car they can do so in a way to find and more easily pay for parking. i think this year or maybe next year the city planning department will do a general plan update including a element of the general plan and i think that is really the point in time in which the city policy with regard to parking, would be revisited. so, i guess that it is possible that coming out that have process, this the city will decide that we should build more parking capacity or we should build a lot more. i think that based on what we know, technically, and to really make a whole lot of other policies, work, i doubt that would be the out come. but that is what i would say is the process under which that city policy change could happen. >> commissioner dooley? >> i think that an issue that has been coming up is when mta

has long term projects that they are starting to plan, and also, a large infrastructure projects that take many years to complete, is that we know that the small businesses, the people, the owners don't have that kind of attention span, and i know what happened in my neighborhood of north beach, all of a sudden it is going to start and you are like oh, my gosh, what, what, what? and everyone goes crazy. i am wondering if mta to consider having someone on their staff that was a well respected small business leader that could have a role of sort of being the out reach on a longer term basis? you know that would meet with different neighborhoods, their merchants and say, we are starting planning now, and it is going to take us four years, or whatever to get to a point of implementation. but that there would be some

kind of a regular out reach to those businesses. even if it was just via e-mail updates, so that it would not come as a big surprise. and i think that would be really helpful. and you know, i know that you do out reach, but, folks are just busy and they don't have time to remember something that was sent out two or three years ago. >> yeah. commissioner, that is a great question. and suggestion as well. i think that it is exactly at least part of what happened in north beach, we were out there four or five or six years ago. and that is the gestation period of some of it, or the bigger projects and then, in the meantime, you know people have changed or people have forgotten, and you know, different things happen, and we did not have, you know, we were gone from that neighborhood for a project for years. and you know i think that is happening elsewhere. and part of what i referenced

in terms of rethinking how we do out reach and i think that what could and needs to include the components like that for the bigger projects it is happening in the framework of developing a whole different strategic communications approach or a communication approach for the agency. including having better ongoing relationships, with our stake holders. and whether that will be manifested in hiring a staff person that comes as a small business or business community and i think that remains to be seen, but that need we certainly recognize is there and kind of ongoing continual communication with different stake holders and particularly small business folks who are not going to be transportation advocates following this stuff and we are just trying to go about their daily business. i think that is a really critical stake holder for us and we are absolutely committed to finding ways of how we

maintain that ongoing communication, whether it is an individual, or whether it is better liaison with the officer of small business and the office of development and investing in strategy ands that i think that is a need that you point out is very much needed and we are very committed to getting there. >> commissioner ortiz? >> i want to first thank you for your presentation, and i mean that it was so clear and precise, i just really enjoyed it. i also want to highlight this off street parking and he has amazing people and i know that i am the park thanksgiving year was previously and i know that some of the behind the scene changes are where you made the transient big, big, key part of it to get the people and the commuters and one of my questions is what is maybe, the partnership with the planning department? so to offset the private sector community and some of those,

and you need such and i know that there was a continual use for a parking garage around that area. and maybe it would have been like, hey you guys. like this may be a good idea. >> yeah, so, thank you, commissioner, another great question, so on the very, very large projects we have a person that serves in a permanent liaison role for the really big stuff, the hunter park shipyard and treasure island and the water front project and so we are very much engaged in the front end of that and whatvy been talking about the planning direction about is since i came in slow about a year and a half ago, it had a strength in it for the day-to-day planning department. i think that the planning department, is operating under the guidance of the transportation plan.

different situations call for different solutions and i think that we have not been this consistent as the two agencies working together to make sure that we are there and kind of at the front end and kind of like, you know we need small businesses to be at the front end of our process, we need to be in the front end of those process to work from the muni perspective and the parking perspective and how can we inform the recommendations that the planning staff makes to the commission. so it does happen, sometimes it happens a little late. but remember that there is the over arching city policy that is captured in the transportation of the general plan that kind of airs towards an over supply of parking and very different from the way that many cities do that. it is another opportunity area that we recognized and about to go through a formalized process to clarify the roles and responsibilities around the transportation planning when it comes to these projects.

