you might have. supervisor avalos: this might be for either of you, and that is when a warning is issued, is that in the system? do you get success of warnings? does that lead to citations? is that when citations issued for young people or juvenile? >> our inspectors, you start to know, if you are repeatedly asking the same system, this is not plugged in anywhere. it is a warning my folks give to the kids and just say, "you need to pay your fare" or "this is how you can do it better." occasionally, they come across the repeater offender. that would trigger a citation. if we have told them and told them and they are clearly not getting the message, then the next step is to issue a citation. supervisor avalos: i know there is interest from many members of

the board of supervisors to see if we could make passage for youth free. i know people who are teachers, and when they take young people and field trips, they often go on unique, and fare is an issue. how do you pay for 25 or 30 students to go on when they do not all have the fare with them? a lot of them did not have the ability to pay. i know there is a lot of interest in moving towards a fast the system for young people that is free. i know that that will be an issue that will perhaps make your work easier as, moving forward, we are able to achieve that. >> we are happy to assist in whatever plan is put into place. certainly that is not a decision that i make. we are happy to assist any way that we can.

>> good morning, supervisors. i am the manager of the mtap muni transit program. we worked very closely with the schools. we have even worked with some elementary schools in the half because of some of the problems with the bigger kids bullying little kids. we are currently concentrating at phil and sally burton, martin luther king, and marshall high school. we are also working with mission and some of the schools in the mission. we are working in the west corridor, which covers washington, presidio, and some of the school's out there, which also covers wallenberg and some of the junior high schools in the area.

we also work with galileo marina, covering the northeast part of the city. we also worked at the 1 08, which is the only line that provides transportation to treasure island. treasure island has a community with a number of kids and families that commutes back and forth to school, and also the job corps, which holds 600 or 700 people. currently, i think they are close to 600. and 75 students from all across the country. they are housed there. they come off the island to attend school, and also have trade schools available to them at treasure island sites. we have noticed an increase in problems with regards to electronic devices. we are trying to mount a campaign to work closely with high schools and junior high schools because we are seeing that a lot of the u.s. are not

only becoming victims, but they are suspects in the issues -- a lot of the youth. we are trying to lower that because we do not want to see kids be put in harm's way. we're working with the schools to identify problems before they escalate into major problems. our latest adventure that we have in dealing with -- and it is not really an adventure when you think about it, but it is really a mindboggling -- we have kids @ marissa middle school bring electric tools to school and after-school are getting on the buses and literally taking out the window and doing gang recruitment. these are the kids from chinatown. predominantly around jackson and presidio. we found the kids who were involved and worked with the

school, and we were literally going through the kids back tax because they put them in their backpacks and take them up. little power screw drivers about that big, maybe 80 inches in length. they take it out, and the window comes out really easy with a power screw, and then they are pushing kids up against the window and doing all kinds of crazy things to get them to get involved. we were able to nip that, working with marina middle schools and working with mrt. it has been a real joy working with them. anything that involves someone getting really hurt, we are able to bring them in, along with the officers at the school. basically, we have been writing thet -- the t line. we have been noticing a lot of

things going on there, working with the williams street police station. we have been able to bring closure to some of those issues. kids who get on usually free usually cause a lot of the problems, so we welcome the fare officers to check for that. if we minimize that, i think we will get away from a lot of things like vandalism, harassment, bullying on the buses. these are all things that concern mta, concerns my boss and the commander. we tried to stay focused to work closely with the troubled kids by referring them to programs. there's a number of programs throughout the city that these kids can be referred to. if they do not get it by then, usually we bring in the officers, and they will get a citation or sent up to juvenile

for some counseling. but we try to work closely with schools, and we work with the full diversity of kids in the city, all of them from the mission to the bayview to chinatown and also out in the sunset and richmond. basically, we just try to work with them. we provide education, and we also try to work with them to make sure they understand if they do not follow these rules, then they will get either arrested or cited. i'll answer whatever questions you have. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. ok. >> supervisors, mr. reiskin mentioned earlier our strategic plan and focusing on safety. one of the things we have task

the commander and security folks and safety faults with about goals -- one is to reduce crime on muni by 5%. redos graffiti incidents on muni by 5%, and also obtain a fare evasion rate of 5% on the system. the only area we are having problems with right now, which the commander has truly changed the deployment plan, is the fare evasion rate. we are seeing that steadily increase. what has really helped us to increase our enforcement on the system with fare inspectors -- we move them from our metro east facility to our south van ness location, so they are centralized now and can travel throughout the city as opposed to writing the t line to a specific location. we move them downtown, and they

