350 foot long machine it will take 4 to 6 weeks to assemble and we're currently scheduled for a launch in early june the second launch would be late august early september so pretty significant milestones and physically impressive work that's happening in this next phase of the project. other good news -- the 62 harbor diesel electric buses that you all approved last year have gun begun to arrive. and also training we're training our operators and mechanics on them and putting them through the

rigors of the san francisco environment to make sure they meet all of our performance requirements they should be in service probably sometime in june and this was as you recall nearly fifty million dollar contract it significantly streamlined and reduced our costs and enabled us to get these buses to the streets sooner so san francisco can look forward to 62 more buses getting here this summer. there will be no snow in minnesota as the production ramps up these are the 40 foot buses. they are low floor they are 40 percent more efficient than the conventional bus and

not only ada compliant but had enhanced ada features they have the newest camera systems on them and including the transit only lane enforcement cameras and have a number of small features that may not be evident to the public but improvements for the operators and easier to maintain and operate and hopefully more durable components so pretty exciting to see those i think it was 2007 the last time new buses hit the streets of san francisco so it will be a welcome addition to our fleet and we'll happily retire the buses that they are replacing. the park was nominated for

another award a prestigious award for the government at the jfk school of government at harvard one of its top 25 innovations in government a pretty rigorous process. i don't know the numbers but they get a lot of applicants just to get nominated and go through an expert panel and other policy expertlies to review they will narrow that list down to 4 and name a winner in the fall but the fact that the sf park made that to get nominated is in itself a significant achievement . with regard to the new transportation bill i had the opportunity to testify to the congressional committee it was an interesting discussion they

had regional and state folks just trying to get kind of a sense i guess from those of us closer to the ground on how helpful it is and what we see looking forward. there was some kind of technical discussion but the main theme is we need a more robust and reliable source for transportation systems in this country moving forward and it was interesting some of the congressional members were asking us panelists how we thought we should fund transportation in this country which i kind of thought was their job to figure out our answer was really whatever it will take to provide more significant and stainable source . so pedestrian safety about the severe inadequacy and

address the growth that many urban areas are seeing so i don't know what will kind of come out of that process you will recall map 21 was just a 2 year bill or not even by the time it actually gotten acted so talks are beginning already on the next reauthorization to map 21 and we're engaging through the california transit association and the national association of city transportation officials which i participate in through apta and other channels to make sure the needs and the voice of cities like ours and transit systems like ours are part of that consideration and i also had an opportunity to meet with fta administer and give him updates on where we are with

regard to safety and central subway and as you probably know we had a new transportation secret ary just nominated by the president just a few weeks ago and don't know much about them but being a mayor and having implemented transportation projects i think it's a great thing to have somebody from the local government leading the transcription transportation department so this is back to workday so i want to remind everybody it's a great day to get out there and dust off the bike if you haven't been riding it. every year we get a few converts so hope to see everybody there and that's what

i had for today. >> thank you. members of the board questions or comments members of the public? >> good afternoon everyone my name is e r.n. estine, weiss i'm here to ask you where these buses are going to be placed? we need them on the most heavy ly traffic lines in the city namely, number 1, number 38 and as a priority so i would hope that you are going to put them there because all these old buses were not planned very well because the real exits are too high, for anyone children

seniors disabled etc. so no thought going into them i'd like to know where we can expect to see them. because it's such a need the announcements on the budget say take the real exit well i wonder if i could but i can't. >> thank you. good afternoon sir. >> my name is mark solomon i want to talk to you about the parking plan. staff is doing what it wants to do and it's not being honest and forth coming with the neighborhood. the ideal elegant solution to this is that we have meters and the residential parking permit that work in hybrid that would require legislation changes by you all. put the needs of existing residents first. and

then the commute ers. it would seem to work together but staff is just not hearing it we need leadership from this body and executive staff and it benefits the most folks and less maintenance and i appreciate you guys moving forward on that. >> thank you. >> would you like me to address -- if i could just for miss m u.n. i i think we certainly agree with regard to the difficulty of the higher floor buses all of the buses that we will be purchasing will be low floor buses the buses that we're purchasing now are hybrid

