terminal. i know that the legislature now has 60 days to deliberate on the business plan prevent -- presented by the high-speed rail authority to decide either to support a return several billion dollars of federal funds given to california for this purpose last year. the believed it is crucial for san francisco to advocate for changes in the plan that make the implementation of high-speed rail into the transbay terminal a priority much sooner than 2030, obviously, especially when so much local funding has been going into this project. i understand that commissioners wiener and candidates are working on this with the mayor's office -- and campos are working on this with the mayor's office. this should be a major priority for the next four weeks and then new year. the other big piece of the news with the action last wednesday by the environment and public works committee the u.s. senate, chaired by senator barbara boxer, approving a two-year

reauthorization of the surface transportation act, which is now going to be named map, map 21, which i think stands for moving ahead for progress in the 21st century. this is a bill that would continue the current level funding for two years understand that not all the funding has been identified for it yet. it is also not clear the level of support. in the senate the senate bill was approved in a bipartisan vote. i expect the executive director has more details on that. this bodes well for the start of the conversation. that might give us a multi-year bill. it is clear that it may not go beyond two years. this concludes my report. mr. executive director, please -- >> good morning, commissioners. my report is on your desks. i want to highlight just a few things. i do not really have more details on the issue of the two- year reauthorization bill, other

than to say this is yeoman's work on the part of senator boxer to try to get a bill and create some stability for funding for the transportation sector in the next couple of years. it is clear that we have gone from a six-rebel 20-year bill, because the resource issue, the revenue issue is still unresolved. in fact, even the senate bill has a $12 billion hole, and that is more than 10% of the total funding for those two years. i think you can count on a fight of some sort in the house to try to get to a similar level of commitment for a two-year bill, even for a two-year bill. and the local level, when we commit to voters the sales tax, a 30-year plan, we expect that the federal level, there will be a little -- a level of commitment that would allow us to leverage the funds that the

locals are willing to commit to. so the two-year effort is better than nothing, certainly, especially at this time of economic hardship. but we need multi-year commitments to be able to engage in multi-your initiatives, like the high-speed rail initiative and other things we're doing. even some of the programs that require multi-year funding. we will hope for the best in that area and continue to encourage congress to do the right thing. i wanted to point out a few things that are going on, that went on this month related to funding for projects. we had a series of meetings with mcc to try to sort of strategy for the big projects under construction. the presidio parkway, central subway, and the transbay project it all of them are experiencing some level of impacts from the

slowdown in the economy and the pace of the liver of state and federal funds. we're doing the due diligence necessary, especially sorting out the weekend provided bridge financing for these projects that the commitments that the state and federal governments have made in years past do not materialize in the timeline that was originally promised, which is a distinct possibility, especially with the issue of delays with the state bonds and so on. we have had productive meetings. i will keep you posted. we have not really changed anything as far as our commitment to those priorities. but we're simply trying to get some clarity about how the ntc will bill to help us with those issues. the authority is committed in helping to commit as much as possible. there has been considerable work in progress on the regional transportation plan. several of the have been involved in the directly,

especially the ntc commissioners. i would point out that the earlier this month, a draft result was released on the performance assessment. we found several san francisco priorities that did very well. of course, this is sweepstakes for future funding. one of them, of course, is the effect of this project. we also saw the bart metro project that will increase frequency of services to downtown san francisco scored very well. and the initial pricing initiatives in san francisco also did very well, of course. i would note that both commissioner campos and commissioner reno made comments about the need to further take into account, in the evaluation of both the end of the door projects and the program might

alternatives, this is the commitment to housing supply, a way to reward what local jurisdictions are doing. and the quality of targets need to be more closely included in the evaluation that is done. and results released for the rtp next month. i think that will give us an opportunity for an interesting discussion about that before the planned moves to next year's steps toward adoption. some wanted to also point out that the san francisco transportation plannin is making progress, and we have had more briefings of our advisory committee and other groups. we're looking now at some things that will probably not

get as much attention in the plan. these are subjects that we intend to govern in a more comprehensive way this time. there's more information on our web site on the transportation plan. there is the lifeline transportation program change, which is highlighted here because of its significance. the lifeline transportation program funds have flowed from mtc to the condition management agencies and the different counties. the mtc is now proposing a change which would actually increase the amount of funding that goes to the counties, but it would direct a large amount to the transit operators, sfmta, and also increase the amount coming to the authority. we're talking about revenues of

