i want to commend supervisor avalos and his two colleagues for what they did on man sell. that was a well thought out plan. i would urge district supervisors on two, one and five to take a look at this. it eel have a hell of effect on masonic, you have target there, trader joes and it'll be a nightmare so please take a look at it again. thank you. >> thank you. i'll call a few more cards -- mc, john, elizabeth, robert and dan. >> i'm mary. i am opposed to the masonic. we would appreciate your design funds to masonic improvement project since you have opportunity to fund projects that no one

objects to. we hope you will choose to fund those instead. we feel the project is ill timed and not properly configured. we also feel the plans plaque clarity and may not be the plans reviewed and approved by the traffic commission. we'll concerned about reducing traffic lanes, which will not satisfy the needs of the bicycle community. we feel there are better solutions for bicycle paths on slower side streets that are practically devoid of traffic. used side streets for bike lanes instead of arterials will save money and cause less

disruption. slow moving and idling vehicles use more gas and emit more fumes than moving vehicles. if the purpose of improving /phags has is to reduce carbon emissions and putting bicycle lanes on busy roads and slowing down traffic is not the best way to achieve that goal. if that is not enough to convince you, the impending bart strike should be a wake up call and a good argument for preserves parking spots. as someone as suggested, the best way to handle the threat of a bart strike is for people to share their private cars. when all else fails, cars work. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning commissioners.

i'm elizabeth, the executive director of walk san francisco. walk sf supports many of the projects in this program, including the man sail project earlier. we want to reiterate our strong support for the improvements on masonic which walk sf has been involved with for years. we were involved with six masonic in which we were concerned with safety years ago and the more recent tragedies as well. we really need to proceed with this project quickly. it's been a long time and this will help prevent more of the tragedies we've seen on masonic. it's critical to tame the speeding.

we also heard from an earlier resident testifying that not all of us are bicycle riders, but all of us are pedestrians and pedestrians will benefit from this project, as we heard from commissioner cohen last week when she talked about the changes that new york city has made. one of the really interesting things was that the addition of bike lanes and cycle tracks [inaudible] for all road users, including folks in cars and on buses, as well as people walking. again, the traffic that is the central part of this project will benefit all users and make masonic much safer and we encourage you to proceed in approving this project. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> hi, my name's [inaudible] and i've lived in san francisco

for -- has it already been a minute-and-a-half. i've lived in san francisco for 18 years. we're raising two young daughters here in san francisco -- a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old and i wanted to share with you all what a hardship it would be to take away 167 parking spaces in our neighborhood. when you talk to families, the majority don't know about this. when i talk to them about it they said what's going on? they're taking away all these parking spaces. well, everybody's for safety. everyone i talk to said we need safety. what the other thing is is the bicycle cycle tracks that are above the streets that are taking away 167 parking spaces much needed parking spaces in our neighborhood. i think for anyone to take 150, 200 parks

spaces in a neighborhood that's so hard to find parking that takes 15, 30, 40 minutes to find parking -- i think that is a mistake and i think you' not thinking about the other type of people who need to have a car and who don't have a choice, who have /po park on the street -- the hard working mid -- i referee in san francisco. i referee the high school championships for two years. i need my car. i have to carry equipment to say oh, i'm sorry, you guys are gonna have to take another 15, 30 minutes to find parking, i think you're not thinking about these people. not thinking about us who are contributing members who want to leave san francisco a better place for our kids and a better place for this next generation and say hey, we're thinking about all of you, not sending millions to build this raised bicycle lane

and [inaudible]. >> thank you very much. >> hi, i'm mary and i've lived on masonic for over 30 years and i am primarily a pedestrian who's been intimidated by automobiles and hit by bicycles and i am very much against this plan as currently envisioned, for many of the reasons you heard taking away the parking spaces is exceedingly bad planning. and from the add in, john adams community college across the street from me where most of the esl classes in san francisco are held, there are a lot of /phaoepl who drive there, and they do have a parking lot, but it doesn't work so in addition to neighbors who don't have

parking, you will also have the people who don't speak english trying to find parking will also have problems. i strongly suggest this be [inaudible] on the neighborhood and maybe this just isn't quite the way to go. on a secondary level, the last set of plans i saw including some lovely planters on sidewalks and i've raised the question several times since i received notification of this happening as [inaudible] for them. i know when the city decides they don't like the sidewalk in front of my house, i pay for it. am i expected to pay for that too. i'd like for someone to give me an answer. >> i don't have anymore cards, so if anyone else would like to comment on this item, please line up by the gentleman

standing by the window. >> my name is robert. much like my friend howard over there, i have mobile issues. when i was younger i loved to bike, i loved to exercise, i loved to go to all of the place that this city allows you to go, but now that i'm pushing 50, if i can't get there by car and if i can't park there, i don't go there. in these places now in the city where you are taking away parking in places that i used to have access to, you've created a lot of in/sropb convenience inconvenience in any life and i

