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 teit is up

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 will be cards, if you woulto fill ospeaker card, and not done so, the cards are available on the table 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 would like to ask them, to please pay attention to us who are the customers who need the parking so that we can go into these small business and conduct our consumer goods. it is my personal policy, and it has been ever since i lived in san francisco, to do all of

my shopping in small businesss in san francisco. in the neighborhood commercial zones. it is getting more and more difficult to do so. and i cannot use public transportation personally. and so i drive a car and i need parking and i need to be able to have consideration from mta where they put the bicycle zones as planned. because it is difficult to get in and out of the car and have the bicycles comes along very rapidly. and on valencia street where the business has that office i can park there usually, but i can have to be very, very weary of opening my car door and watching for bicycles coming along and they come very, very quickly. in 1970s, i am not opposed to bicycles because in 1955, my husband and i bought our first

ten speed bicycles and we toured all over california with those bikes. so i love them. but we need to be very, very careful not to force these customers in our cities to go to the malls where they can find parking and convenience. so, just a heads up please, thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker please? >> welcome. >> thank you. >> a great time and i will be very brief. my name is chris, and i am actually representative south beach mission bay business association and a small business and a residents and i love the city. i used to work for a large corporation as well back in the day when i was much younger and one of the key things that i want to remember is and i hope that everyone here remembers that we think about all of our citizens in the community and all of the neighbors and the businesses and the people that don't have a voice.

i do want to give and i know that it is a difficult job for the mta and the collision for the sport but we need to be thinking and viceling and giving each person an opportunity and so i appreciate that as well. the one thing that i wanted to mention is on the last person who spoke is i am in incredible health right now and fortunate and young my grandfather is 93 years old and comes to the city and any time that he comes here he has a place to park and a place to visit local, small businesses. one of the things is that also i am a bicyclist myself and so i do want to make sure that they have rights. but i also want to make sure that they are following the laws and so i do appreciate, the bicycle coalition, and training people to make sure that they are following laws and rules. and then, of course, i want to make sure that for what is going on polk street and the small businesses in the area are having their voices heard because we stand with people in neighborhoods and the small business owners who are struggling and having a difficult time and it is a very tough time when you look at

certain someone mentioned earlier looking specifically at each neighbor because i know that each neighborhood is in struggle. i do appreciate your time and thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> next speaker, please? >> welcome. >> thank you. thanks for hearing, my name is cat carter. and we swapped spaces because he had to get going. so i am the general manager of the hotel saloon. i guess that i am one of paoement that fell through the cracks i had no idea that they were coming until a couple of weeks that they did. and i got a notice and now it has gotten very clear and a lot of other things that i could not say in two minutes and, five to seven dollars an hour.

at night is exsorbative, i have three or four bands and they are not going to be on transit and i have coming from the east bay and we might make $50 or $100 a night and have to spent $40 on parking and just it has gotten to be really difficult to figure out how to work around this and but it is just really hard and i know that other nightclub owners and managers have more concerns and so if you look at evening parking if there is a way, and the businesses like ours could get some sort of permits. you know, if i could have, probably it sounds like a lot, 6 permits a night to give out to the band and staff members that need to tlb and don't have 24 hours, we don't have enough transit options later in the evening. that come to work at 5 or 6 in the evening and there to 2 or 3 in the morning and don't want to fight with public transit in the middle of the night.

that is our biggest concern right now. we also have inconsistentcy and the 30 minute commercial zones and the limits even after 6:00. to go out and put a quarter in and one side, and the stations are not much and in the inconsistent and the work done and thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. >> next speaker. >> hi, i have had a bookstore in san francisco for 39 years. ... (inaudible) sorry, hills. on polk street, we serve russian hill, and knob hill and pacific heights and that means that some people have to drive their cabe