but the planning department is approving on an ongoing basis, i think that we are missing some of those opportunities and maybe that one was an example. >> thank you. >> commissioner rilely? >> yes. commissioner ortiz answered my question, already. but i see quite a few members of the public here tonight and so would i like to hear the public comments before i ask the next question. >> i have a quick question. you said on the put out reach, what if you go into a neighborhood early and they said that we don't want to get rid of any parking because we said that in the upper market and we wound up losing 15 parking spaces and it did hurt the neighborhood because we have businesses now and so what do you do in the situation or are they going to replace them but we never see them replaced. well, so, >> that is tricky. >> no, that is okay.

so as he said what we do is we try to start by listening and trying to understand, you know, we don't do a project for the purpose of just removing parking. there are goals and i tried to lay these out. and in terms of what our charge under the city charter is. to make transportation in san francisco and we also have the safety goal of smfta board has adopted for us. >> and so when we are coming into a neighborhood to initiate a project no matter what it was. what we want to do is to make sure that we know what the community wants and we also have the goals to achieve. that we need to bring together. you know, to start a process. if we come in and say that we have to remove a lot of parking and the xhupt wants no parking. and we are going to get the stalemate quickly. >> and so what we try to do is

work through a process. and we try to find the mitigations, and we have been successful at offseting some of the parking and the two way street conversion and adding more parking space than we removed, a block or two removed from where the person used to be able to park their car. but we do try to be sensitive to that. and we tried to make that clear. that people will use cars to do something in san francisco and the projects that we do need to reflect that. that said, there is a finite amount of right of sxwai there are trade offs that we have to make and we have a project coming up now that you are aware of the street scape project from market down to i guess 19th. there is going to be some trade offs that we are going to have to make as a city. as a community in terms of how to allocate that right-of-way

and historically san francisco has allocated to the movement and storage of private automobiles and as we are trying to accommodate more people and them safely. that sometimes we make a trade off to allow the people to cross the street safely and we have to do the street and there will be parking loss as a result. we tried to balance the interest of the community and i think that what we will end up on polk treat is what i hope will be a win/win solution that will achieve the majority of the bike and pedestrian safety goals but in a way that works for the neighborhood and we do that to a greater or a lesser degrees to each project because it is always that fixed right-of-way that we are trying to figure out best how to allocate. >> i have one more quick question on meters because this is something that you did on castro street and that works

great and i am hoping to see it. and i wanted to bring it up at this that is does city wide yellow meters. you know that the truck meters where after 3:00 in the afternoon, they convert to a regular parking meter. and it is only in that block that it works. and for everywhere else, where else you are going in the city they don't have that and if there is only way that you can implement that city wide and you can go to the sunset or the snowy valley, and you have the yellow zones and you can't park here and you get a ticket if you are a car, after 3:00 there is nobody delivering anything any more and they are sitting empty. and i think that that would help the small businesses especially in the later afternoons when the people come home just to help because it works at 400 block of kastro

street. we are working with the local business community to figure out what those limits are, i think in the heat we have a similar thing after 1:00 it becomes general parking. we do that elsewhere if places that you think will be viable and that is a way that we can allocate public space not just by the width of the road but by time of day. >> commissioner dooley. >> another question, i just wondering about what are your plans for areas that are very dense with workers, many who drive, that are extremely under served by public transportation? i'm thinking, of course, about levi's plaza is it is all built up there. but there is no, the fline is completely packed at all time, are you thinking about putting more things on-line to encourage people to use the

public transportation. >> absolutely. >> as i state at the start if we are going to make any of this stuff work we need paem to have good options to choose from. >> because the latest for many people right now for many trips opening in your car and driving is the best alternative. >> and so we need to change that. >> we tried to keep up with development in terms of the new development on the water front as i mentioned we are very kind of actively engaged. and managing the assessment of the transportation needs. and hope to cut and come out of it and using the private sector for a big part of that to get funding for the right level of service for the different modes of transportation, and even the transit not just muni, but we also have not invested in transportation in the city for the most part over the last couple of decades each though muni was cutting service and we

have catch up to do. right now we are not able to deliver our current service plan within the funds that we have to deliver it. at the quality that the charter prescribes in terms of on time performance, so while i would love to put transit service or in crease transit service every place that we have a full bus or train, we are not resourced to do that. we are trying through the project to be smart to understand where the demand it. the fline is certainly one of those places and be able to increase the service a little bit. this summer, we now have as mentioned the exporatorium and we don't have the meanss to bump up the fraoetcy where we have clouding and the mayor has put together a transportation traffic force on to work with us and the rest of the city to