strongly urge you to say no on this funding. there are so many people in this city like myself who don't have the option to bike, who don't have the option to walk long distances. and now we are in a position in our lives where we rely on our cars and i don't [inaudible] handicap parking, but i need to be able to visit people like howard and other people who have mo best and i need to be able to park so again, i urge you to say no on the funding and come up with a better man. -- plan. that's it. >> thank you, next speaker please. >> good evening. my name is

dan, i live on central avenue one block from sonic. i do ride a bicycle. i also own a car and park it on the street. i think you've heard plenty of people come you were here and testify about how dang /rousz and frightening it is to ride a bicycle on masonic so i don't need to go into that anymore. as a car driver in the neighborhood, it is certainly the case that parking is difficult, it is a real pain so i empathize with the people here, but ultimately these kind of projects are all about trade offs and we have to decide as a city what we value and i think the mta has done a great job in steering san francisco in a direction which is to make it a more livable city, a city that is better for people to walk around in, to ride bikes in and

i believe that that in turn makes it a city that is better for everyone. and i understand that there are people who need cars, people in wheelchairs, people who have kids to shuttle around and those people need to have parking spaces, but the hope is that when we make this a better city and a city easier to live in without a car, people like me will get rid of their cars. i will. and there will be parking spaces that are opened up as a result so i urge you to fund this proposal. i think it's an excellent plan. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is jackie, i'm a member of the citizen's advisory committee. this item came up before and i also speck out against it. i

spoke against it both times and for two very good reasons. number one, when you have a bike lane, you do not take into consideration that masonic is a major thorough fair that is a bus rout that has bus stop curbs for people with disabilities like myself, seniors and people in wheelchairs. we have people that don't take into consideration the impact that this bike lane will have on the buses. it'll hinder the buses. also, before you fund this project you have to remember that problem b that was passed back in 1989, you have to

remember the projects that were finished in prop b -- those that were not finished in prop b, were grandfathered into prop k and they're trying to be defunded now. fund those projects now in prop k before you do anything else. do not fund this project. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hi supervisors, my name is [inaudible] and i am a business owner on full ton and masonic. i strongly oppose the masonic project for various reasons and i'm gonna give an example of one of your projects that has been done on the no parking zone on broderick and oak. there is a coffee shop there. ask him how he's suffered from

the no parking zone. i do have a green zone that i pay for every year -- about $450. it will take away one option for me that i provide for all my /k*us /phers and i want the supervisor to please look to all benefits, like, to all aspects that gonna benefit the people who are in need and who live on masonic too and i thank you so much. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hello, my name is linda, i live on masonic avenue. i spoke last week and listened today and last woke to all the reasons why a lot of people don't think this is a good idea. i'm in agreement with them. i think the loss of parking is a huge mistake, but there's one thick i haven't heard mentioned yet. the

[inaudible] being proposed raised bicycle lane -- i've done a considerable am of research on the /pwer internet and i urge you all to do research yourself to see if you can find one any place on the planet that replicates what wants to be put in here. there aren't any. there are raised bike lanes but they don't go past driveways. you'll be creating little lakes at the base at everyone's driveway that will fill up with water, debris and making it slippery and dangerous. it's bad enough as it is now, but having to slow down to negotiate this little lake at the base of your driveway will make it very hard to get out into traffic and back in and i don't think this is going to be a safe solution for the cyclists either.

there's been reports, if you look on the internet, this type of lane you're proposing with this little gradual up thing to the lane itself has proven to be very dangerous. what happens when the cyclist is going along parallel to the lane and attempted to exit or enter it, the tires can get caught in the little v shaped bit here and throw the cyclists off. if they're lucky they'll be thrown on to the lane, if not they'll be thrown into traffic. i urge you, look at the lane you're proposing, if you have to do one, if there's no way to stop it, please don't make it a raised lane. really bad idea, really expensive. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> i've spoken about that area many times and i know that some

of ya'll immediate -- made some comments, but i'd like you to look into a few issues -- number one, lighting. number two, in the last five years we have had 20 killings in that area. number three, it may be quite surprising to ya'll that a number of african americans who take a walk in the park and who have lived there for 25 years are stopped by the police because some other nationalities who exercise there think that whenever they see an african american, which they don't see normally because for many years recent years the quality of life there has not improved, they think that families coming to mug them, they call the police. so in spite of these things when you do some improvement you have to have outreach for this so

called represents from district ten, nine and eleven, do some quality outreach on various levels. that goes hand in hand with improvement. i work at [inaudible] so i'm very [inaudible] talk about this masonic area and i commend the astute san francisco citizens for coming here and speaking out 'cause this is what happens. we have represents who have no sense of planning, no sense of congestion, no sense of traffic management and remote control they want to back such ideas. now, the bicycle coalition has a political action committee, a pack. it funds a lot of ya'll. and ya'll get the money -- not all of ya'll -- when ya'll get the money... >> thank you very much.

