report on 791, because there's a lot to digest. i promise i will not make it an exhaustive report, but the right up will support my brief report when i come back. commissioner elsbernd: have there been any special sessions or do you expect them? >> i always expected them. things are deteriorating on the triggers. there were a couple efforts to modify the triggers. the governor rejected them. so we're going full speed ahead, and the triggers are in place. if the revenues are not there, you're going to start feeling the pain, and i you think that will force a special session. commissioner elsbernd: enacted land a transportation slot? >> because of the fuel tax slot that was read out to bend the rules under proposition 22 and 26, i think transportation is in a safe harbor. there may be some little part of

the they could come after. but by and large, we already gave $1 billion to the general fund through fees. thank you. commissioner mar: thank you. we were going to continue on the federal level issues. >> commissioners, very briefly, i guess the way i would categorize any clarity on transportation funding long- term, you know, the six-year surface transportation act is still very confused. still very much not out of the woods as far as any kind of consensus. i am sure you heard the president here in his speech a couple of days ago.

his emphasis is still on jobs. there is still a push for more investment in infrastructure. he even has a $4 billion proposal for additional high- speed real money. but the picture in the house is quite different from that. the positions are not anywhere close to agreement. the house appropriations subcommittee on transportation, just 10 days ago, approved a budget bill for transportation that includes a 30% cut. it is a reason to be alarmed, but it has not gone anywhere yet. there has to be the process of reconciling with the senate or so on. but to give you a sense of how complex the picture is in washington, d.c., right now, there is a downright nasty streak that has surfaced in

terms of the debate between investment priorities between transit and highway, to the point that the more conservative side of the aisle, the republican i know, has gone to the extreme of calling all of the special programs that were too -- that were put together, things like transportation enhancements and the things that essentially began to open the door to anything other than cars, whether it is more transit, bicycle facilities, or pedestrian safety, the things we talk about every day in san francisco, those things are being called now hitchhikers to the original purpose and intent of the highway trust fund. the implication is, if we're going to have to do streamlining, which everybody agrees with, if we're going to have to reduce the hundreds of federal programs into maybe a couple of dozen, it looks like

that is going to be used as an excuse to also final all of the money into highway-building. that seems to us like such a start regression -- stark regression for the 21st century goals. i would point out that the highway trust fund is really a creature of the early 1940's, you know, after the war, built in central london -- build essentially on a platform of national defense. the interstate highway system, that is how it came to be. today, the country's two or three times more urbanized than it was in the 1940's. so the need is largely urban. within the urban setting, as we have seen, using the bay area as a microcosm for national policy challenges, the real debate is how we continue to grow in a

more sustainable way. we know that sprawl and suburban life as we knew it for three generations it is no longer really an option 100%, so we have to start finding ways to incorporate options to single automobile driving and so on. were that rhetorical battle is going to land is very hard to imagine, but one thing i can predict to you is we're not likely to see a bill probably until after the presidential election. a contains some of the ideological items that it will be hard to get to a consensus. i would also want to venture that if we do not see a rebirth -- a reauthorization bill until then, that might not be the worst thing in the world. if you see one, is likely to contain less money or money at lower levels than what we've

seen, even up to the present. we do not necessarily want to have a long and damaging debate about what to cut. i think it would be better to have that debate once the dust has settled on the presidential election and we have at least the opportunity to decide at a larger level was a good set of policies would be for investing in infrastructure in the country. it is not a very hopeful note. i think it sharpens the focus on the fact that local self-help in transportation will continue to be very important, probably even more important than in the past, and the sense that it will be the available money. and, as i said, we will have to see how that evolves before we can see a lot of clarity of the state level as well. because the state, of course, receives a senate -- a significant amount of its

funding for transportation purposes from the federal gas tax. so those things are in a rather unsettled state right now. the other thing i want to mention to you is -- and i risk making a prediction on it is, i think that the next frontier is mileage-based charges for driving. i think that there is a coalition that is building at the national level to bring this to the foure on the strength ofa curious phenomenon, which is that the more conservative people in congress see the idea of a user fee to pay for roads are paid for driving, pay for anything you consume as a service, as a fair way to deal with the provision of that infrastructure. and so -- in fact, we have seen that --

>> the reality is those conservative republicans represent suburban areas where people have to drive a hell of a lot longer than democrats. i dread the longest here, 5 miles. yet, their constituents drive 3 miles on a good day. >> i agree with you and i have made that point in the debate. what i think is happening now is that, i can do what mark was saying earlier about the rhetoric of reshaping the word tax into the word feet, there is really a reasoning that is beginning to develop some legs that says we will do a trade off where the tax will go away. so what will not be you're paying a sales tax or a field tax or some other tax, and you do not know where the money goes. you'll be paying only for the mileage you drive, and that will be used to improve the road

you're driving on. so a more direct link. it is interesting that that is what is surfacing now. because in a way, the success of our own prob k sales tax is precisely in the fact that it is local and when the voters approved it, they approved it so that they were essentially very aware of what the money was going to be used for. that seems to now become the winning formula at the federal level as well. i am willing to risk that ultimately that will emerge as the way to move forward, because it will not be consensus in congress to increase the gas tax. but as you perhaps devolved into the state with an authority to charge on a mileage basis, combined perhaps with successful managed-based insurance programs, which are already being tested in other states, we might have a winning

formula. so stay tuned. we will give you posted. i expect that something like that will service in a more official weigh very soon. that is all i have. happy to answer questions. commissioner mar: is this an action item or is it informational? >> we do have, i believe we have a couple of items here that were slated for action. but i think one of those -- i am not sure that we even have that. that bill -- do we need to take an action? no. i would say, because the position was not reviewed before by the board, we should take an action on this calendar. because there was a position on a bill, ab 294, but it is essentially a pro-forma action,

simply because the item had not been before the committee before. other than that, no substantial changes. commissioner mar: any comments or questions, colleagues? let's open this up for public comment. would anyone like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. can we move this forward with a positive recommendation without objection? thank you. please call the next item. >> number 6, introduction of new items. this is an information item. commissioner mar: i see no comments from colleagues. with the public like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. please call item number 7. >> item 7, public comment. commissioner mar: is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? public comment is closed. next item. >> item 8, adjournment. commissioner mar: thank you. thank you, everyone.

meeting adjourned.

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>> i want to thank everyone for coming. we aren't trying to do a lot to restore the luster of the uptown historic district. in the past couple of years we have installed the store? . we have a landmark sidewalk program that we want to institute. we also want to restore some of the historic advertising signs, which developed the neighborhood's character. in order to get this money, there is a challenge grant program. when we applied for this grant, the person in charge of the program was ultimately a cao named ed lee. so the mayor had to decide whether or not to fund this project, so i am glad that he did.

we had support and additional financial support from the people that run the organization. jon dugan as well. you can see that great historic pedestrian lighting, which we only have on taylor street and a small part of golden gate. i did not know this, but when he was a cao, ed lee got those installed on taylor street. the mayor also has a plan that would restore 135 historic street lights to the tenderloin. that is an incredibly important thing for them, from an aesthetic and from a safety point of view. we are also one of the darkest neighborhoods. this is important.

you can see how nice those are. imagine how nice they would look through the neighborhood. i also want to introduce leroy looper who goes back to the 1980's with us in the tenderloin. nothing that any of us are doing would have started without leroy's vision when he bought the cadillac. we always need to appreciate them for their contributions. so without further ado, i want to make -- introduced a person who made this possible, mayor ed lee. >> great podium. i am happy to be here. happy to celebrate these wonderful murals that have been restored. we have been working on this for many years.

i just love the fact that he is leading this effort with so many of the other community people. this community challenge grant was an easy decision that we made. i see our acting city administrator. she is continuing that very good community-based approach, working in close concert with the people from clean city, who are doing the sweeping around here, working with nonprofits as well. i want to thank the tenderloin development megacorporation. you are part of our partnership. as well, the tenderloin economic partnership. i want to celebrate these because it is part of our history, but we are renovating them and giving them a facelift. this is an historical part of this district and kids like to

the history that we are still trying to make sure that people feel the vibrancy of this community. you have to see the other ones as well. the one that says original joe's -- john is here. there is also a coca-cola one. i want to see them put the old phrase in their "the real thing." i missed that. we are also doing some restoration. it is all about making sure we pay attention to the uptown tenderloin historic district. we have done this for some years now. ever since the fire that occurred here -- unfortunately, there was a fire here a few years ago. my predecessor gavin newsom asked me to come down here to work with the arts community,

