history to talk about me, nat. thank you, good morning, everybody. pleasure to be here. they've asked me to talk a little bit about the history of the -- of parking in san francisco and i suspect it's because they think i was actually there during the years when the street grids were narrow and people parked their horses and stables and hitching posts. i remember that so well. those street grids never obviously anticipated the 20th century and our car experience with the growth in population, number of years the automobile bake the major factor and equation it has and continues to generate and proliferate congestion and greenhouse gas emission. anyone, casual observer can notice any day the difficulty caused in the city by people circling, trying to find a place to park. the results four fold -- endless hunt for parking spaces, blocks and slows down transit, pud pedestrians at risk and means even more pollution. today we park a viable, logical means of reducing the parking

problem in san francisco. the promise is four-fold -- reducing the circling and double parking by directing motorists to available parking garage space, extending time limits so other people do not have to move cars to avoid a citation. pricing parking based on market demand. making payment easy and convenient for everyone to use. in a few months we should have the result of this experiment. pirnlly know we're on very good ground thanks to the work of professor shupe, who we are going to hear from shortly, about how this all worked. we may make some mistakes but i think they will be few and far between because we're on such solid ground. i want to say to my colleagues, i'm delighted director cheryl brinkman is here. our board unanimously supported this the last four years. wee proud to be part of it this day and proud of the federal government, board of supervisors and mayor on behalf of the people of san francisco. i want to add one personal note, i'm personally proud to be a

member of the san francisco -- san mateo, there's history for you -- san francisco board of direct ares of the m.t.a. i think we do a job on a daily basis and this marks an extraordinary event, proud of this and looking forward to the results very soon. thank you very much. >> thank you, chairman nolan. now we get to hear from one of the leading parking experts in the world, donald shupe is professor of urban planning at ucla, where he served as the chair of department of urban planning and as director of the institute of transportation studies. his research focused on how parking policy affects cities, the economy and the environment. his book "the high cost of free parking" has led to a growing number of cities to rethink how they manage parking more intelligently. dr. shupe. [applause]

>> well, thank you very much for inviting me to take part in the event today. sirnly hope s.f. park will be as great a success as all the previous speakers said it will be. s.f. park could not have happened without the strong political leadership in both washington and san francisco. the federal highway administration did a wonderful job with this grant to san francisco. it's just the sort of research project that washington ought to support and in san francisco two mayors of the board of supervisors did the heavy political lifting. nathaniel ford of the sfmta board of directors worked hard to convince many doubters. i think the smartest thing that the sfmta did was to trust its talented staff to take the lead in making this project happen. the people who were working on

s.f. park are the smartest and most talented and most overworked civil servants i have ever met. so if s.f. park is a success, it will be in large part due to the heroic determination to make it work here. the central idea of s.f. park is that you can't set the right price for curb parking without looking at the results. the goal is to set the lowest price that the city can charge and still have one or two open spaces on every block so that cars won't have to circle cruising for parking like hawks hunting for prey. s.f. park sets a clear principle for setting the prices for curb parking. the lowest price the city can charge without creating a shortage. so the right price for curb parking in san francisco is rather like the supreme court's

definition of pornography. i know it when i see it. and because san francisco set this policy goal for curb parking and how it should reform, the demand for parking will set prices. 30% of the households of san francisco don't own a car. and the city uses all the parking meter rev lieu to subsidize public transit. up until now, many poor people ride in buses that are mired in traffic, congested by richer drivers who are cruising for underpriced curb parking. you pay every time you board a bus, and that makes you think about whether you want to ride the bus. if you also pay the market price for curb parking every time you pull into space t. will also make you think about whether you want to drive. after shifting for a revenue goal for parking to an outcome

goal and choosing the occupancy rate as a way to desire the effected outcome, elected officials will no longer have to vote on pricing. if too many curb spaces are vacant, the price goes down. if no curb space is vacant, the price goes up. wanting more money will no longer justify raising price of parking. finally, i think s.f. park will give san francisco the best of both worlds. in f it works t. will make san francisco an even better place to live and work and visit and do business. it will be another feather in the city's cap and other cities around the world will copy you. if s.f. park doesn't work, well you can always blame it on a dumb professor from los angeles. [laughter] thank you. [applause]

