please. >> yes, my name is sandra and i live south of the panhandle on masoniy five doors up from the panhandle. i never received any notices about any of the hearings. i found out about this because an email was sent to my son who teachings in reno and then it got to me. i any it's a very dangerous plan. i take my grandchildren to school in the morning, they go to two different schools, public schools in the city. i have to go out on masonic -- very dangerous. a lot of traffic. i think for the bicycles to be on masoni /kr*rbg is a very bad idea. i think baker street or one of the other streets -- i'm not a bicyclist, i walk, i take [inaudible] and i drive and i think other considerations should come into play here and i think it's a really good idea if you come to masonc and see the kind of traffic there is in

the morning and in the early afternoon, early even /*f evening. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. good morning. i've living on clayton since 19 /# 8. in 25 years i've probably been across masonic five thousand times. i don't feel unsafe. the most unsafe thing is the curb ramps -- years ago and those are not been built. please disapprove funding. this would harm the quality of life because of the terrible congestion it would put on our

neighborhood. /phemergency response time will be slowed down. the fire department has not analyzed this. parking lots

>> i'm a third generation san francisco citizen. i'm here today for my father-in-law who owns two buildings on masonic avenue. we are both /tkpwepbs this project for the following reasons. one, you'll be taking away parking. 18 of the 20 units in our buildings rely on the street and taking away parking on masonic -- you'll force to to outlying areas and this will enforce congestion. this is not not right. mainly,

the safety -- we're all for putting a bike lane where we can, but masonic as terrible as it is, the traffic is horrendous, people are speeding, running red lights, there's always accidents. to creating a bike lane here will not help, just more chaos, especially with target opening up the street. we urge you to vote no on this, it's not practical and not feasible and won't work for the neighborhood. someone mentioned a bike lane on baker would be better and we think that's something you should consider and look into before we go forward on this. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hi, my name's marie and i live on [inaudible] when i first learned about the lanes

on sal and oak i was first opposed to them but i ride a bike and i'm pretty confident and i didn't understand how [inaudible] would make the side street safer, but my opinion changed last year when my friend and roommate were killed on masonic so i have a letter from her mother and it says, my daughter was killed on masonic may 6, 2012. she was [inaudible] trader joes when she was struck and killed by a small truck, she spent an hour-and-a-half in surgery. her bill was over 60 thousand dollars. she was 25 years old, she was a young architect, she was in love, she was a good citizen and there were no citations issued. if there were no citations, no drugs, no alcohol impairment, no destructive cell phone use i guess there was no one to blame, it was just a horrible accident. the death at the

time of her death one year later, knowing what i know now i could predict that any one of jaywalkers there could also be victims. i was surprised to see that people that still jaywalk there. i returned to trader joes the next morn morning, i felt sad and enraged. i thought i might sue but i'm not -- thankfully changes have been made across the streets and crosswalks. it's still terribly unsafe place and has no -- and has to do with the design and geography. i'm not an ark /tebgtd, but i use basic logic to see how the design could have saved my daughter.

anyway, i know i'm done, i'm sorry. i'm just very much for this and i hope that it goes north of the area as well 'cause it could save someone else. >> thank you for sharing the letter. >> thanks. >> next speaker please. >> good morning, my name is doug. i owned a home on masonic for 20 plus years. i occupied both flats. i want to reiterate that some people did not get any notifications. i walked by both flats, how come i did not get any notifications. london breed actually had her assistant talk to some of the people in the neighborhood and that was really great. i really appreciate some of the supervisor who are looking up at me as i'm speaking right now. others are not. this does need to get fixed. the

plan has flaws the way it is. i've looked on /phags has, i've seen many wrecks, i've helped them. putting bike lanes is not justified for the millions you wanna spend. i urge this committee not to let the funds go. masonic needs a fix, but not this one. the ramifications on all the blocks east and west of everyone circling trying to find parking -- it's just absurd. i don't know how far removed you are from the masonic avenue and god for bid if i get another greater weight of the evidence yard shift and i come home at 7 o'clock in the morning and i have to find parking, i've done that in the past, it's really bad. it's worse if i have a swing shift because i'm competing with the people driving around after they get out of the bars in 2 o'clock in the morning. taking away parking is not viable. if you

could finds a hole somewhere on that street and put in a big parking structure, great. i'll pay money to park my car there, then you put in bike lanes. the median strip -- that'll be chaos for the police and drivers and the fire department. the response times are gonna be /heupbd /erdz. it just doesn't make sense. and like i said, it sounds like a good plan to you all right now, but in the moment i'm taking away all the parking and impeding traffic at peak times would just be silly. i'm sorry. i appreciate you for listening to me and giving me my time again. i appreciate it very much. please do not fund this project. you have to think about something else and do something better than what they're proposing. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please.

>> hello commissioners and/or supervisors. my name is larry. i've lived in the neighborhood for 51 years since i was /# years old. i'll be 59 tomorrow. i was formally on the board of directors of the north of panhandle neighborhood association and i think it's a fantastic organization. however, i live a block-and-a-half from masonic and i didn't finds out about this project until a week ago. i think it's a dangerous project. there's been no eir done for parking and how it'll reflect the neighborhood. parking is horrendous already. there's been no eir done on this. it's gonna hinder

emergency response times for police and fire. some of our colleagues have spoken to the folks at stations ten, 12 and 21 and they were not aware of it and they're a little freaked out about it so there's been no emergency response time eir done either. i know that you folks don't fund the project, you just pass this on to mta. we'd like you to take a look before you pass it on because we're then going to have to ask for considerations at relooking at this portion of the project. 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