tv [untitled] August 12, 2013 7:30am-8:01am PDT
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which in some places are dedicated by market street and others are shared by bike lanes. those will look similar on market street so that won't change. option number two however, will take our existing sidewalk configuration and it would narrow the sidewalk. we would still have very wide what we call pedestrian through way zones between 12 and 15 feet in width, but the existing market street sidewalks were wider than that, so under option two, the sidewalks would be narrowed and we'll get a dedicated bike lane that's 7 feet wide and this dedicated bike lane would be at a different level from the street and from the curb.
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it would be at an intermediate level between the two. option number three is the most recent option that is placed on the table. and it looks a lot like option number one in that our sidewalks would stay the same width, our bike lanes would look pretty much the same, you know, some sheared, some dedicated. our bus platforms will get wider. but what's different about option three is that the transportation lines that currently run-on mission street like the 14 mission as an example as well as golden gate transit, all of those transportation lines would be moved over to market street so that market street would become the transportation highway sort of speak. and then what would happen on mission street is that because we would no longer have those bus lines on mission, then there would be the opportunity to create a dedicated bicycle lane known as
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the cycle track on mission street. this project is about to go under the environmental review process for the next two years. after that it's going to go into design and i mention that because tomorrow's work shop at the main library located at 100 larken street in the auditorium starting at 10:00, it goes until 12:30. this is a better market street work shop where you get an opportunity to provide some more of your community and public commentary about your preferences and you can send that comment directly to the department of public, there's a website, bettermarketstreet.org but i would encourage people to
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go tomorrow if you're able. one of the things our office will do is attend that work shop and share with the organizers the commentary that we heard at the physical access meeting and the mac meeting. our office is work with the department of public works and also independent living resource center to assemble a focus group of individuals with both mobility disabilities as well as vision, sight, disabilities and what we'll be asking this focus group of 10 individuals to do is to navigate down a few different stretches of market street and give us your feedback on the conditions of the existing sidewalk which is brick and we'll be looking specifically at issues like, you know, vibration that you might experience because of the different joints, you know,
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settlement and cracks because of maintenance issues and also slip resistance. obviously being so we don't lose our footing when it's a little wet. this focus group is going to be starting in august and if you are interested in participating, we would ask you to contact our office, either through our mod e-mail or by calling us at 554-6789 or contact independence living resource center san francisco at 543-6222. and i know that in our audience today we also have peter mendosa from independence center and he'll help us organize and coordinate that. my last update i wanted to share with you is that our
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office helped volunteer at city hall to support the same sex weddings during the pride celebration between june 28th and all the way through june 30th. john paul scott and i did everything from greeting the couples to issuing licenses to actually performing ceremonies. and our office provided american sign language interpreteration and i was happy to see there was one couple who showed up with their deaf nine year old son and they hasn't anticipated that he would be able to participate, but because we had the sign language interpreter there, he was a full part of that ceremony and that was particularly gratifying. i
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wanted to build on something that wilson said, i had the pleasure of attending the lion's club meeting last week in china town where our council member harriet wong was promoted to the role as president and it was a really great community to see how the people came together in support the harriet and i was happy to have been there. so this concluding my portion of the director's report and i like to ask heather kettle, our coordinator to give us her reports and complaints that our office have heard over the last 12 months. thank you heather. >> good afternoon council. in the past two months our office received 223 inquires, 91 percent were from the public and 9 percent of these inquires
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were from city departments. our office provided information and referrals forle 8 percent of these contacts and provided technical assistance for 33 percent of these contacts and conducted service request for 70 percent. the topics of -- it was about disability accommodations and housing, businesses, education and employment. contacts also requested information about affordable housing, benefits and employment resources. we received reports about management and housing authority building, not providing reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. we received complaints regarding bed bug fes tags. and people wanted to dispute their parking tickets.
