we do not have adequate enough cabs service or inadequate in that system -- or an adequate enough's system for the users in san francisco. adequate service is a key part to transit in the city. we can have the best muni in the world, and if you do not give people other options, including cab service and car sharing, you'll never get people out of their automobiles. lastly, i put in a request for the agency to provide quarterly updates to the committee for improving and increasing cab service to san francisco. i will say that i am cautiously optimistic that mta is moving in the right direction.

i think cabs were viewed as a revenue source more than anything else. in the last year or so are have gotten the negation from muni that they work toward intangible service. thank you for your work. let us know what has been happening. the cracks thank you, as supervisors. i need? -- >> thank you. supervisors.

i've been happy to work with the director of the agency. from my perspective, it has made things a lot easier since he came aboard about a year ago. continued progress, first of all, one of the very big steps that the director implemented is a new strategic plan process that will be implemented beginning july, 2012. we're looking at the first two years. it goes into four broad areas, the first of which is related to the taxi service. the first one is safety, and our objectives related to the taxi service are for customer benefits, but not the kind that this committee is interested in hearing about, and that is, the

availability of taxi service by the taxi industry. best -- the second strategic goal has to do with encouraging transit and making public transportation the preferred form of transportation in the city. and under that strategic goal, we have objectives that we think will be of benefit to public service, including the driver retraining. this has been possible since we implemented the project for driver permit renewal. instead of having 7000 drivers to renew on december 31st, we have staged it according to their birthdays. this allows us to implement some sort of measure upon permit

renewal, such as driver training in san francisco. there's a question of whether there are enough taxis within san francisco to provide good service. part of that scope of work as reported at the last meeting has to do with the study.

we have met with the individuals that are part of the study and talked about making adjustments. we expect to see those permits within a few weeks, we help. we will be interested in the feedback from the sigel -- single occupancy cells, as well as be able to tell how they are operating in order to best build on that success. and the taxi consultant the study determines whether or not we even need more taxicabs. we all know there is quite a lot of taxi demand during certain

times. they can work those times without increasing the competition at times where currently taxi drivers have a hard time, let's take a monday afternoon or something -- let's say, a monday afternoon or something. and the third strategic plan goal is including the quality of life vehicle. for that, we are continuing to pursue the electric vehicle. one of the things we're trying to implement is a measure of accountability there are about 31 taxi companies currently.

in addition, there are 10 dispatch companies. the history of tax deregulation in san francisco, there has not been a tremendous amount of attention spent on those companies specifically. there's a lot of regulation to address the vehicles, and not so much regulation as to how to make those companies -- in-line there will be a conference june 26th from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the subject of standards.

and carry nat ford -- carrying that forward to july, is there that we can measure how successful our companies are at putting people into taxis. we are trying to spend a lot of attention on making sure those are objectives and formulas that are active and not just how many calls there are that come into the table, but what percentage of the time that someone actually get into a taxi as a result of that call. there are a lot of things happening in taxi services, but those are the highlights that touch on service. if you have any questions, i would be happy to address those. >> thank you. i know there was some work to

try to make sure that there is some level of improved cab service around the west side, for example. i am wondering what effort has been made. it is a challenge. >> one of the approaches to that has been discussed in the context of the electronic application. at the last meeting i also expressed a desire to see more of -- the technology is there to see the taxis in real time and to increase the ability of the taxi customer and the taxi driver to communicate among themselves. in order to visit would take those two parties coming together. one of the things we can do in the neighborhoods is to allow that application, whenever it is. we want to see this application

one way or another. we are starting to engage the technology community whoever builds it, one of the features that could really help this situation is when the customers put in their credit-card information in their prepaid device so that the taxi driver will know that there is a person at the other end. one of the problems is that the taxi driver does not have a lot of confidence that the customer will be there, and the customer does not have a lot of confidence that the tax he will arrive. these are two people that very much want to be together, but do not have the confidence to make that happen. if we can increase the confidence, it will help. gregg's -- >> right now, they do not take the -- it is not just a

matter of where are all of my taxis today. >> i appreciate the update. good to know that there's a lot of thinking about how to improve that dispatch system. one question that i have actually had has to do with the

edge of the city where it is extremely hard to get cab service. and you have cabs right over the border with l.a. city. have we given any thought to partnering with delhi city? rex that is absolutely correct and we had a town hall meeting -- >> that is absolutely correct and we had a town hall meeting on that subject. it is not always a popular thing among taxi drivers because no one likes increased competition. but even if the driver is going to be in that relatively remote location, economically, that is challenging. we need to talk about chairing

that area with the daly city taxis. i think as long as we require electronic gps record keeping, then we can force the the up and drop-off locations. >> it seems like we have challenged the various aspects of getting a cab, but dispatch seems to be a particular problem. particularly during certain times of day or during the week. when we have services that enhance capacity, and we have an eventual increase in the number of cabs. for example, whether it is working with daly city or over cabs or other regular services that use this dispatch, that is a productive thing.

crags keep in mind with the southern part of the city, it is not -- >> keep in mind with the southern part of the city, am i correct that part of the city is strictly an economic equation? to go out to that part of the city is a difficult economic choice. we need to figure out how to make it work with -- between the people and drivers. imports right, and that is why having an option, like the deadly city or other dispatch services, they are demonstrating that they are more flexible in where they will go.

doing the airport running is the way to go for some people. the for some people, staying in the city is the way to go. having supplemental services is different. >> it is not a question of whether the driver is isolating themselves into the downtown area or isolating themselves into the airport. some of the best taxi drivers i know are actually willing to give up a little of their central revenue to pick up a regular into one of the downtown neighborhoods. some of them will say that is just a little too long to make it worth our while. >> colleagues, any other comments? i have two public comment cards.

if there is anyone else that would like to do public comment, please come on up. >> poses an extremely dangerous threat. two taxi services in san francisco. up until now, they have been

providing services through luxury vehicles and they charge a premium price compared to a taxi. they have a plan to flood the streets. people who have been to a meeting said that they have been talking about putting 1500 vehicles on the seats. these would be the kinds of vehicles that we use for taxis. they would charge a price that would be about 20% higher than a taxi. they have made it very clear through statements that they see their market as the taxi market. the state has an open entry system for these kinds of

vehicles. you cannot have a regulatory system through the city that controls the number of cabs and controls the industry for the purposes of safety and so forth in competition with an open entry system. it does not work. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i have been living in san francisco for 20 years. i have been driving a cab for 23 years. supervisors, there is a demand for more taxi, but only at the peak times. the only times we should go forward adding more peak times. those medallions should only be

issued to qualified drivers. if we don't get a cab in teh southern part of the city we will invite the city cab. if we don't get a cab in the marina, will you invite them to work here? that is not the answer. if you don't get a cab at the airport, do you go to the peninsula? the only way to do it is lower the gate fee. it is very high in the city. they are very soon going to take over the city.

you can put 1000 more cabas on the street. if people know that they can get a cab and the price is cheap, they will get a taxi cab. i think that is also wrong. i think my time is up. >> thank you very much. are there any members of the public who wish to comment? may we close public comment? i want to thank you and members of the public to testify. it is true, if you have a regulated system and an open entry system those are two different system. competition can be perceived as

unfair to those in the regulated system. the only reason that uber and similar services have been able to do well and get traction is because for so many years we have so dramatically restricted cab supply in the city is that people feel like they cannot get a cab. it is more expensive. i believe if we provide more cab service and consistent enough cab service, there is no reason to take an alternative service. we have not done that. i am hoping we will move in that direction. our regulated cab system should be the dominant cab system in the city. if there are no other comments,

i want to thank him for presenting today. i would like to continue this until the next quarterly report. >> let's do that without objection. thank you. is there any other business before us? thank you so much. meeting adjourned.

>> hello. you're watching the show that explores san francisco's love affair with food.

there are at least 18 farmers markets in san francisco alone, providing fresh and affordable to year-round. this is a great resource that does not break the bank. to show just how easy it can be to do just that, we have come up with something called the farmers' market challenge. we find someone who loves to cook, give them $20, and challenge them to create a delicious meal from ingredients found right here in the farmer's market. who did we find for today's challenge? >> today with regard to made a pot greater thanchapino. >> you only have $20 to spend.

>> i know peter it is going to be tough, but i think i can do it. it is a san francisco classic. we are celebrating bay area food. we have nice beautiful plum tomatoes here. we have some beautiful fresh fish here. it will come together beautifully. >> many to cut out all this talk, and let's go shop. yeah. ♪ >> what makes your dish unique? >> i like it spicy and smoky. i will take fresh italian tomatoes and the fresh seafood, and will bring them to other with some nice spoked paprika and some nice smoked jalapeno peppers. i am going to stew them up and get a nice savory, smoky, fishy, tomatoy, spicy broth.

>> bring it on. how are you feeling? >> i feel good. i spent the $20 and have a few pennies less. i am going to go home and cook. i will text message u.n. is done. >> excellent and really looking forward to it. >> today we're going to make the san francisco classic dish invented by italian and portuguese fishermen. it'll be like a nice spaghetti sauce. then we will put in the fish soup. the last thing is the dungeon as crab, let it all blend together. it will be delicious. when i could, i will try to make healthy meals with fresh ingredients, whatever is in season and local. those juicy, fresh tomatoes will take about an hour to cook down into a nice sauce. this is a good time to make our fish stock. we will take a step that seems like trash and boil it up in water and make a delicious and

they speed up my parents were great clerics, and we had wonderful food. family dinners are very important. any chance you can sit down together and have a meal together, it is great communal atmosphere. one of the things i like the most is the opportunity to be creative. hello. anybody with sets their mind to it can cut. always nice to start chopping some vegetables and x and the delicious. all this double in view is this broth with great flavor. but your heart into it. make something that you, family, and friends will really enjoy. >> i am here with a manager at the heart of the city farmer's market in san francisco. thank you for joining us. tell us a little bit about the organization. >> we're 30 years old now. we started with 14 farmers, and it has grown out to over 80. >> what is the mission of the organization?

>> this area has no grocery store spiller it is all mom-and- pop stores. we have this because it is needed. we knew it was needed. and the plaza needed somebody. it was empty. beautiful with city hall in the background. >> thank you for speaking with us. are you on the web? >> yes, hocfarmersmarket.org. >> check them out. thank you. >> welcome. the dish is ready. >> it looks and smells amazing. >> thank you. it was not easy to meet the $20 budget. i checked everybody out and found some great produce. really lovely seafood. i think that you are going to love it. >> do not be shy. cyou know this can run you $35 to $45 for a