come up with every idea that we could, to work with the office of economic development to please key dollars here. we are working with so many organizations working our way up this great street, finding out that there was a lot of history to showcase. we wanted to make sure that we used our artistic ability, the ability to forge artistic programs, and that is why we invested in this foundation. they are taking over the old theater. now these murals. i want to thank the people who got our two artists here. their work is presented here, in

this unveiling of these advertising murals. and we are going to do more of this. we want to do all of this in partnership with neighborhoods. that is what randy is all about. i loved working with him because he and everyone in this neighborhood wants to take pride in where they live and work. we see kids growing up in the tenderloin. they need to know the history of this area. we also need to make sure that not only are they safe, but that they appreciate the history of this neighborhood. i want to thank everyone is level of cooperation here. we have a piano theater coming in. we have the underground for the clay and ceramics. that will represent the role that part plays in helping us for a revitalization to this

neighborhood. we are doing that at central market as well. and we are trying to revitalize this whole street. this is ground zero for where arts and civic minded this come together with local government, to forge a ongoing partnerships to make this revitalization their welcome and new. also, if you go around the corner here, you will see the newest restaurant around. they are investing in our neighborhood. a great restaurant has come in and they are going to start another trend of great food. you see the revitalization already happening. the inspiration comes from everybody working together and never abandoning our neighborhoods. we never want to do that. so thank you very much for being here. i appreciate everyone's cooperation and thier roles.

[applause] >> our next speaker is john dugan. he is a legend. we love that he helped to get these merrill back of on the buildings. >> i know you have a busy schedule, mr. mayor, but before you leave, thank you for your decision to keep this city ticking away that it is. i want to thank many of these people. you have been around here. thank you. i know it was not easy. but what a courageous decision. we are certainly behind you. randy chopped, what can i say about randy? we have gone back and forth over 30 years, but the mural restoration is just another wonderful step -- and it is a happy step. a few months ago we were here talking about police protection, but this is a happy step.

something that the tenderloin residents, the retail community, and property owners, can rejoice in. as long as we continue to work together, this tenderloin is going to get better and better. randy, again, thank you for what you did hear. >> carolyn from the mid market cbd is also here. there is a story about market and tenderloin, dark past, shared future. now we are going to have some fun hearing from the actual artist, susan cervantes. >> thank you, randy. thank you, everyone, for coming out. i want to thank the mayor for

his passionate comments. for our part, we feel very honored to have had this opportunity to do some restoration in the tenderloin. we have a couple of other minerals, one on golden gate and one on the glide, for we have contributed to neighborhood beautification. we love the fact that this is historica. it was amazing, when we started to do the research on the signs, looking at the walls, how much history there was. we took the one that were the most recent and restored those and even had to cover up some of the others. but it was amazing to see all of the layers. and when you look at the coca- cola sign, you can see that the

railway school actually overlapped it, so we left it that way. layers of history. when we started to clean the wall, the crew that is responsible for the painting -- i was just sort of directing them in the process of recreating them, making decisions about the color. but when you get up to the wall, we restore the actual color. when we were far away, we could not see what color it was until we clean its and then matched those callers. so that is the process of restoration. it is not just going up there and painting them any way that we want to. we really wanted to preserve the history of the signs, when they could work created back in the 1930, 1940's. we want to thank the people here

who have put so much into the neighborhoods. like i said, i was not the one that painted them. i have some talented artists that did the work. it is a lot of scaffolding to go up and down. i know that my son is here. come on up. and there weren't four artists. -- were four artists. one of them is actually in poland right now doing a community mural there. but we are all proud of the work and we hope that you appreciate the brightness and uplifting of the community. we really want to thank you very

much. >> i will mention, people know that original joe's is moving to north beach. but as part of the sidewalk project, there will be a plaque in front of original joe's installed in september or october to commemorate it, as well as the corner of the continent cafeteria. the famous location that started the freedom movement in san francisco. so we are in history here. i want to thank all of you for coming. i know on friday there is a mural presentation at the post office at thahyde and golden ga. 5:00. arts in the tenderloin continue to flourish. and anita just came.

thank you for shepherding us through the process. without your help, we could not have done this.