$11.7 million going to mta and up to $5.4 million coming to the authority. this is funding intended to deal with increasing taxes and mobility for low-income communities, and we have already had quite a bit of involvement with the program in the past. you can expect the requisite projects and the actions of the plans and programs committee in december, prior to the issuance considering some of the funding going to the program that commissioner campos has been spearheading. van ness brt released its eir/eis draft on november 4. the comment period closes on december 19. prior to that, there'll be a public hearing on november 30 at the holiday inn, golden gateway,

1500 men ness avenue. this is all included on our website, but of course the public is encouraged to attend the public hearing and to provide comments. several channels are available for that. geary brt is also making progress. i wanted to point out, as a segue from the chair's remarks about high-speed rail, there was a session on high-speed rail at the focus on the future conference happening right now in san francisco, and i was intending that this morning. a member of the high speed rail authority board clarified the schedule for comment on the business plan that is out there now, that was released on november 1. the idea is that the authority, the high-speed rail authority,

will take comments at a hearing today in palo alto and then on december 6 in san francisco. then they will consider incorporating all of those comments and directing the mine some fashion. then at that yuri one, are the first week of february, the intention of the meeting to approve the revised plan that might incorporate those comments. only after that, the 60-day timespan, will the legislature kick in. so there's time to organize commons, even beyond the two hearings that are already scheduled. i think that is time that is welcome to, because we probably need to make some additional comments on that. finally, i wanted to announce that i am pleased to report that we have received two grants in san francisco from the value pricing program at the federal level. one grant for $1.5 million is going to a joint venture of the

sfmta and the city car share for electric bike sharing and car sharing demonstration. $480,000 them into the of 34 parking pricing in regulation study, which is going to be helpful for parking-based pricing options to fall on the environmental studies in the city. the last thing is that caltrans has done a pre-award audit of the authority, and we have a clean audit report. there are several items on the report, and i would be happy to answer questions about them. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. i wanted to make one general comment. one of the things that supervisor wiener and i have been working very diligently

since we were appointed to the ntc was making sure that the funding issuance and other decisions are being made at the mtc and that we continue to speak with one voice. i think that we have managed to do that. i think it is especially important with some of the projects, especially those that perhaps did not receive the kind of rating that they should have, that we continue to speak with one voice. at this point, i want to thank all of the different agencies. the transportation authority, certainly, but also the mta, the mayor's office, who has worked very hard to make sure that that happens, and i think it is important, especially as funding becomes more limited, that we are strategic and how we approach these projects. so thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: very good. any other comments? seeing none, public comment, please, on either one of the reports. seeing none, public comment is

closed to this is an action item. madam clerk, please read the next item. >> item 5, increase the authorized amount for the non- federal portion of the memorandum of agreement with the treasure island developer about 30 by $1 million, to a loan obligation amount not to exceed $10,287,000 to complete preliminary engineering and design for the i-80/yerba buena hylan interchange improvement project. deferred to retain a date by two years. supervisor mirkarimi: discussion? the seeing none. public comment? seeing none. i think the house is changed. it has not. may we take the same house, san call? very good. next item. >> award a consultant contract to kimley-horn and associates in an amount not to exceed $250,000 before program management and technical support of the van ness and brt program with an option to extend for two additional years. supervisor mirkarimi:

discussion? public comment? seeing none, public, disclosed it is in house, col. next item. >> three. robbers would surge of the citizens advisory committee for a two-year term. this is an action item. -- reappoint robert salatin. discussion? >> public comment? take this without objection. some lived. next item. >> item a, appropriate up to $126,827 for the 19th avenue transit corridor investment study, subject to the attached fiscal year cash flow distribution schedule, and in the transportation/land use coronation five-year prioritization program. action item. supervisor mirkarimi: discussion? public comment? and seeing none. take this without objection but also moved. clark, please read item number nine. we will skip this. then we will turn back. >> i will remind the last item 9 to report on the limited scope performance audit of the