can go wherever they need to go. we have seen a reduction in crime. we have seen a significant reduction in graffiti incidents, and we are working very hard to reach that 5% goal that we have set. this has never happened before. some accountability within the division, within safety and security, and now, we have established that, and they have to meet those goals. we are now moving -- we are doing better. we are going where we need to go. supervisor avalos: i think that is great to hear. it is an important change for a lot of people in the bayview- hunters point area, who felt that there t line was really concentrated heavily by the fare inspection program, felt that they were being targeted, and i think that that alleviates some concern. i am glad to hear that change was made. supervisor olague: along the

lines of what supervisor avalos just said, it seems to me that there is a concerted effort to avoid the profiling of youth, and i am heartened by that because that has always been a concern of mine. i am glad to hear that you are committed to it. >> absolutely, supervisor. like i said, it is important for us to be everywhere in our system and no single demographic should ever be targeted or have the perception that they are being targeted. a lot of times, perception is 9/10. it seems to be working well, and like mr. mason said, moving them really stops the sort of piling on of the t line. in order to go anywhere in the course of their workday, they

had to get on the t line, and they get on en masse. it created the perception that we were targeting that line when they were simply getting from point a to point b. we put us on the line when it is part of our operational mode only, and second, it is the effect of morel. they are happy to be centrally located and going all throughout our system easily. i thank you for your comments. >> also, the work you're doing with the captain in with the station also seems to be effective. as you mentioned, there has been a decrease, so hopefully, you just keep on that. >> part of that, too, was we have seen a bit of an uptick in the electronic device larceny and death of those devices -- staffed -- theft of those

devices. we're working with schools on a campaign. within a couple of weeks of introducing a major campaign at mta, which is designed to educate all members of the public's to be aware of your surroundings when you're using electronic devices. we are in this mode -- i was on a bus the other day, and almost every seat had someone looking down and texting with had bones in their ears. clearly, they are not paying attention to what is going on around them. the importance is to educate the public fully about when they use their devices, just to be aware. we are moving in that direction and look to have that campaign out in the next couple of weeks. i am excited for that to hit our transit system. supervisor olague: given that this program seems to be moving in a very successful direction -- there are a lot of successes you could point to -- the

collaboration between the sfpd and the mta, to the extent that a successful, it alleviates some of the burden from the operators. that has been something i have always been concerned about, just as a rider. so much falls on their shoulders. so glad to see this is moving in a positive direction. supervisor avalos: thank you for your presentation. we will go on to public comment, and we might have other questions that, after that. thank you very much. very informative. this item is up for public comment period and a member of the public who would like to comment, please come forward. >> good morning, supervisors. i have lived in san francisco for 59 years.

i would like to thank supervisors cohen -- supervisor cohen for having this hearing. it was a little strange that i noticed it was assigned to public safety back in july but it did not come up for hearing until today. i am wondering why it took six months before today's hearing. i just wanted to bring that up for discussion. second, i would like to question why there was only one item on today's agenda, given the state of san francisco. we think that we should have at least five items. then, in order to be proactive, i would like to make a suggestion for the public safety committee has a possible hearing. i would like to bring up the subject of why a gay man and city employee died at san francisco general under

mysterious circumstances that in 1999. to this day, i still have not found one person inside city hall willing to even discuss the situation. in my opinion -- supervisor avalos: this is not general public comment. it is, on the hearing we have before us. >> i am trying to relate to that. i feel this is a public safety matter because in addition to muni's long history of crime, i see that there are other crimes in san francisco that deserve the attention of the public safety committee, and i feel that muni is long overdue for the beneficial programs it has now. i think we ought to start in some other areas. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. any other members of the public who would like to comment? seeing no one come forward, we will close public comment. want to thank supervisors cohen

-- supervisor cohen for bringing the item forward pierre just a question of whether we want to get an uptick in the future or continue it to the call of the chair. >> [inaudible] supervisor avalos: ok, that is what we will do. we will continue this item to the call of the chair. also want to thank again commander aye. -- commander myra tello and mr. mason. thank you very much. and the other items before us? >> no, mr. chairman. supervisor avalos: we are adjourned. thank you.

>> 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.

>> the next time you take a muni bus or train, there could be new technology that could make it easier to get to your destination. many are taking a position of next bus technology now in use around the city. updated at regular intervals from the comfort of their home or workplace. next bus uses satellite technology and advanced computer modeling to track buses and trains, estimating are bought stocks with a high degree of accuracy. the bus and train our arrival information can be accessed from your computer and even on your cellular phone or personal digital assistant. knowing their arrival time of the bus allows riders the choice of waiting for it or perhaps doing some shopping locally or getting a cup of coffee. it also gives a greater sense

that they can count on you to get to their destination on time. the next bus our arrival information is also transmitted to bus shelters around the city equipped with the next bus sign. riders are updated strictly about arrival times. to make this information available, muni has tested push to talk buttons at trial shelters. rider when pushes the button, the text is displayed -- when a rider pushes the button. >> the success of these tests led to the expansion of the program to all stations on the light rail and is part of the new shelter contract, push to talk will be installed. check out the new technology making your right easier every day