buses and some of the lines you referenced are trolley buses. and the 38 uses generally the 68 buses and we're purchasing the 40 ones first we will as quickly as we can replacing all of those buses and we will put it on the busiest lines first so just an update on that and on the north east mission we have heard that recommendation and it's certainly among the things that we're looking at. >> mr. chairman there will be no report today. moving onto the general public comment this is an opportunity for the public to address the matters that are not on the agenda today. >> hi. i have to tell you that

the f line which is my favorite line because i live downtown -- as you know, it's dangerously overcrowded. it can not take care of all the people that want to board and i'm tired of saying please move to the rear to help these drivers don't appreciate it but there's no signs that move to the rear i've asked for it 3 years ago still no signs. i mean, this is unreal. and nothing gets done. so as a result we have pass ups it's happened to me many times where i motion to the drivers and finally they open up the rear doors to let them on i mean i'm not a paid m u.n. i employee but i'm so

frustrated i need your help. you have got to lead the way. so please get the signs on. a new design i saw going up on market street downtown where i live i called up i said is there going to be seating for the disabled and the seniors? no. why not? because the platform is too narrow. well, i could totally put seating in there within that shelter even the old shelter could accommodate that so come on. i can figure it out and you guys can't come up with something. if you are spending all that money on new shelters get some seating and even if you have to put one seat on the end of the shelter where the railing is you can do that. but we need it terribly soon. thank you.

>> thank you. next? >> joanne, abe rna thy. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon every one i live in the bay view district and i'm here to address a couple of problems that i've experienced first of all, i never seen a -- that has 2 lines on it. that's not supposed to be how -- it was not planned to be a k and turn into a t it was planned to stop at the embarcadero they didn't put that extra money to make it an extra line that it was supposed to be when they first created that t line but any way i was waiting for a friend on

the t line the other day, and i was on third and peru and he got on at down there by the ball park so i'm calling saying what's taking you so long and he said the bus is crowded and he got to 23 rd street and they made everyone get off and they turned it around and went back i don't understand why m u.n. i wants the so-called update fares and stuff and don't want to complete the service. you can't just service the ball park people when it's a ball park game you need to service the people in the community then i looked at the sign and it said ninety minute and see when they got to third and peru they had the nerve to ask the fare collect ors so what are you asking people for their

transfer for -- are you going to give somebody a ticket and they waited ninety minutes on the bus and it just don't make no sense and something needs to be done about that t train turning around on indiana. >> thank you. >> thank you mr. nolan. i'll talk about 4 things quickly at your last meeting you talked about these single operator permits and the med alions in the taxi industry. you said in the future you will charge rent to people who get these and that will take away the purpose and insent centive i heard you backed off of that idea charging single operator permit how hold ers. i tried to pay

my business tax this year it says you have to go online. most of the drivers don't have computers so there's a long line of people down there trying to be trained on how to use a computer and in fact i couldn't pay without the form and so i'm going to have to go and print one out after this. so i hope it won't happen this way next year. so i'll put this up on the over head briefly -- what it is now you can go online and buy a pink mustache and put it on your car so we've seen people cruising around pretending to be fake cabs people have gypsy cab operations and ride share these people make 30 dollars an hour

and have 10 hour shifts but now people putting a pink mustache on their car so about one third of med alions will be proposition amedalions and i think we should start using that term to describe those. >> thank you next speaker please . >> good afternoon miss wood. >> yes good afternoon mr. nolan and commissioners and directors. i'm here in opposition to the demolition of the palace in north beach where i've lived since 1962. i think that it would behoove all of you to pay a little bit of attention to what's going on

about the central subway just last week a couple of interesting items have been revealed on friday we learned from a city insider when mr. roosevelt audited five of 35 subcontract ors all five of them were found to be cheating and over charging a half a million dollars and the final numbers haven't been written on that that's just the preliminary thing. but it's in a way a sign that you should be paying a lot closer attention -- and mr. risken and mr. -- district supervisor unfortunately they are all rushing the project now that's started to attract attention in north beach i was wondering why

north beach was not listed as a stakeholder but it was clear you were going to drill 7 -- chinatown south of market the usual right there there was a problem any way i have limited time so i'm going to say that saturday in the entertainment section what an interesting place to put a legal notice we didn't realize that you were going to separate out 2 construction sites you are going to use federal transit money for a project that's not been approved federal transit money? you better pay attention. >> next please. >> good afternoon sir.