sentences the municipal transportation agency. phase ii. action item. supervisor mirkarimi: we will return back to this. please read item number 10. >> introduction to new items. information item. supervisor mirkarimi: is there any introduction to new items? supervisor wiener: thank you. i am calling the hearing today relating to high-speed rail been also requesting that it occurred with the plans and programs committee in december. as the director and commissioner campos have noted, we have had very significant opportunity and challenge on our hands to make sure that we have effective high-speed rail to transbay terminal and to make sure that that entire route is completed and that we have an effect of high-speed rail system. of course, this era of limited

transportation funds, we need to make sure that we are completely coordinated and on top of it, making sure that, as commissioner campos noted, that we are speaking with one voice in terms of the absolute critical nature of completing the entire high-speed rail route and not leaving any portion of bit behind. and making sure that the transbay terminal is able to be what we all know it can be and want it to be. to do that, we need to make sure that all of the agency's within san francisco that are involved, that we're working together, that we are well-coordinated. so that is the focus of the hearing request, and it is to ask the staff, the mayor's office, the transbay joint

powers authority, planning department, the sfmta, department of public works, the redevelopment agency, and other impacted agencies, the port as well, to talk about how we're going to do the coronation and making sure that we're really working together on this visionary and critical jesper station project. i look forward to the conversation but i think it is going to be very productive. i am committed for the long run to making sure this is successful. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you, supervisor wiener. colleagues, any further items for this introduction of new items? any public comment on this? seeing none, public comment is closed. madam clerk, please read the next item but a >> item 11, public comment. supervisor mirkarimi: opportunity for public comments, should you desire.

seeing none, public comment is closed. as i said earlier, we will recess until noon, so when the director joins us -- unless there is any other business we want to take care of before now. ok, very good. week shall >> there has been an

acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography of san francisco. early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the financial district on the edge of chinatown. everything they rely on for existence is the golden gate.

it's of massive importance to the people what comes in and out of san francisco bay. they can't see it where they are. they get the idea to build a giant wooden structure. the years that it was up here, it gave the name telegraph hill. it survived although the structure is long gone. come to the 1870's and the city has growed up remarkably. it's fueled with money from the nevada silver mines and the gold rush. it's trying to be the paris of the west. now the beach is the suburbs, the we will their people lived on the bottom and the poorest people lived on the top because it was very hard getting to the top of telegraph hill. it was mostly lean-to sharks and bits of pieces of houses up here in the beginning. and a group of 20 businessmen decided that it would be better if the top of the hill remained for the public. so they put their money down and they bought four lots at the top of the hill and they

gave them to the city. lily hitchcock coit died without leaving a specific use for her bequest. she left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. he had become very interested in persian towers. it was the 1930's. it was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. he convinced the rec park commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. >> it was going to be a wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. >> my fear's studio was just

down the street steps. we were in a very small apartment and that was our backyard. when they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. as soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about the coit tower. it became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasn't the point. as long as they fit in and did

their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required. they turned in their drawings. the drawings were accepted. if they snuck something in, well, there weren't going to be any stoolies around. they made such careful little diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. and, actually, no one ever felt that way about them and they weren't considered something like that. in later life when people would approach me and say, well, what did you know about it? we were with him almost every day and his children, we grew up together and we didn't think of him as a commie and also the same with the other.

he was just a family man doing normal things. no one thought anything of what he was doing. some of them were much more highly trained. it shows, in my estimation, in the murals. this was one of the masterpieces. families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. murals on the upper floors like the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives. things that weren't costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the

woods. my favorite of all is in the staircase. it's almost a miracle masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco. i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all

summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit. i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930's up until the 1980's. it wasn't until then that really enough people began to be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize

getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. when i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. i look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to

do with that. learning the lessons, thank you, landmarks meet landmarks. the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. it was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. it was lily hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to develop this south side and still that's the basis of our future project to address the north side. us and have a seat. roll call, please. [roll call]

>> thank you. if you would like, please join us for the pledge of allegiance. thank you. the approval of board minutes, i need a motion and a second. a second? thank you. [roll call vote] >> thank you. >>