work on, so that it is valuable and viable option for people to take. >> when you use that wonderful system that we can make a phone call and pay for the meter, i can't remember if it is ups the dial. you pay for an hour and a half and you leave in a half hour. when the next guy come in if he makes a phone call will he say that there is an existing credit or make him pay from scratch? >> in the old technology at least the meter would stay up there and i could get a free. >> yeah, the current technology does not register what you paid on the meter. if you try to reup it when it is already full? >> yeah. so we are not there yet. but we are working on it for

the next generation, we would like to get it where it will show on the meter and upgrading the meters in the city in the next year and it is possible that will come in a future generation. >> right. okay. >> and any other commissioner comments? >> thank you, director riskin. to public comment here. >> okay. >> i would like to limit the public comment to two minutes. >> yes. >> members of the public, public comment will be limited to two minutes. i will be reading off speaker cards, if you would like to fill out a speaker card, and have not done so, the cards are available on the table and can leave them on the podium and if you do want want to leave it we will take your public comment at the end of public comment. and forgive me if i say your name wrong. janet coleman, sue danielson,

neal, welcome, thank you. >> members of the small business commission, on behalf of the san francisco chamber of commerce, thank you for holding today's meeting. my name is karin and i am the manager of public policy with small business and the change represents over 1500 local businesses of these, 80 percent are small business, and the plans are dramatically impact our members, both large and small. it is the small neighborhood based merchants that are disproportionately affected by the impacts of these changes, parking plans must be specific to every neighborhood in the commercial district. and bearing the uses of the areas are different, so much be the solution. >> and one size cannot fit all. >> some areas, particularly those areas with many businesses and shops, need rapid turnover and other areas that are high manufacturing areas, need loading zones and

longer term parking. we applaud them for the efforts in reaching out in communities and can that they continue to conduct an out reach program. two san francisco businesses particularly neighborhood-based merchants. and their concerns and needs must be taken into consideration and, parking plans adjusted accordingly per the planned area. the san francisco chamber of commerce is happy to assist in this out reach, through the many meetings which include the small business, advisory council, and the small business issue forums. in my role as the manager i over see the planning and coordination of these meetings and look forward to working with. sfmta on these out reach efforts. thank you for your time. >> thank you. next speaker, please?

>> good evening,. >> janet coleman, sue, danielson. and neal. >> and hi commissioners, i'm sue danielson and i am a resident for 45 years and i was a former commissioner. i believe that any park ng our neighborhood should not be taken away and i know that is probably a very negative out reach. but, i do errantds all over the city and i live in california street in the area and i am on clements street all of the time. but i am at cole street and i am always using 20 minutes parking and then sometimes i am going to a restaurant or to or staying for two or three hours and i just need that any kind of parking that you take away from the small business because it is the essential part of the

city and when you start taking away and put ining the bike paths i am not against bicycle because i do bicycle and i know that on a busy street that we just really need to keep our parking. and i just hope that you take that into consideration. >> the other thing s that i hope that the mta would put a small business version on the commission, or on the board of directors because i think that is very important. that way they would at least have some kind of an idea of what the small businesses are thinking. thank you. >> great, thank you very much. >> next speaker, please? >> good evening, my name is neal patel, the planning commissioner to the bicycle coalition. i have been, on the committee and behalf of the census for six years now, and i want to report to get this to you ahead of time, and outlining some of

the efforts that we would like to engage, in the local san franciscoans here in san francisco. and for the benefit of those that are here in the audience, and we heard a lot of feedback from folks in the projects a few years ago and i never heard about this and i did not know that the change was coming. so we made it efficient to change that. and so with every street scape projects that involves bicycle and pedestrian safety i will make a point to go door-to-door to every single business and hand out fliers and information, it is an invitation to come to the official meetings. and i think that they mentioned that not everybody has time or not very interested or does not understand what the importance is of offering your input at this early stage. and just for clarity sake i have a copy of what that flier looks like that we hand out and this is for the polk street committee meeting if we get it up over there. it is very, very good, the community meeting and come and

