starting our own banking as many folks had hoped we would. i want to concur with the supervisor and members of the public. i was hoping we could figure out a way to make these questions mandated as part of the rfp process. i am sure many of the banks that go through the process will want us to fill out this questionnaire in hopes of enhancing their ability to gain business with the city of san francisco. i do think it is important we learn about the activity of our banks. thank you. supervisor avalos: i do want to thank the community partners and my staff who are working on this project. seiu, the california of the investment institution, and many others. thank you for your work, some of you were here today. i want to thank erica and my

office. she will soon be leaving for a bit. i want to thank her and others on my staff. i would like to moshin this move -- motion this move forward without recommendation. i could reissue a new hearing request. my motion would be to file item #3 and to approve item number four with recommendation. supervisor chu: we have a motion to file item #3 and to send forward item number four with recommendation and that motion has been seconded. i want to thank the treasure for all his work and for staying through the hearing enter the public comment on this item. it is an important issue and it

is a big question for us how we handle it. i do want to emphasize for my point of view, it is important for the city to make sure we are investing with and we're working with a sound financial partners and people can make sure all transactions are safe, secure, accounted for. that is what our taxpayers demand of us. that is what our residents demand. as you are looking forward with any new efforts or any options, i hope that will always be paramount in your mind. that is absolutely what we have to make sure we're watching out for. and so we have got that motion and we can do that without objection. [gavel] do we have any other items before us? we are adjourned. new

>> in this fabulously beautiful persidio national park and near golden gate and running like a scar is this ugly highway. that was built in 1936 at the same time as the bridge and at that time the presidio was an army and they didn't want civilians on their turf. and the road was built high. >> we need access and you have

a 70 year-old facility that's inadequate for today's transportation needs. and in addition to that, you have the problem that it wasn't for site extenders. >> the rating for the high viaduct is a higher rating than that collapsed. and it was sapped quite a while before used and it was rusty before installed. >> a state highway through a federal national park connecting an independently managed bridge to city streets. this is a prescription for complication. >> it became clear unless there was one catalyst organization that took it on as a challenge,

it wouldn't happen and we did that and for people to advocate. and the project has a structural rating of 2 out of 100. >> you can see the rusting reinforcing in the concrete when you look at the edges now. the deck has steel reinforcing that's corroded and lost 2/3's of its strength. >> this was accelerated in 1989 when the earthquake hit and cal came in and strengthened but can't bring to standards. to fix this road will cost more than to replace. and for the last 18 years, we have been working on a design to replace the road way, but to

do in a way that makes it appropriate to be in a national park and not army post. >> i would say it's one of the most ugly structure, and it's a barrier between the mar sh and presidio. and this is a place and i brought my dogs and grandchildren and had a picnic lunch and it was memorable to use them when we come here. what would it look like when the design and development is completed. and we are not sure we want an eight lane highway going through this town. and it's a beautiful area in a national seaport area on the

planet. >> the road is going to be so different. it's really a park way, and it's a parkway through the national park. and they make the road disapeer to the national park. >> and the road is about 20 feet lower, normally midday, you go through it in two minutes. looking back from the golden gate bridge to presidio, you are more aware of the park land and less of the roads. and the viaduct will parallel the existing one and to the south and can be built while the existing one remains in operation. and the two bridges there with open space between them and

your views constantly change and not aware of the traffic in the opposite direction and notice the views more. and the lanes of course are a foot wider than they are today. and they will be shoulders and if your car is disabled, you can pull off to the edge. and the next area, the tunnel portal will have a view centered on the palace of fine arts and as you come out, you can see alkatrez island and bay. and the next area is about 1,000 feet long. and when you come into one, you can see through the other end. it's almost like driving through a building than through a tunnel. and noise from the roadway will be sheltered. and the traffic will be out of view. >> when you come out of the

last sort tunnel and as you look forward, you see the golden dome of the palace of fine arts and what more perfect way to come to san francisco through that gateway. >> it will be an amazing transformation. now you read it as one section, the road is a major barrier and then a wonderful strip along the water. all of those things are going to mesh together. >> right now the road really cuts off this area from public access. and with the new road, we will be able to open up the opportunity in a new way. >> this bunker that we see now is out of access for the general public. we are excited to completely

rework this side and to open up the magnificent views. and what we want to do is add to this wonderful amenity and restore this coastal bluff area and respect its military history and the doyle drive project is allowing us to do that recorrection. and this area is not splintered off. >> and we can see how dramatic a change it will be when doyle drive is suppressd and you have a cover that connects the cemetery to this project. it's historic on the statewide and national basis, but you could rush the project or put thought and time to create

