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tv   [untitled]    May 14, 2013 8:30am-9:01am PDT

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providing about 50 percent of the jobs in san francisco, bike lanes to eliminate those jobs and have no need for bike lanes any more with no people in the city. but, i think that this is a intoed time, this is just shows that we are progressive city and we are growing as a city and i really feel that mta does not sit down and say how can we take part? and this is a learning process for both the business community and the mta and i think like everybody here said, it has to be targeted to the specific communities and i think that we can get through this and it is a learning process for both sides and i am excited and like my commissioner co-commissioner julie said there has to be some representation on this mta side. small business. >> thank you. >> commissioner white? >> yes, obviously, i want to take all of the small
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businesses for coming out i am actually also a small business owner and there is also out reach issues for things that happened in our community. since we know that it is a big vital part and we are hearing all of the concerns of the small business with the loading issues supporting their workers. >> to come to work for them. to, you know, be able to conveniently and not taking the business elsewhere. my question is hear those things and not knowing the other side from the bikers that actually are you know, that this lane is for, what plan has been in place, or where are we now with hearing these concerns? and addressing them? >> for polk street. >> so i understand your question, are you asking what the status of the project?
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>> yes. i mean with these concerns that have come forward. >> right. >> because it seemed that they got involved so late. so >> they did. >> so, yes, so when i outlined those four meetings that we have with the safeco, coalition, and the residents on polk street that were disturbed by the idea that all of the alternatives included some level of parking removal and went to the city manager and mta with those concerns and put the process on hold and put the workshops with them to work with them to have them develop an option similar to your question commissioner adams about what happens when a commission says we don't want any parking removal and so we worked with them to sort of draw up what that would look like, and so now four of our six alternative dos include a
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minimum amount of parking removal and two alternatives came from that group and the work with that group and the meetings and so those are on the table for consideration, we have 600 people coming through to hear from all sides, and as you can imagine, the people will jump to the positions really quickly. and but i think that we can, the status is now that we take all of that input and have the survey up and we are continuing to get the input and the staff will make a recommendation and we will have another public meeting where we show here is our recommendation for the corridor and what we think that the design will look like and then the next step is to that inenvironmental review and we have been testing all of these ideas against what happens when the msbrt and the 1601 larkin, when they are in place what does it look like? will any of these things work? >> so we will go into a formal
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environmental review process to disclose all of those impacts and do that detailed analysis and then design and legislation and approval by the mta board is schedule for probably late fall. and then, it would go into full design and construction some time in 2015. before the sbrt is constructed when polk street is repaved and so that is where we are in the process, does that answer your question? >> yes, some what. >> so we are still in the decision making mode is the right way to characterize the project and you know meetings like this one and with say polk and any future conversations would inform the recommendation ta we may make. and that will make the continual out reach going further. >> that is a place that mta and a lot of work and the streets in the planning and they are in
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the environmental review or design. >> and and we will establish a regular newsletter for the project and a regular website for the project and public meetings and the public hearing on the project that comes before the legislation which is another place to do evaluation and we will gather survey and do all of that work. and maybe come back to the community when we have a final design and as an open house to walk the people through that and look for ways to stay in touch so that property ject does not go da, and show up on your doorstep five or two years from now, having not said anything in the interim. we are hoping that those kinds of communication opportunities will be available. >> thank you. >> commissioner rilely? >> yes, now that we have heard it loud and clear, parking is a real issue, so, i'm looking
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forward to hearing your next plan. how to take that into consideration, to not take a lot of parking spaces away as well as accomplish what you need to accomplish and i personally go to polk street and bush for meeting all of the time and now i find that the garage, the parking garage on polk is always full, so i have a real problem finding a parking space to go to my meeting. so, i guess that we need to take a look at how to keep the existing parking space. as well as how do we maybe, allow, if mta is not going to build any more garage and maybe allow the private sector to build the garages to meet the needs of the neighborhood, thank you. >> commissioner o'brien. >> so, a couple of comments, one seems to be a real exclusive interest here between
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business and the bicycle advocates which is going to be difficult to reconcile, for at least to be recognize that up front and we can do something about it. kind of getting back to that summer set area, i don't think that it is a good policy just to eliminate the tool of adding capacity for parking. and i think that is a mistake. and i understand the theory, if you put your parking and you are going to create more traffic. i don't think that is a good enough reason to conclude that we should not add capacity because we need to improve the road structures as part of the over all city plan, i think. and i am not going to make it like i am a traffic expert which i am not. but just the basic common sense tells me that every rule and every possible tool should be on the table and as a mentioned
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at the meeting last month. commissioner daily picked up on it. and i have gone to north beach and i take my family out for a meal, maybe and i really appreciate a garage across from the police station. and i mean that it is a real asset to me, that that parking space is there. and i have usually it get parked there even though sometimes i have gone all the way up to the roof. and everybody knows about clements street. and what that is like to try to get parked in. i mean the nice, well, designed facility, that added, you know, two or 300 parking spaces could have maybe a huge impact over night. on the congestion of traffic there. so i just, that is one point that i wanted to make, i don't think that it is a good idea to eliminate it too. and kind of sounds like and i have to admit the other night that the supervisor hearing that it is an idea trying to
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force people out of their cars. and i would also, you know, it is interesting that we are talking about, if you increase the revenue with these metering stuff. and so they will spend more money. and that is the same argument that applies there, the more money that they bring in, the more money that they will bring in and spend, and i always proceed with caution when it comes to making decisions of generating revenue and how that is going to get spent. and i just, think that obvious that it will be a good guesture to put somebody right away on that board. to show the responsiveness, to the people that are clearly concerned about a lack of representation. but,... i will not regurgitate that. i have one more point that might come back to me and if i bring it up, i will hand it over to the other commissioner.
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>> commissioner dwight. >> and i think that the business owners have made it clear that working is an important asset for them in their district and for their business and livelihood and i happen to agree with that. and i am a cyclist as well, and i am also a muni rider and also a pedestrian. and i am of the firm opinion that repaving our streets, which are in abismal stripes that are there. >> and putting in the bike lanes that are in and putting in able to put in the interests of everybody who was here. >> 90 percent of the problem. and i think that we find ourselfs in contention with the bike coalition today because it has taken so long to get what they wanted for so long and has been approved for so long and hung up by lawsuits. and so now, they are in a
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position where they got to ask for more than they need so i think that if we step back and bike lines where we can is t ng approve them. and the various tools, without sacrificing, a lot of parking, and simply educating people and enforcing, pedestrians and muni, and that is disobeying the rules that are simply the rules of living in a society, and people are walk and jwalk inings places where ye they should not be and if people were following the rules and teaching people what the rules are we would be getting along better. the state of the streets in the city is abismal and trying to avoid the pot holes and trying to figure out where you are supposed to be as a cyclist.
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i have been on the streets where we have reorganizized the bicycle lanes, you don't know where you are supposed to be. the bus is going to cross over the line and the cars need to cross the line in order to maneuver into their position and now you got everybody weave ng and out and it makes it a heck of a lot more difficult. and so now we are trying to train people to behave totally different than we become accustomed to. it is not that difficult to co-exist. and we can calm traffic. we should be retiming some of our lights and giving people longer time to get across the streets. and people need to obey when the hand turns red that the green points to the right so that the cars can in fact execute their turns so they don't get in the way of everyone else who comes across when the light does turn green in the other direction. but all of those things about education and it needs to be enforcement. but without a good road and a clearly marked lines on the
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street, it there is chaos and so we are trying now to solve this situation by frankly, over designing, and taking it to this whole nelevel ani do feel that the mta while not trying to make our city look like copenhagen which are beautiful cities they have made huge commitments to being bicycle centric cities not just friendly. and that has been controversial, but they have made huge changes that not going to happen here, we are a different city and i think that the mta has become enamered with these european tech techniques and we should rescape the streets in ways that don't fit with the limited amount of space that we have in the city to do these things. paving and painting gives us the flexibility to accommodate the future as well. we don't know what the traffic patterns are going to look like ten years from now.
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when the terminal and in place and the cranes all over the city today putting in things that will change the traffic patterns and the needs of our city. and if we start hard wiring our city for something that looks like a city that we are not. then we are going find ourselves digging our streets up again and wishing that we could but it is too expensive when all that we need to do is pave it, paint it and change it when the time comes, without digging the thing up again, it will come at a fraction of the price, i hear a lot of them, i am on the 2030, transportation commission and i hear, we have we want to do all of this stuff, but frankly we have half of the money we need to do it. you know what? paving and painting would cost us a third of what it would cost to do a lot of this new stuff and so maybe we would have the money left over, unlikely, but we would be a lot close tore closing the gap if we thought about solving these
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problems in a simple fashion. we can always make it more complicated. down the road. but if we make it more complicated in the beginning we will have a lot of trouble unwinding it and it will be way more expensive in the long run. i would like to see representation from small business and the mta and i think that they will be fantastic and i think i would like to see more consideration about making things simpler rather than complicated. and i applaud the fact that we have seen, kind of the reemergence or the rise of these neighborhood merchant association and people getting engaged and it might be that they can directly engage with the association and i am in the merchant's association and it is one of the dynamic associations in the city. and i know that polk street is becoming very dynamic and energizei think that is
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great. that is what democracy is all about. >> i applaud the mta for being receptive for showing up and i know that they are tough. and i am sure that i am over simplifying the situation and i think that we need to meet someplace in the middle where we get better streets, but, the way that things have been for a long time. we don't have to change everything for make it better. some things work the way that they are and it seems to work on polk street and it seems to work in the mission and it works in dog patch. and i don't want to see it or the meters invade it either and i know that is around the corner for us and i will talk about this as a business owner soon. and so, any way thank you for coming out tonight and it has been great and a long hall and i appreciate everybody showing up. so thanks. >> commissioner dooley i wanted
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to make a comment on something that commissioner o'brien said about the parking garages it seems to me that the thinking that if we are going to be seeing an increase in our population, that what is going to happen is if we don't build any more parking lots or add on or whatever, parking structures it actually making what is over time, less and less parking available. because this there is going to are more people and even if a percentage part, are driving, if there is a lot more people in our city done, they are going to need to park somewhere. and i want to echo what commissioner o'brien said that i think that should not be off the table. because frankly we are just not going to be able to fill all of those new people that are moving into the city by just what we have right now. >> commissioner o'brien.
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thank you, that is exactly the points that i wanted to make. and the last item that i was trying to think of was i think that it would be good to put the messages back on the transportation and again i believe that the solution is one of every mode of transport if you do eliminate the parking and you don't accommodate the growth for capacity and the people who may still want to drive and you will find yourself in a situation where there is just more frustration to try to eliminate something that may transpire with the people coming to the city and i just love to see how the transportation is being made the second to none in the world that has been a real challenge in san francisco i know. and i am not sure how that gets resolved or what it is going to take but i think that would be a place to really put a lot of
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emphasis and the other thing is that if figure is like let's have 20 percent cyclers and 20 percent of all traffic pattern be done on a bicycle and those kind of hard fixed numbers. i think that it is a bad idea and a bad policy. to kind of a very, black and white, and pass fail. and you know, the emotions are simple and i don't think that it can be complained. and it is hard to the effect that the support of modes of transportation that were environmentally friendly and something than that, rather than a fixed figure i think would be a better policy or a goal to find and going forward. thank you. >> any other commission comments? >> i just want to thank, director riskin for coming in and sitting through and listening tonight. and i especially would love, and i like to thank the small
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business owners who came and spoke tonight. and what i said in the opening comments i don't want this dialogue to end here and i want us to move forward and talk. and we will be inviting mta here back. because this is an ongoing issue around the city. and i think that it is very important that both sides talk like this. so, i really like to thank everybody for coming out tonight, and i thank my fellow commissioners and you guys have great comments. and i think that we can move forward here. i said that we can learn from the past. but it is what we do going forward that will make the difference. so, i just wanted to thank everybody for coming this evening so thank you. >> next item? >> commissioners, item 7, discussion and action to approve a letter to be sent to
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the sfcta regarding the san francisco transportation plan.. mr. president i do have a few remarks to make before you consider the letter. >> okay. >> commissioners, this there was a presentation, late last year, regarding the san francisco transportation plan that was made to the commission, the san francisco transportation plan identifies the long range goals needs and investment in the transportation system is developed on the san francisco transportation authority and the planning the blueprint regarding an investment and enhancements. and the sftp will recommend the strategy for investing in the transportation system for 2030 and recommending the funding levels for the operations of the current trends of the street network and the construction projects. d thmain question, is
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before the sfcta and that was discussed that the legislation committee about how we prioritize and programs and operations. and as a 3.14 billion represents the uncommitted revenue that they are not committed yet to the various segments. the legislation policy committee focused on the operations while 61.7 is the revenue expected from the maintenance operations and the cost that is costs to continue at the same level and service today along and 56 billion. and then even if we develop every dollar in revenue to the maintenance operations this will not maintain the operations at the current levels of today. we can discuss this and determine that is still, the priority will be to recommend
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that those 3.14 would go towards maintenance and operations. because of the reasons stated in the letter and i submitted the letter for your consideration and i believe that we did speak to several of you about the letter. and so i just wanted to give you that brief background and i presided you with a link and i wanted to give you a background for the folks that were not on the legislation and the policy committee and so i will turn that over to you for consideration. >> okay. have any commissioner comments on letter? >> doley. >> i think that it is a great letter >> should we take public comment? >> commissioner questions and then public comment. >> yeah. >> go ahead. >> okay. i am going to do public comment after commissioners. >> i think that it is a great letter and i feel really good that we should be sending this out, especially after us hearing the mta here and, it is
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even more to the point that we need to spend as much as we can on maintaining what we already have because we actually need to go forward from that. so, we can't just go backwards. >> any other commissioner comments? >> okay, let's open it up to public comment, do we have any public comment on item number 7? >> citying none, public comment is closed commissioners, do we have a recommendation? >> i move to approve this letter. >> i second it. >> roll call? >> i am sorry that commissioner, >> yes. >> and on my motion, commissioner adams? >> aye. >> daolly. >> aye. >> dwight. >> aye. >> o'brien. >> aye. >> ortiz-cartagena. >> aye. >> rilely. aye. >> o'brien. >> aye. >> thank you.
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>> the motion passes 7-0. and next item please. ? >> commissioners that puts you on item 8, director's report. >> good evening, commissioners i will just be brief and highlight a few key things and so last friday, congress woman nancy pelosi held an event at one of our local manufacturers heath ceramics to promote the national initiative naked in america as we launch here in san francisco af made week and small business week. so, it was a great event, with the congress woman highlighting the initiative at the federal level for encouraging the growth of local manufacturing and encouraging manufacturing to relocate back on to the u.s. soil. so to speak. and then, allowed an
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opportunity for myself to talk about small business week and for kate to talk about sfmade week. and so i appreciate that. and i have for you some more outlines for small business week. and the line up of the presentations for the award ceremony on thursday. for your information. and then, you heard the presentation today from greg asay about the summer youth job programs and he did highlight the fact that there were businesses that just had one job and that was great that we have the small businesses get represented and just for that information, our office is going to be sponsoring a summer youth internship as well. >> mobile retail at this point, we have approved an rfp for a
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certified cast inspector to come and take a look at three different types of models of mobile retail to make some recommendations to us, in regards to dealing with accessibility. we will be scheduling a meeting with the stake holders from the merchant groups in the cbds after small business week and christian and i have been meeting with some of the supervisors and in conversation with them, they would like to see this come forward after budget. so we will probably, we are readjusting our time line to have this it find a legislative sponsor, in july, towards the end of july after the budget season is over with. >> and then, in ada wise, i met with the director of the california commission on disability access. a representative from senator stien berg's office and the
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senate research. office to discuss some potential the things to keep moving forward in dealing with protecting small businesses and also increasing disability access. >> and then, i am not sure if i mentioned this in the last meeting but the one dollar that is being added to the business registration for disability access, education, out reach and cast inspections that will be coming to our office, so this means that it will be increasing our budget about 60,000 dollars. and so, i will be working on a plan presenting this to the out reach committee and then, to the full commission. in terms of how we will utilize these dollars. and then, there was a change, i sent you an e-mail about the announcement, about the grant
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for the affordable care act to cover california so it may not come out until the week of small business week but i will keep you posted on that. and then, i did meet with herb shulz to have a discussion and a partnership with all agencies regarding the affordable care act and getting more information as we as a city take a look at how the affordable care act and the healthcare agency ordinance is going to enter face with each other. and what changes we may need to make >> and then lastly, not quite lastly. we did i am very proud of our office for being very responsive, there was a bill at the state and regarding, regarding solidifying the small business development centers as an economic development entity
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so that we hopefully in the future will start allocating some start funds to do economic development. right now, there are no state funds being allocated towards economic development. and so, this is the first step to say, there will be an entity, that will be established that is required to do reporting back on those dollars spent. but the key thing about this is that, the sbdc to receive some funding at the federal level, they are required to have matching funding at the state level and so they are having to turn away that funding, they are having to turn away particular funding that requires the matching funding because the state is not giving any. and so, we as a city, supported this ab, 837, and so that will be moving forward and i am