>> that is my first bet i think. >> that was your second bell. >> i hope you heard me loud and /khroer. clear. >> thank you. any other member of the public who would like to comment? seeing none, public comment closed. this item is live befores. commissioner breed. >> thank you. i have received a lot of emails from constituents who have a real problem with this project. it's really unfortunate gnat because this project was approved last year and from my understanding there was a lot of outreach. i actually received emails and information about the planning process when masonic and looking at improving safety, improving the corridor, a number of

discussions, especially at the north of juan handle neighborhood association. there were discussions of fliering, neighborhood discussions to ask that there be extensive outreach to the community was clear, but you -- although the outreach was extensive it's clear that there are a large number of people that didn't receive information in order to provide input for this project. and unfortunately the time for planning has passed as it relates to making significant changes to the project. i drive a car myself and looking for parking in the lower daily is really a challenge especially /wo*ut residential parking permits and for my perspective as supervisor my

goal is always pub lib safety first so to make the corridor safe is paramount. safety comes first and masonic boulevard is clearly a dangerous, almost freeway like corridor in the middle of our community and it's been that way since i was a kid. and the more people that have moved into the area, the more traffic, the more problems the more accidents and so unfortunately this is not something that everyone is gonna be happy with. i'm not with the fact that i have to figure out a way to kind of work out a bad situation for my constituents, fig /kwraourb out other ways to make sure we work with the neighboring communities to make available parking spaces and other things but it's what we have to do in the interest for public safety. when we discussed this issue in the plans and programs

committee, one of the things that worried me the most was the concern around access for seniors, for those who were gonna fry to have access to buses or crossing the street and the concerns around the [inaudible] and so i am talking to mta to get clarity on that and if necessary, make changes to the plan in order the address those issues. the other thing that my office has already began the process of doing is meeting with the city college. we're going to be meeting with /thoepl them in the next two weeks to talk about making the john adams campus parking available in the evenings for residents, as well as the blood bank and target area so we can increase the number of spaces. we don't have the exact number of spaces that that would bring to the area, but we are really committed to convincing these

particular organizations with these parking lots to make them available to the community. we also will be suggesting to the residents that they consider implementing /rez den /-rpbl parking permits because one challenge we have is we have people who park there, they leave their car there for weeks and they don't even live in the neighborhood so implementing residential parking permits could really help. we're thinking about changing side street parking from parallel to die ago diagonal which could increase parking. at is this point, as i said, you know, the project has been approved and my goal is to try to figure out a way to deal with the access ability issues, the parking

issues so we can strike a balance. lion's share of the funding is expected to come from the federal government and not the city. i appreciate everyone's input and am prepared to meet with any group within my district to try and figure out other options i've not mentioned here today. we're here as a result of discussing the approval of grant funding to facilitate in moving this project forward. the plan has been approved, it has been vetted and i'm prepared to support the funding to help move this process forward. thank you. /tkpwhr thank you commissioner reid. >> i wanted to associate myself with many of myself with

commissioner breed's comments. i want to thank everyone for testifying. i want to thank the ta staff for -- i know in plans and programs committee they've presented a number of times on their process to identify key projects with the one-bay-area grant or obag grant program and the process they went through as well in selecting projects that would benefit many districts in the city. i wanted to thank supervisors or commissioners breed and fell for ebb /hraoeubgtening me about the areas along masonic that are impacted by their districts and for my district, district one, from geary to [inaudible] is of interest to me as a city supervisor as well. i wanted to say that i took about 15 minutes this morning at the

starbucks near the -- it's now lucky's, formerly albertson's on the full ton and masonic side and watched the traffic. i observed tremendous amounts of speeding, close calls and even over the past three weeks there have been a couple of terrible accidents. not deaths like the one whose funeral attended of a 22-year-old man. i go way back to 2008 where we considered lots of concerns way back five years ago. it's not that this plan has come out of nowhere, but it's been many

years ago. it's been many organizations that have been involved be, not just usf, but there's john adams campus but there's a high school very close by and many other parochial and public schools as well. for me it is a choice between public safety versus maintaining the number of parking spaces on the street and i accept that's a choice and if it comes down to that choice [inaudible] the efforts with the mta to mitigate the loss of -- i think it's 147 spaces that are lost because 20 spaces are being added on turk, i believe. so it's about cumulative loss of 147

[inaudible] or usf is planning a dorm that's close by off of golding gate as well so strong efforts from usf and other offices of supervisors number of cars and the need for packing. the masonic and /tkpwraoer /tkpwraoer target will un/tko*utedly cause more traffic to know through geary and masonic and that's inevitable given the approval of target, but my office the working with a number of your offices as well to try to make sure that will be accountable to reach out to the high school and the neighbors that are around it so we're mitigating the traffic around there. it's inevitable. it's not as connecting to this project as i think some of the testimony was given. some have mentioned the hardship of losing the loss of the parking spaces and i'm

sensitive to that as driver as well, but for me the killings of [inaudible] and many others over the past five years and the /saoersz accidents, many of them not even reported, but i get them tweeted and texted to me so i know directly all the safety issues that many are bringing up. i wanted to say that i think the status quo is leading to more /stepbts and i could see them from the testimony here, but also from many of the comments that people. i think we have to leverage the money coming from the one-bay-area with other funding to make the whole area safer. i want to do my best to acknowledge the hard work of many of the community based groups that were here today that were part of the coalition of fix masonic five years ago. this is a long time coming. we need to use this money to make this street /saufr and i'm