conversions. i would like to let you know what effect that has on people, and there is a reason why there is opposition to that. [applause] >> i appreciate that. in terms of right now, there are a large number of owners that

are in the lottery and the length of time under the 200 unit cap has become longer and longer. we have owner occupied buildings that are struggling with their financing. i support providing relief to those people, but it should only apply to owner occupied buildings where there has not been an eviction history. about four years ago, the board of supervisors passed an ordinance that would greatly restrict or ban, the conversion when there has been evictions in the building. just being clear about what my position is. >> i have a quick question about

commercial vacancies. can you talk a little bit about what you think the outlook is? dodge the question was about vacancies on market street and whether restrictions on chain stores are part of that. we are starting to see some of them get filled, and i think it will continue. in terms of the restrictions, i support the current restrictions that allow the storage ago and only if you get a conditional use permit from the planning commission meeting that the committee has a say. there have been some that i have supported. it will be a case by case a situation.

you can ask me or anyone else in question. but we are past the end time. >> i am a victim of foreclosure where a company forged a loner that i paid off and has successfully gone to the foreclosure process. a question is, how are you going to stop this? what are you doing to prevent this from happening enforcing it? the other question is for the police chief. they have proceeded either steal or sell my belongings. the police say they are doing [inaudible]

>> in the restructuring of the office, we're looking at a mortgage fraud and inappropriate conduct by lenders. before we leave today, i will talk to you and take a look your case at. for the larger audience, if you are where they want as being foreclosed and you believe there are inappropriate lending practices, we have created a unit to deal with mortgage fraud and want to get those cases so we can look at them. i would like to get your information before we leave today. >> give me your name and number and we will look into it. before you leave, and give me your name and number.

>> everyone, i want to thank you for coming tonight. i wanted to thank all of the city officials for being here tonight as well. thank you. [applause]

>> please call the roll. >> [roll is called] >> we have a quorum. item #3, the use of sound producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. any person responsible for any similar sound producing device may be removed it from the meeting. when they are set on vibrate they do cause microphone interference, we ask that they are turned off. item #4, the approval of minutes. >> april 19. >> april 5. and 12th. >> [unintelligible] >> aye.

>> i would like to welcome this afternoon caroline [unintelligible] ably assisted by our student advisory council secretary. thank you both for being here. but >> item #5, communications. that is it. item #6, introduction of new or unfinished been -- business. >> director brinkman has something, i think? >> two items. i think that we need to look at introducing more pilots before the november time line, which i believe is the eir of the market street plan. i do not want to leave it the way that it is. i am concerned over digging up transit on market street.

>> the second is on enforcement. >> we have had an unfortunate number of pedestrian car interactions. i just wanted to make sure that the money we are spending on the work order is really being spent in a way that the public appreciates is going towards the safety of our streets, particularly pedestrian safety. i think it will help people to participate -- appreciate what the sfpd is doing for us. >> consent for hearings on both of those items? >> ok. >> thank you. >> i would like to follow up on a comment involving pedestrians safety. in the summer of 2010 there was an executive order from the mayor on safety. one of the items that was talked about was creating 15 mile per

hour sounds it within schools. to date we have not implemented any of them. i know that 255 were listed. we can start doing some of the high traffic ones and get some of those out of the way. get 10 or 15 of them so that we can validate what we are saying out there. we are really looking at getting those out. >> progress has been made in that effort. we have been briefing, particularly, supervisor jean camper on that issue. a citywide task force has been working on it as to where we stand with the 50 mile per hour zone across the city as it relates to schools. >> when? >> at the next meeting. we have information that we could share with you as to the progress from a city perspective.

>> anyone else? new or unfinished business? director heinicke? >> are we going to have a hearing at some point on the speed in the twin peaks tunnel? >> yes. >> scheduling, i guess? >> going faster than the train. [laughter] >> anything else in new or unfinished business? >> item #7, the executive director's report. >> good afternoon. the first item on my report is an announcement regarding bike to work day. it is that time of the year to dustoff our bicycle helmets, for some of us, and bike to work. it aims to motivate non-bikers to celebrate those who are already riding bicycles. this event will offer prime

opportunities to highlight the continuing work done by the mta to elevate bicycling as a green choice in a bike-from the city. the mta is one of the lead sponsors. all of us are invited to join one of the commuter, voice -- convoys. all of them will start at 7:45 a.m., so board members, please let the bird and know by tuesday, may 3, if you plan to join one of these rides. she has all of the locations that you can start your ride from and we look forward with or -- to riding with you on bike to work day. next, the cable car system improvement project. as previously reported, we shut down the powell mason and hide the line from march 28 through

april 1. it has been 27 years since the system was less renewed and i am pleased to note that the system hasn't run smoothly. -- has run smoothly. the next shutdown is april 25 through the 29. the project manager is with us today and he will give you a brief presentation and overview of this project, focusing on the state of the repair. as you are aware, the california line has been shut down for a few weeks. the plan was for that to resume and this is part of that work. in addition to the shutdown and repairs that we're doing there. this is going on on the ancillary lines and in support of the cable car system. >> welcome.