>> good afternoon my name is lance ca r.n. es i've lived in north beach for 15 years during the past nine months i've been working with my neighborhood to get rid of the central subway and in in northern tunnels i've gotten to know mta and the board and staff. as a resident that's not involved in politics -- a large number of us had a recent mta meeting asked questions and we were still told the same tall tales and were ignored. director

brinkman is a bus rider and is involved in neighborhood outreach and several other directors have similar backgrounds. what is is to many of north beach mta is a jugge rna ut during neighborhood meetings the representatives stone wall and do not answer questions. mta has their ears wide shut. to record will we invite you to meet us in north beach we still do not know the extent of impact to the neighborhood such as traffic and impact on near by buildings since mta is

planning to begin construction in our neighborhood later this month, it would be best to schedule a meeting that would occur as soon as possible that informs us of all backs thank you. >> good afternoon my name is winston smith i've worked in north beach for almost 40 years i live right next to washington square. there are children who free frolic in the playground there. they are directly across the street where you plan to demolish the theatre no one is going to enjoy it there any longer. the untold

pollution of five thousand tons of debris all for what? so north beach can have a subway stop? no. after all the contaminate contamination. north beach gets the shaft literally. the tunnel machines should be left in the ground in chinatown just like with ninety percent of all of tb m's all over the world. this common sense solution isn't being considered. probably want to change the height restrictions to 6 story cookie cutter condos with million dollar views. clearly the only option is the

chinatown option leave in the ground and please leave north beach alone thank you. >> next speaker please? >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. dr. jackson. i would like to say that i've been a resident of san francisco for 70 years i've lived in bay view hunter's point since 1948 i would like to say i'd like to think that my vote counts when i do vote in 1970 when proposition b was on the ballot the citizens voted that we would get better bus services in bay view hunter er's point. i would like to say at this time when the t

train stops at 23 rd street i live at ingles and jamestown i'm a senior citizen and i am 80 years of age i shouldn't have to walk from 23 rd up to jamestown. it is a diss grace how the people of bay view hunter's point have been treated we the taxpayers i would like to say that we had thought we were going to get express buses we didn't get anything but the t line the t line has not worked at all you have had complaints ever since the t line has been in hunter's point. i'd like to say not to stop on 23 rd and make the

people walk. we should be riding free thank you. >> next speaker please. >> [applause]. >> good afternoon sir. >> my name is clyde, carpenter i was born in the neighborhood in 1945 as a resident and business owner in that neighborhood that we should be treated like any other resident anywhere in the city of san francisco. when decisions are made to do certain things without getting our input, it effects our business community it affects our seniors and all the residents of bay view hunter's point which is a diverse community all races

that live in that neighborhood so my certain is when you do something like that you need to take us into consideration like any other neighborhood any other community. so will you turn the t train around it affects our business and economical standard it's our lifeline that comes to that area so i just wanted to share that with you it's not a racial issue, it's a resident issue. >> thank you mr. carpenter. next speaker please? >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. my name is jacki -- i've been in california since 1964 i was living in fair field for a while then i came back to this area bay view hunter's point

area when i came back i was driving. but because of certain disease i have i can no longer drive so i'm dependent on transit and t train and i love where i'm living i don't know if any of you have been to our area to see it but it's gorgeous. it's a gorgeous building and it's nice inside and new and all the people are elderly people that live there so we need good transportation and i don't like this racist thing because it's not racist. i think -- cause we have a multiculture we have every race you want to think of in our building but we need

better transportation we don't need the t train to turnaround at arm strong we live on the corner of arm strong t train turns around right there and they do it regularly then you don't have any way of getting down except to walk down to the next bus stop -- train stop. and it's bad on the senior citizens we need your help. and we need you to please look into it, take action, and help us out because we are elderly people that live down in that area. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> claudia b u.s. tamonte, jim hill and june martin. >> speaking in spanish.

>> translation: i want to give you all my respects and ask you not to just listen to my voice but those that have gone before me and the elders that have spoken before you. >> speaking in spanish. >> i have a lot of experiences that i could share about my experience on the t trains but one that has impacted me a lot is something that actually happened last night. >> speaking in spanish. >> translation: