>> thank you. we are finished with our break and we are now on item no. 8, information item, report from physical access committee. the next item on our agenda is to express our appreciation to howard chadner for chairing the mayor's disability physical access committee. this is the

council's committee -- oh, i'm sorry. you want to give your report first? >> i'll give the report and i have another related item. >> okay. >> thank you, good afternoon, chair james and council members. so this is the report of october 12, physical access committee meeting, which was a week ago. the meeting was not well attended. we encourage the public and madc members to attend. first item was the jefferson street redesign and development upsdait. john thomas gave an update. this involves jefferson street from hyde to jones. the street is currently 37 feet wide and is one way with two traffic lanes westbound and parking on both sides of the street. the project will narrow the street to 24 feet wide with one traffic lane in each direction and no street parking. there

will be no dedicated bike lanes, bicycles will use the street. this project was originally conceived as a shared public way where motor vehicles, pedestrians and bikes would all share the same surface, but has been revised based partly on the input from the blind focus group that mod had, revised so it will be a traditional raised sidewalk so the pedestrians are separated from cars. there will be a pedestrian accessible signal at jones and jefferson. the signals at jefferson and hyde are not signalized anyway and that will remain the same. there are ramps to some of the restaurants, mostly restaurants and stores, because of the change in level. in front of some of those buildings they will also install stairs to

improve general access and in some cases the ramps will be rebuilt or improved. the project is expected to caught $5 million dollars, including design construction. work is expected to start arpb -- around january of 2013 to take 6 months. the second was san francisco county transportation plan. colin dentalpost gave a presentation about the transportation plan, which is a plan for transportation in the city through the year 2040. the cta is the designated congestion management agency. the plan projects there will be an additional 101,000 households in san francisco by the year 2040 and an additional 191,000 new workers. they have an online survey tool, asking the public how do you want to spend the

transportation dollars so the web site is sfcta.gov/mybudget. so sfcta.org/my budget. there's a related web site which is movesmartsf.com. then finally committee members discussed their experiences with transportation and physical access to the sites of the america's cup and fleet week, both in early october and also in august. roland wong, council member wong particularly had a lot of input which he has also given to the mta next meeting will be friday, november 9, from 1.30 to 3.30 at city hall, room 421. that brings me to the segue. this was my last meeting and as

i think the council members know, i have resigned. technically today is my last day. i'd like to read the letter that you wrote, you all have a copy of it but for the benefit of the people in the audience i'm going to read it. it's to mayor lee, carla johnson, john paul scott and cochairs wendy james and julianne parsons. i hereby resign as chair of the physical access committee, effective day. i have served as chair of the physical access committee for almost 5 years. sips i began using an electric wheelchair and even before then when i walked with great difficulty. i have seen great improvement in san francisco especially access to buildings, curb ramps into buildings and disaster preparedness. it has been a privilege and a source

of pride to have helped move the ball forward on physical access as chair of this committee. however, when it comes to access for people with major mobility disabilities, san francisco is becoming a tale of two cities. in one city, the progress mentioned above is continuing but in the other city, san francisco's campaign against cars is threatening our safety, transportation options, mobility, independence and equality of opportunity. people with major mobility disabilities, many of whom are seniors, rely heavily on private cars, paratransit and shuttle services. the campaign against cars is harming many san franciscoans and visitors but is having a disparate effect on us. the lack of enforcement against aggressive and illegal behavior by bicyclists is deeply troubling. the achievements in physical

access, curb ramps is being undermined by the city's campaign against cars and bad behavior by bicyclists, both of which threaten to make it increasingly difficult for people with major mobility disabilities to remain in san francisco. if it continues on its current course, this will have terrible demographic consequences that conflict with the principle often stated by elected officials, sick leaders and san franciscoans of all stripes of encouraging and supporting a resident population that is diverse in, among other characteristics, age, disability status, family status, income and occupation. during the past year i and others have communicated these concerns many times to you, mayor lee, to the board of supervisors, the sfmta board of directors and sfmta staff. in that time the campaign against cars has intensified and become

more insidious and our concerns have not been addressed in a major way. therefore, after careful consideration and with regret, i have chosen to resign. thanks to all of you for the opportunity to serve as chair of the physical access committee and work with the mod and many other volunteers. sincerely. i had planned to stop after that, but a couple of things happened on wednesday, just two days ago, this wednesday, that i have to mention. i'm a volunteer guide, tour guide, at city hall, as many of you know. a bit before noon on wednesday i was on my way to meet a friend for lunch before my tour and as i was rolling east on fell between masonic and central, a bicyclist was riding west on the sidewalk on fell street. i asked him politely to please not ride on the sidewalk. i said please, i didn't yell. as he said past me, he yelled

something i could not understand. a few minutes later when i was on fell between lion and baker near the old sp hospital, i heard a screech of brakes and tires behind me on the sidewalk and felt the near presence of something behind me. before i could stop and turn around, a cyclist sped past me from behind. it was the same cyclist. this was unnerving, to say the least, and is still when i think about it. a woman was standing near the fence of the old sp building smoking. she told me that she saw what happened and that the bicyclist came close to me. i told her that he was the same cyclist as before. she was appalled and told me she's had many bad experiences with cyclists. the cyclist was a white man, probably in his 30's, wearing shorts, a tee shirt and no helmet. i should add there was a paved bike path maybe 50 or