>> so at this time i would like to call mayor lee up to join me in this demonstration of how this system will work. and mayor lee -- mayor lee, i know usually and you i, if we're traveling somewhere, we take muni everywhere we go. >> oh, of course. >> but in the event we do need to -- in the event we do need to use our car, we'll end up using s.f. park so we're not con jesting the streets and quickly get to a parking spot. first thing i would like to bring to your attention is the warning whfment you bring up an application, it warnes you not to use a handheld device as you're operating a automobile. that's a very serious item here in terms of this operation. just so you know, once you clear this screen, if you are traveling more than 10 miles per

hour with your device, the warning will come back up again to remind you of this law. so let's take a look. we're going to head out to lunch once this event is over and i think we should go to s.f. momentia. let me open the screen up. as you can see the p's are identifying municipal garages that are part of the program and colored areas are the pilot areas. we will go over to third and mission. let's see. there we go. blow it up a little bit larger here. ok. here we go. as you can see with the blue bars that's showing high availability of parking, lighter blue bar, there's some available parking and where you see red, there is no parking available on that blk face. so going to -- let's take a look over here, mission street on that block face, we have estimated nine of ten spaces

that are available at this moment, at this moment, and the actual fee, hourly rate for that -- if those meters are $3.50 during that time frame. as you can see during the course of the day, there's some at times the parking is restricted and if you look at night it is no charge from 12:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. and from 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. this is the realtime naffings would be available if you were looking on any block face for on-street meter parking. as you can see in this particular area, great deal of red is there in terms of availability. so let's move on to -- let's take a look and see -- because we're making a choice now. we'll take a look and see what happens at muss coney, the parking -- moscone parking garage. great deal of availability. 429 spaces out of 752 are available at this moment. let's take a look at the pricing there. the hours of operation -- actual

pricing there is $3 an hour, 50 cents less an hour. so what we can do, instead of circling around, let's go straight for the moscone center's garage and park our car there. we'll get a cheerp rate and observe -- cheaper rate and there's more availability there. so that's s.f. park. [applause] and i would like to thank all of you for joining us today. please download the application. there will be applications available for the android in another couple of weeks and then we're making all of this information open access to the world. we expect a lot of creative developers to put together applications that will touch all devices. thank you for joining us today. [applause]

>> and and you, everybody. we will call this disaster council meeting to order. although it is not my first. it is my first. we have done as before. i want to firsp everybody here at the disaster

council for being great partners, a great department heads, great supervisors as well. we have been through a number of growth this month, and certainly all of us have been together, talking to all of you at different levels for the disaster in japan. we will begin with a very quick moment of silence. the lives that are still hanging and the ones that have been lost, how we can learn from the extraordinary tragedy and be better ourselves. if we can take half a minute to respect those that have passed away.

thank you very much. that was my very first formal disaster as mayor. i had a chance to beat in the sea, if you will. i sought -- saw the immediate response. our assessment team, all of us that were there making assessments as an affirmation came, i think all of us responded very well and try to do what i've vented the most difficult thing to do even in meeting with the supervisors, trying to anticipate the worst scenario. we can provide information on dates and uncover things as they unfold.

that can turn to the public. the number one challenge with the public is how to keep calm and keep the facts of their -- out there. that might guide all of us. i met with mayor chuck reed to begin a process of and durability. 106 -- interoperability. 10 cities will join in the creation of a 700 mhz and t interoperability communications selected with motorola. we are already into site

selections and assessment for the bay area. that will be the foundation which we will build abilities to move quicker, share information, respond, and recover faster. as you know, monday, and all of you are welcome at 4:45 to be at the fountain with the chief and die and others. four-o'clock 40 5:00 a.m.. -- 4:45 a.m. don't be late. this will be part of the city, being better prepared. i cannot think of a better way to honor those in the past.

we can get updates about where everything is act and to make sure that we continue doing better than the last time we were here. we celebrated the kickoff of a very important program that was headed by american red cross. there were the ready neighborhoods program. all of us were there this afternoon. i was joined by a board president chiu. it was equally important that we build capacity.

obviously, a is a number one priority. also have an aggressive abilities to create foundations. it is even more valuable to the bay area and to the nation that we recover quickly. the only way you do that is to build foundations whether it is safer buildings, whether it is ability to clear roads faster, had i think the confidence and the ongoing training, that is where the american red cross becomes our experts. that is where the network is unfolding and the trust in government gets repeated over and over again.

that is why i think the readmission is so critical. to allow our departments to continue making strong connections to our neighborhood and everything you do. we also have another celebration this weekend, and public safety telecommunications week. that is to not only thank but reinforce the 911 system. for the tsunami day, really go up to the top of the streets and shook the hands of every operator there. and make sure that we are working very closely. they have been quite an important resource for us.

you can tell how professional they are in carrying out their duties and jobs. i want to celebrate the communications we by making sure that we embrace 911. and that is just important. we will have our largest annual -- large annual nert drill. that will take place at the john o'connell high school. with that, we have a pretty solid agenda to get updated. >> this is my first meeting in this role. i have been to the disaster council for many years with a different hat on.

i welcome you today as well. it has been public safety and national communicator's week. the dispatcher of the year, i think it was really a nice event. we honor it to young people, a 10-year-old and 11-year-old that called 911 and save their mother's life. it was an emotional and beautiful ceremony. we honored of the dispatchers and the kids that new to call 911. that is an education that we want to continue.

and really forging that partnership with the news. you all are invited to join us at 4:045 in the morning. sunday, and there will be a pretty exciting event in chinatown. this has a very special place in my heart. i was the chair of the task force for the board of supervisors since its inception. i think we have come a long way. that is one more way that we will be able to really push that prepared this message down to the community level. i hope it has become a model for other neighborhoods.

the lifeline's council that is happening this week, the bay area earthquake alliance meeting coming up. in other updates, most of you know laura phillips that has been the general manager since 2008, she announced that she is retiring. today is her last day on the job. i know everyone wishes her well under her leadership. we had made great strides in regional preparedness. we will continue to do that. all of the counties surrounding us to insure them that that spirit of cooperation will continue and we are invested with working closely together. i will be sitting over in her office until we can figure out the next general manager.

finally, lots of things are in the works right now. if we move forward, the goal of the city of san francisco and the department of emergency management is that we are able to communicate with one another. our public safety agencies to be able to talk back and forth. that is one of the main goals, to have a national network. we will make sure that we are at the forefront of that and we can make that happen.

that concludes my remarks. s -- are there any public comments? i will turn that over to where he will talk about some of the tfdw the department of emergency management. >> please see my name on the next 3 items. we have a lot of other people that were involved in this. they will try man. i will also advise members of the disaster council to share your thoughts and tried to capture that. what works as far as the phase of growth in the city hall is that we have a lessons learned points. there were lots of improvements that we needed to make.

we have come a really long way. we are not anywhere near perfect, but we have come a long way. we are at a point where understanding what we're doing and how we work is really important to understand how to use these tools more often and learn from activation. things will always go well, but the only way we're going to make those improvements is the talk about them and discuss how we're going to change things going forward. we have good examples of how to engage in that process. will talk a little bit about new year's eve. this is in line with something we started a year ago for a year-and-a-half ago. these are opportunities to pull everybody together and run them like we are from any other emergency. there is a lot of people involved.

you never know what is going to happen. what is normally a routine thing, people get together for a couple of hours, it gets busy until the bars close. we see this all the time. things did not go as planned. there is a large fire that resulted in the shelter operation. you never know what is going to happen, and it helps facilitate the management of those events. for that, i will ask the emergency services manager to give us an overview of the night. >> new year's eve began with the entire internet and city network down. just a glitch from the city system.

we got a dramatic rise of calls for emergency medical services. we took 350 calls that night. on just how the mass. there were a couple thousand calls. 350 calls is phenomenal. with the staffing of 14 people, it was overwhelming. we have the fire at the edge of chinatown and north beach. which, by the way, and generated transports. we had a surge of calls. when we examine the data for those calls and went back and

reviewed a sample that every paramedic completes, 70% of them are alcohol-related. comments from the commanders on the scene that night, it was anecdotally that they had just never seen so many young people in their 20s, mostly women, that were drunk. it goes to two kinds of permits, you get to do the facility like hospitals and the home.

your response to the scene of 911 calls. you can come and transport non life-threatening cases to the hospital. it would not appear to be life- threatening. at 2:30 in the morning, we had 33 code three calls. that is red light siren and potentially life-threatening. most of them turned out not to be, but we have no way of knowing until we get there. there of the 450 calls for medical care. we called our brothers and sisters and for the first time that we know of, activated a mutual aid system. they sent us a strike team. they throw -- and only to them an hour, and they handled a bunch of cls