join your neighbors to discuss the bicycle pedestrian, improvements in this area. and the collar collaboration and i am interested to hear your comments on how to engage the small businesses because it is a great interest to the coalition. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> hans bart. doug mcneill, quin kaplin and susan timon. >> welcome. >> hi, my name is hans art and i am a automobile mechanic and i have been running my small business for 43 years at 17th street and mission district. and i like to speak to the north east commission industrial zone that i am in and specifically, there are probably at least three or 400

businesses of different size and different ages from 1880 on. and we all rely to stay in business on having all day parking for our employees. and our employees are predominantly, you know, latino, fairly or highly skilled, depending on the business. and if mta puts in the 2,000 odd meters that they are talking about putting in our area, it is simply going to drive people out of business. you know? one of the first questions that i get asked when i interview a mechanic who wants to come to work for me is where do you park? >> first question. and if we have meters all over the neighborhood i am going to be hard pressed to, you know, make my business attractive to that person. these people by and large can't afford to live in san francisco.

so the situation in the neighborhood is that, you know, its primarily industrial there are three or four businesses at the west edge that really need parking meters, like ocd dance and the mission community, health clinic. but to put meters you know, 2,000 meters in an area where 200 would handle the needs of a couple of businesses, you know? that are impacted. it is not the right solution. and that is the nature of managing the parking and taking it away from somebody and giving it to someone else. >> and you will be taking it away from the workers and the next speaker, please. >> i am greg mcneill and i own a business at corner of 16th and harrison, the building.

and we need employee parking and we need loading and unloading, we don't need 50-minute half hour parking. and actually there is a larger concern for me is there is a suggestion or a movement to make 16th street no parking during the commute hours to speed up the buses, i need loading and unloading, i will go out of business if i can't have a truck show up at 8:00 or pull up at 5:00 and give him the supplies that they need. >> and am i not the only business on that street. all of the businesses on that street have the same concerns, so that is pretty much, you are going to drive us out of business. not you but the mta. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much commission tores having sh th* hearing.

i am gwen caplen and, i am the vice president and founder of the association. and we are very concerned not only with our area but our brothers and sisters in business on polk street and found out that we have many things in common. so, very briefly, on the processes of out reach, that were described by the livable city coalition, we missed almost all of those. so, this is a new policy and we are concerned that in january of 2012, excuse me, december, 27th of 2011, we received notices that there are going to be parking meters, covering the eastern neighborhoods. so all of the out reach case studies and the walking about and the house meetings did not

happen until the small business community just screamed. that we would be out of business in our area if these changes happened. and so i think that we are trying to catch up here, but we have got a long way to go. and so, the other thing that i want to say is that we are a pdr zone. and if we can't load and unload during business hours, from 7 in the morning, we have people mainly working at 5:00 in the morning. then we have a tremendous problem and we need no tow away zones in the afternoon. >> the other thing that i want to agree with is commissioner dooley and so we find out that big business all over the town has a representative with the sfmta. but there are no small business representatives. there is not a small business

representative on the board, and we don't have any representation inside of the organization so no wonder we are having so much trouble so commissioner i want to completely agree with you that everyone else has inside representation, except for us. so i thank you for having this hearing, i am very grateful. >> thank you very much. >> next speaker, please? >> and following the speaker, i have pat klit ensen, and carter, and carol spencer, and erica wila. >> good evening, (inaudible) is located at 16th and harrison. without either a business parking permit or some other consideration i will go out of business, neither i or the seasonal workers can approve 3

to 6 percent of our wages for parking. we cannot travel to multiple sites every day plus pick up kids sometimes from two or three different schools on muni. much is made in san francisco. over the last two decades i is watched in 16th and harrison area, you have gone from three dozen to a handful of businesses. we have worked so hard and planted hundreds of trees and constantly take the graffiti and sweep the streets and now we are are being pushed out. i am not unusual that i travel every month up and down hills to and from my home to a physicians to manage a illness to various day jobs. picking up kids at several schools and incidental food and shopping and that does not

count, the art exists or the exhibit involved loading huge paintings in order to have customers come to my small space, they want to be able to park. and please, please, please allow us to remain the small businesses, by either issuing us parking permits. or making some provision for us, our customers support us as local hand made in san francisco, businesses and we really hope that you share that commitment and that vision. and will allow us to stay, without parking and without it we will be out of business. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please? >> good evening, commissioners, i'm pat christensen and i am here today as a consumer. a customer. and i have been watching mta for a lng time as you probably many of you know, and i