60 feet from where the cyclist was riding. that same day after my tour my friend and i were crossing west on fell crossing octavia. we had the green light and the pedestrian signal. we were stopped in our tracks and almost hit by a cyclist riding northbound on octavia who was turning left on fell after the light turned red. she did not see us waiting to cross and probably didn't even see that she had cut us off because she was so focused on speeding up to make her turn, even though the light had just turn red and was so lost in listening to her headphones. the cyclist was an asian woman probably in her 20's and were wearing headphones. if it were possible to prove such things, i'd be willing to bet a lot, maybe even approaching the mitt romney

debt, that they are not tourists because one of the excuses that is sometimes given is, oh, these people must have been tourists. it kind of reminds me sometimes when you are traveling anybody that's a pickpocket, oh, they can't be from here, they've got tor a foreigner. this is what's going on every day on the sidewalks and streets of san francisco and it's getting worse. but mayor lee is doing nothing. the president of the board, david chiu, is doing nothing. the board of supervisors as a body is doing nothing. the mta board is doing nothing and mta management is doing nothing. thank you for listening. >> thank you, howard.

do you want to say something? your light was on. thank you, howard. this is the council's committee that addresses architectural and right of way issues that may directly affect ada access for the san francisco citizens, workers, employees, school children and visitors and of course individuals with disabilities. this is the mayor's disability council of physical access committee. mr. chadner has served as the chairman on the physical access committee forum for more than 5 years and has chosen to resign to pursue other interests and activities. the council expresses its deepest gratitude and appreciation for howard's volunteering on this committee, his leadership and caring for the community at large. always he has let participate papts

have their time, express speech and opinions on issues vital for san francisco's well-being. he has an inclusive style. certainly he will express his opinions. both strong-willed and well thought out. john paul scott, the deputy director of the mayor's office on disability, will discuss some of the major projects that he and chadner have shepherded through the community. the list is impressive though these projects howard promotes accessible design, good design and most importantly, universal design, design that seeks to meet and exceed the needs of the broadest range of people's needs and disabilities. after each meeting chairman howard will provide the council with a very detailed report of the committee's activities. he

will forward its recommendations, many of which have led to the council's resolution for the mayor and other city departments. in addition to his volunteering for the council's physical access committee, howard participates in many volunteer civic activities. one of these is volunteering here at city hall conducting tours. we recommend you take a tour and enjoy howard's fascinating information and tales about this great civic home and monument. now i would like to invite other council members to provide public comment and then we will have, ask john paul scott to make a short presentation. any members of the council have any comments? denise.

>> howard, what can i say? that script kind of speaks for itself as far as your back grupbld and experience and what you brought to the council and i want to thank you. it's not too easy to come here and give a report month after month of the different projects and activities. and you and john paul scott do a good job on updating us on access issues and getting our input and i want to thank you because advocacy by no stretch of the imagination is hard at times and especially with some of the issues, you know, that you stated, you keep on being involved and care about the community and remind us of the issues and the work that still needs to be done. so i want to thank you for your time and so many things that you've done that i'm sure everything wasn't even covered in your background and how you supported the city and county and the disability

community. so you will be missed but i know we'll still see you around city hall. i know you will still come to our meetings. it's been a pleasure and i wish you luck in whatever you do and you'll be great and i'll shut up now so the other council members can chime in and say some other kind words. but thank you, it's been a pleasure. >> roland. >> yes, i'd like to also thank howard for being such a detail-minded person. we have worked on many projects together like the central subway, like elevator issues that we're having, going to be having dual elevators and direct access from bart to muni and the concourse level. also the san francisco general's program to be able to see where

things are as far as where, you know, it make sure that everything is accessible for universal design for people who need adequate (inaudible) and stuff like that. i really appreciate his dedicated work to san francisco and the mayor's disability council and with mod thank you again. >> thank you. >> thank you especially for your (inaudible) with disabilities and the elderly. you are awesome. >> thanks to all of you, it's been a pleasure and a privilege to work with you guys. you will still see me. >> john paul. >> hithere, i'm john paul

scott, deputy director on the mayor's council on disability for the physical access group. howard and i have been working together for 5 years. i went back through our records to try to find the first agenda where his name appears and that's june 6, 2008. this committee and howard's leadership have been absolutely critical for us to vet the ada transition plan to give it purpose and to keep it grounded and keep it moving forward through the physical access committee and then through this council. we have been able to not only present on a yearly basis the status of the ada transition plan, the actual construction projects that we do on a yearly basis, our transition plan for curb ramps and sidewalks and policies for the pedestrian right of way. also mod's request for the city's 10 year capital plan which is on-going. we're