>> good afternoon, chairman, directors. is that better? try that one? my name is ken, i am here to you to present the status and shutdown schedule of the project. first, let me describe the system. what is it? it regulates cable car speeds and information from this view. it is also responsible for reporting the information to the human machine interface. there are two key alarms. the actual cable itself is made up of steel threads. if one of them breaks or becomes loose, the device will trigger

the alarm. the alarm location is sent to the control location. the second key alarm automatically disengage is the grip from the table. 60% of the time, it is driven by the cable or gravity. since the cable car is going from powell to mason, the conductor has to release the cable from the power line that grabs onto the mason line. they are all separate cables. so, in the event that it is not released, this mechanism will automatically block the cable from the grip. if this mechanism is triggered, the cable will stop and the alarm is sent to the control

council. the next question is -- why is this project important? as mentioned earlier, this system is 27 years old. analog technology. very difficult to secure parts. also, the transition of this alarm is unreliable. because of this old technology. but technology has evolved significantly over the past 30 years. in the digital age the requirement for millions of bits of data is critical and crucial to having clean, noise-free transmission lines. but transmission may be a medium, but the cable itself carries the data where presides. any connection to transmit the data is very critical. imagine the amount of data you would have to crunched in one

second to make sure the data gets transmitted properly. designs today have a good shielding and separation between the voice and data. it is impossible to remove all of these components, but the technology does exist significantly. the data transmitted will not be presented on the receiving end. if a loose strand was detected, it would get transmitted. because of old technology, the noise or other unwanted

frequency could cause the run pitt to reset. it goes to zero or sometimes from zero to one. this is causing a false negative situation. this type of scenario contributes 25 to 50% of false positive, false negative cable car alarms, causing unscheduled shutdowns in service reductions. because of the old technology and transmission that is not reliable, but intended for repair, of the strength can be compromised. by upgrading the system to digital technology with infrastructure improvement currently being done and

california streets, data transmission will be more reliable. we will hope to reduce false positive or false negative alarms. yielding higher service performance, easy to maintain and troubleshoot. 20% funded from, forwarded the adopted resolution. january 29, 2010, mta be adopted the resolution as the approval of contract.

so, the scope of this project is to replace three major hardware component systems. the third is the data system that manages the transmission of the alarm signals. there are seven in the field. the second is the motor drive controller that regulates the speed of the motor. the third is what i call the human machine interface control consoles, monitoring the cable speed. it can also start and stop the cable. scheduled to replace these components, the shutdown will be five days in duration. for outreach we have communicated the shutdown schedule of the community. presented at the association, working with sf travel, frequently known as the business

bureau, to coordinate the shutdown. because of the power out, we shifted the third shutdown through the fifth. here is the map -- started this is out of five shot, but the cable infrastructure for cable cars, as you know it reside on mason around washington. this is the powell street cable. this is the nascent cable. this is the high street.

so, the first shutdown is scheduled for march 28, april 1. we also installed a motor controller into the cars. so, the next shut down, scheduled for next week, will involve four data systems. we are also going to install three motor drive controllers.

for the less shut down, all cable cars will be down. the control consol will be installed and we will do a full system integration. including a stress test. all right, this is the schedule. the shutdown for next week, there will still be service for power. shuttle bus service will be provided. with normal cable car service in the business ward. shut down three will affect all shutdowns.

if there is a substitution for the three shutdowns, about 60% of revenue lost protected. here is the project budget schedule. dvina -- the total project is about $12 million. the actual spending is about 93%. as of february for construction we spent about 21%. the plan for a substantial completion is november the 18th. >> thank you. questions or comments?

thank you very much. very comprehensive report. >> you have a clearer understanding of what these are part of. the next item on my report involves the parks. a quick reminder to the board, we are watching these dynamic pilots be start -- this thursday beginning at 11:00 a.m.. we will be joined by the deputy administrator and the renowned professor donald shoot, the parking expert from the university of california, los angeles. chairman nolan, you will be attending to make some remarks. i hope that each of you can join us for this one. this relates to san francisco and parking on a worldwide

stage. the next item on the report is the smart jobs workshop. co-sponsoring a workshop to insured community engagement and partnering with specific focus on work force requirements, scheduled for april 27 it will open with the u.s. department of transportation secretary, participating through a video conference. the event is expected to attract elected officials and over 150 small businesses and individuals, as well as that that represent local and regional agencies. we know the chairman nolan is also attending that meeting and we hope that the fed chief also attend. the next item to bring to your

attention is the announcement of the implementation of an exciting initiative to further enhance accessibility in san francisco, related to our taxi driver ramp accessibility program. -- incentive program. our tactic program, providing a full-service access in 1994, that was a pilot program. now there are over 104 medallions representing 7% of the fleet. with implementation of the system in place we are able to collect data, as well as other information that will allow us to move forward with this program. the key goals are to improve the quality of rant taxi service and encourage the time they pick up a wheelchair, and -- customers. we would like to experience a

long-term commitment from taxi drivers and provide cost savings to overall paratransit programs by shifting the demand from the more expensive service to a more cost-effective ramp- taxi service. we would like to compensate drivers for the extra cost and time to transport. $75, $150, awarded on a monthly basis to those drivers to exceed the monthly average by different amounts. a $500 bonus to the company that has provided the highest number of monthly wheelchair pickups. it will be distributed to the employees with the highest number pickups, not exceeding $110,000.

we feel that this incentive program will extremely improve our already successful program. making sure that patrons have access. the next item i would like to bring to your attention, at the last board meeting there was a great deal of public comment regarding taxicabs and their oversight. as a step we are preparing a memorandum to deal with those issues. the first is related to credit -- credit card transaction fees. the second is related to the wave bills. the third is related to major increases. i have a quick summary to tell you what staff is trying to do regarding those issues. the first item raised, taxicab drivers in san francisco are

required to accept credit cards as payment under the transportation code. currently these companies are responsible for all costs associated with excepting these cards. the cost for the company is an on-reimbursed overhead expense. credit card use becoming more prevalent, the cost associated with accepting these cards has increased exponentially. in order to alleviate the interchange or merchant account fees charged by the companies, a program was developed that would allow these companies to pass these fees that a rate of no more than 5% to the driver through a third-party vendor. the cap was based on several components. these components included a survey of several other major cities where taxicab drivers except credit cards and pay the fees, as well