something of lasting public benefit. >> we really want this, for everyone to feel like it's a win situation. whether you are a neighbor that lives nearby or a commuter or user of the park. that everyone will experience a much better situation than they currently have. >> the human interest to me is how people could work out so many challenging differences to come to a design that we believe will give us a jewel. landmark of a place. >> i am sure it will have refining effect like embark did. and there were people about that and no one would think of that today. and when you look at growth and transformation of the embark, the same with doyle. it will be a cherished part of the city and a worthy addition

to what is there. >> it will be a safe and beautiful entrance to a spectacular beautiful city. it will be the entry to golden gate that san francisco deserves.

[gavel] supervisor mar: the meeting will come to order. this is the land-use and economic development committee meeting for this february 6, 2012. with me is supervisor cohen and

supervisor wiener. ms. miller, please read the instructions. clerk miller: items will appear as on the agenda unless otherwise unnoticed. please turn off all cell phones. supervisor mar: ann i want to thank sfgtv. please read item number one. clerk miller: item number one, public infrastructure improvements, mission bay south. supervisor mar: thank you. and we have barbara from the department of public works. >> thank you. this is for public infrastructure improvements of

mission bay. those blocks include portions of four streets, mission rock street, china basin street, mission bay boulevard north, and mission bay boulevard south. as you can see, there are streets that have now been redone. fourth street years ago did not go all of the way through. it went on a diagonal. fawhat you have is mission bay n a new grid pattern. fourth street now formally over there. what we are asking the board to do is to accept public infrastructure that includes sidewalks, other things.

the department of public works has determined that the project has been completed and was done in accordance with the city standard and is ready for its intended use. the director of the planning department has determined, and his staff has determined, that it is in conformity with the general plan, and the agency has determined that it is in compliance with the mission bay south plan. if you have any questions, i am here. supervisor mar: seeing there are no questions, let's open it up to public comment. seeing that there is no public comment, colleagues, can we move this without objection? thank you. [gavel] ms. miller, could you please read items number two and three together? i believe that mr. chiu is on

his way. there he is. clerk miller: item number two, the planning code for the chinatown transit station, and item number three, the zoning map amendment. supervisor mar: thank you. president chiu? president chiu: thank you. i would like to ask to have a continuance. i would like to ask that this item be continued until next week and that we have it listed next week as a committee report so it can come out to the full board on tuesday. we do have a tight time frame for that, but i want to make sure that we got our eyes -- we dot our i's and cross our t's. if you would like to make any presentations at this time, it is up to you?

>> thank you, supervisor mar, president chiu. i think if we are going to be coming back, we might as well just wait until next week. we will be working with staff to make sure we have any unanswered questions answered that we are able to present and move things forward next week. if that is ok, we will do that. supervisor mar: if i can just add for some other residents from chinatown that have raised issues, i hope that we threw mou's -- through mou's we can address the people being displaced. >> that is the intent, but and we will perhaps be able to confirm more clearly for those who have those concerns, but that is our intent. we are working with the mayor's office on housing to make sure

that that happens. supervisor mar: great. set to continue for one week. president chiu: to do public comment? supervisor mar: yes. is there any public comment? seeing none, president chiu, to continue this. president chiu: and to have as a committee report. supervisor mar: as a committee report to go the following tuesday. [gavel] thank you. and that was for items two and three to be continued. ms. miller, could you please call item number for? clerk miller: a hearing on improving the taxi service. supervisor mar: thank you, and i think this one is sponsored by supervisor wiener.

supervisor wiener: thank you, mr. chair. but think our goal is to have a city where not everyone wants to have their own automobile. we have prioritized giving people other viable options for getting around the city. of course, muni is a key part of that, and many of us were very, very hard to make sure that muni is as good as it can be. but regardless of how excellent we make muni, regardless of how much bicycling and walking we have, there will always be situations where people need to get somewhere quickly or need to go somewhere where muni does not go as regularly as they need. in other words, we need a compliment to the muni system. taxicabs, in addition to car

sharing, or a critical component for having a true transit first city. people need to know that they can get a taxi cab when they need it and that the cap is going to get them where they need to in an efficient and safe manner. we have many, many great taxicabs and a cab drivers in the city, but we need it to be better. taxicab service is not adequate to meet demand, and, in fact, i believe there is a hidden demand of people that if they believed they could get a taxi cab when they needed it would probably get rid of their car tomorrow. people actually do not believe that now, and too many people have had too many terrible experiences when they simply cannot get a taxi cab when they need it, and they do not think of doing it anymore. last year, i submitted a resolution that the board passed