working on that right now. i just wanted to go through a list of some of the projects that we have worked on and reviewed through the committee. it's very impressive. these are just the big ones. 10 billion dollars worth of projects. treasure island in yorba buena island development, that's 1.5 billion with 8,000 units. transbay project, 5 blocks long, 4 billion dollars, almost fully funded now and with the tallest tower in san francisco on the west coast now approved. san francisco general hospital rebuild, an extremely important project for the city, we've spent a lot of time on this, 887 million dollars, 284 acute care beds and it triples the size of the emergency ward and department. of course mta's central subway, very important to get the dual elevator access into each of the stations which we

also did in the transbay terminal project. that's 1.6 billion dollars. recreation and parks department, we have had them come through with their bond programs plus we've seen many of their individual projects. over 200 projects have been produced by this program, which is approximately 315 million dollars. the san francisco public library project, its bond is approximately 196 million dollars and 29 projects. we have had many of these projects such as north beach library come in front of the council through this committee. san francisco airport terminal b, which was 383 million dollars and probably our -- the best thinking the city has done about toilets and unisex, family toilets, the best. and of course the port of san francisco's cruise terminal

which howard also serves on the advisory committee for the port, that's 65 million. i won't go through the list of all the individual projects or we'd be here until 5:00. but some of the planning department projects that create public policy i think are very important to note that pourd has brought and helped leadership on and through this committee and this council has actually shaped the accessibility content of these things and changed the course of this paradigm. the better streets plan with shared public streets, shared public ways and simply the courtesy of good design on the public sidewalk. the van ness avenue brt bus rapid transit system and that is, will be an on-going project for the next couple years for us. the committee has vetted publicly funded housing programs, adaptable and accessible dwelling units and we have had jim whetbone and

carla johnson come in and make presentations and explain that facet of our office. mta clear channel bus shelters, adaptable dwelling units, as i've mentioned. the new ada, finally after 20 years, the 2010 ada courses, we have had (inaudible) going through the dimensions. san francisco's variety of systems for granting approval for temporary events which led to the office working on the temporary events policies with varied departments. the america's cup, it's people's transportation plan and as we talked about an outgrowth of that was the improvements on jefferson street and of course planning department parklets and i should not say this, but cycle tracks in jefferson. go, state park. so it's an impressive body of work. and we really appreciate you putting that public time

in. i know it's a lot of work to keep doing this every month and to try to get people to come to the meeting. i think we made some really good headway through this process. so, council, you are going to have to pick a new chairperson for this committee. >> that will be a challenge, definitely. >> thank you very much for that, john paul. one of the best things about this role is the opportunity to work with john paul and carla before you, susan, there's really some talented, dedicated people who are not just dedicated but really good at what you guys do. you are good teachers and so i thank you all for the opportunity to have done that. >> and, howard, if you would stay for a minute, the council would like to present you a small token of our appreciation.

. >> thank you very much. >> howard, on behalf of the council, carla, everyone involved, i with like to present you with this token of our appreciation for all your hard work and your dedication and we hope to see your face around because we do need your opinion and we know you will speak your mind. thank you. >> thank you. that's beautiful. thank you very much.

(applause). >> thank you all. >> thank you so much, howard. moving on to item no. 9, a

report from the disability disaster preparedness committee. joanna >> good afternoon. actually my report will be extremely brief. as you know, the dupc now meets every other week -- every other month so we didn't meet last month. however, a small group, a small subcommittee, has been working on putting together a grant application for a fema innovation challenge award which is about $35,000 to do a small innovative project. after long deliberation we decided to work on a disaster preparedness initiative for sro owners -- for sro tenants. these, as you know, are some of the most challenging populations who have traditionally been ostracized or kept away from the typical

disaster preparedness can urricula. our project is proposing to develop an innovate i've can you remember rim klupl using collectives and community organizers to get folks, around 300 residents, to develop a structure for developing culturally appropriate disaster can urriculum. we believe very strongly this is a project worthy of funding and possible to create some important work and important precedent and we'll keep you updated. i also would like to remind everybody that our next disability disaster preparedness meeting that's open to the public is on november 2nd, so the first friday of november, and it will be in room 421 of city hall from 1.30 to 3.30 pm mraes

feel free to call us for access or more information about the meeting. >> thank you, joanna, any public comment? seeing none, we will move on to our -- may i go on? next item, no. 10, the november election, access to information, polling places and voting machines. presentation by gil fox from the san francisco department of elections. hi, welcome. >> thank you, good afternoon, everyone, i am here and my colleague will be right upstairs, natalia kasin amount, our deputy director, and we are here today to talk about disability training for