unanimously that indicated that the board has a unanimous belief that the taxicab service is inadequate. i believe that when the taxi cabs were merged into the mta, at least for a while, taxicab's overshadowed muni, and muni is the 800 pound gorilla in the agency, but recently, i believe the staff at the mta have refocused and are working very, very hard to try to improve service in the city, and in my personal view, improving service means two things. primarily, 1, increasing supply of taxicabs. we do not have enough in my view in the city to adequately serve our residents, our visitors, and our businesses, and number two, improving our dispatch system, either by a centralized dispatch or a coordinated dispatch to

make sure that taxicab's can officially be sent where they need to go, including to the parts of the sitting that are not saturated, whether it is parts on the west side or the southeastern part of the city where it is extremely hard, even harder to get a taxi cab than in some of the more central geographic areas. so as part of the resolution last year, we requested quarterly updates from the mta on where we are with the taxicab system, what progress we have seen, what the plans are to increase service, and this is the first of those quarterly hearings, so i want to welcome the mta. i look forward to the presentation, and i know you have been focused on this a lot, full time, for a while, and i want to thank you for your work in helping to improve our

system, so mta, and, colleagues, i am sorry. were there any introductory comments? no proof of thank you. -- no? thank you. >> good afternoon. i just want to introduce the item here. i want to thank the supervisor for is leadership for bringing forth the resolution in the first place. i know it is one that is felt by all of the members of the board and really anybody that was elected by people of san francisco, because i think as a unanimous vote by the board indicated, while there may be a lot of different ideas of what needs to happen in the taxi industry, i think one area of not just consensus but unanimity is that it needs to be a lot better, and from our position, the agency that is charged with

implementing and realizing the city transit first policy, i think supervisor stated very well -- i think supervisor wiener stated very well, having a good tax in service. we should have a good tourist destination based on the geography and density of our city. we should have excellent, world- class tax and service anyway, but the fact that we are endeavoring to be a transit first city where people do not feel the need to or desire to use or own their own cars, we need to have the transit, and cycling and walking rethink can cover a significant number of trips in san francisco, but there will always be a place for an automobile, times where the other modes of transportation will not meet the needs, and taxing services is one of the main ways we can fill that gap,

so while there are many both perhaps inside and outside the mta that might prefer that taxing services were not brought into the mta a few years back, i think it makes all of the sense in the world that it is there because it is absolutely part of realizing transit first, and it completes this as a full- service transportation agency, so as supervisor wiener said, we are an approved budget we are working on improving the tax and service and improving this in san francisco. it is extremely complex. there are often diverging viewpoints, and you may hear some of them today in terms of what will make the tax and service work better, and one of the things i found during my short time at the mta is not only are there very strong but often diverging opinions on what

will improve the tax and service or what needs to change in the taxi industry, often the voice of the taxicab user is absent in that conversation, and you will hear in the presentation a few ways how we are trying to address that. so i guess what i would say, finally, is that the request for the score with reports was made quite some time ago, so i want to apologize we have not got years sooner, and we look forward to starting a regularly -- a regular quarterly reporting. it is not -- there is the complexity of the industry and the limits of our staff and resources to be addressing it that we have not been able to come sooner, and the first thing you will find it is about baselines, because there was the quantitative reporting, and an order for us to do quantitative reporting, we need to establish

a baseline of data from which we can compare and report out on, so that is the first thing that you are going to hear about, and then we are going to walk through a sampling of the highlights of the various things that our tax and services provision is working on, focused on those that are directly related to taxi service. there is a whole host of other things that this unit is doing to deal with other aspects of tax and service and regulating and providing for tax the service, but we are really just focusing on those with the most direct service in packs that we are working on, and i will say that despite the divisiveness within the industry and the overall consensus throughout the city that tax and service needs to be improved, it is, from what i have heard in talking to many inside and outside the industry

that under the leadership of chris hiachi, we are starting to make progress for the first time in decades. the progress is not as fast as any of us would like, given the limits on resources and the complexity of the issues. i think we are moving in as good a direction and as quickly as we possibly can, so we recognize the issue. we feel it will grow with the work that we do at the mta, and we feel we are at the verge of turning the corner and having a good story to tell in terms of taxi service here in san francisco, so with that, i am going to turn this over to our director, and i look forward to any public comments and questions you may have.