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we received 5 ada complaints and in june we received 7. it's features related to elevateers breaking down and a need of re-- repairs right away. pair transit quality of service issues and reported late pick ups. in may we received five request while in june we received one request. received four request for an accommodations in june and no request in may. the request for accommodations involved a request for a blue phone parking space to be installed near an individual's place of employment. the installation of the times pedestrian signal to replace a push button, assistance with filing a reasonable accommodation request with management to accommodate an individual's environmental sensitivities. and the installation of a bus shelter and benches at many
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stops for an individual who isn't able to stand for an extended period of time. and joanne will discuss the policy measures related to this case and the details about the complaints. thank you. >> thank you heather. good afternoon council members. my report is actually a very brief update on the status of the lift. and the entrance of city hall. as you you have been reading in your welcome, city hall passenger lift, wheelchair lift has been october of service since -- it has been out of service since october which is longer than we anticipated. after five different repairs and service
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calls s during 2012 the lift was taken out of service because it was -- it had a useful life. and then it has begun the process of bidding and securing a contractor for a full replacement of the equipment. now, for those of you who may not be familiar with wheelchair platform lift, they are specific manufacturers and only a few of them are located in other state. so this bidding process became lengthy. but it's all ending in good news. a bid has been selected. a contractor has
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been -- we anticipate it to be operational by the end of september. so i wanted to give you a status update and also because our office stage for the full renovation of this and something in the area of about $70,000. not including the previous repairs. so now that this part is done, it's my great pleasure to introduce to you another one of our interns. when the mayor lee made a call to city department at the beginning of the summer to hire youth. san francisco, high school youth. our office responded with the opportunity to mentor and provide work experience for a young person
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from the community. and so williams who some of you have met in our last meeting joins our office and i've asked her as part of our internship with us to give you a report. can i call immunual. thank you. >> hello, council members. so i'm iman williams and i'm an intern at the mayor's office of disability. a few things about myself. i'm interested in pediatric nursing and cosmology and i'm an incoming senior so some of the hobbies i like to do are dancing so i've been dancing sense 5th grade and i
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like ride by bike and write poetry on my town time and i'm apart of my school's performing arts which is all types of dancing and i found out about the internship availability through youth works. and i'm enjoying my time here. while being an intern i've learned about different ways of thinking about disability. i have learned about the medical and social models. the medical says disability is not normal and the disability resides in the individual. the social model says that society is the one that has to change so that the individual has an opportunity to live in the community. i personally believe that the key to living life with a disability is so comfortable in the community and feel as if you have control of your own life. so i was
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asked to give a report on something that is connected to me relating disabilities and what i've learned so far at the mayor's office disability. since i'm passionate about dancing, i did a report on action dance company which is a group that incorporates dances with and without disabilities. so access dance company is a dance studio incorporates people with and without disabilities in practices and performances. there are classes for adults and children alike. many of the kids classes include educating young people about disability and access. by studying about this company, i see how it connects to the ada and the decision which allows people with disabilities to live in community settings instead of institutions. therefore, in order for dances with disabilities to perform and practice they must have the following. so a place to live
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that's in the community of the studio, and access to personal assistance, services like someone to get them out of bed if needed, and transportation to and from practice and performances. a fun fact about access dance academy was that they performed on "so you think you can dance." and access dance company have been equal opportunity for people with disabilities to do what they love and fulfill their passion for dancing. at access dance company, your physical disabilities don't defined how this takes on. i like to thank you forgiving me the opportunity to present to you and i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you. council members are there any questions? staff?
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>> i don't have a question. i just have a comment. i congratulate you on your presentation stepping up before us, learned a lot about you and your passion and what you've learned working through mod. and i wanted to ask you, you said you've been dancing since you were 5th -- >> 5 grade. >> what do you enjoy the most and what style? >> probably modern dancing just because you can put your spin on it and it is a good way to express yourself really. >> and the second question since you've been interning in the mayor's office with disability, how would you say your perspective has changed with the knowledge you've learned on disability issues? >> so when i first came all i knew was the blue parking
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spaces. that's about it. but i learned more of the medical and social influences on it and just more on the political side and helping people out in a better way than just directing them to places that are accessible. >> thank you and it's a pleasure to have you? >> thank you. >> chip. >> hi, iman. >> hi. >> i want to thank you for your presentation too and also for your willingness to help out on an important issue. you're working with an incredible staff and lots of experience and knowledge and so i encourage you to pick their brains and find out more. they're very politically estute. when appropriate through the chair, i had some
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questions for the director's report. may i do those now or after we comment with iman? this is all kind of -- >> i would suggest after iman finishes and happy to answer any questions you have. >> thank you. >> iman, welcome and congratulations. >> thank you. >> we're very privileged to have you and your perspective from a youth perspective. and i know it's going to be a challenge at some times but we're here to help you. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> thank you so much. thank you council members. i just want to say take it back to high school and tell your high school friends, start a support
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group and then educate them, please. thank you very much. is that it? >> to the chair if i can make one last comment. i heard council member ksotanian mention -- i'm tongue tied today, i heard you mention the word "privilege" and we feel privileged we've had you in our office the last few weeks and if the other students are anything like you, you want you to spread the word and we want more just like you because its been wonderful working with you and thank you for your report today. i feel like i learned something more about access and i'm going to check them out again soon. thanks. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. if i
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may >> about the better market street, i had questions. which streets are affected? >> that's a good question. because better market street plan runs from octavia street to the embark area. >> all of that traffic on market street will not be allowed. >> i actually can't answer that question. i suspect that maybe octavia to van ness are be private car accessible and i'm sorry i don't have the precise answer. >> if we move buses to market street, will people be allowed to make left-hand turns on mission then because of the inability to get to market and the businesses there. >> that's also a good question. i think that level of detail actually comes a little further
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down the line during the design process where the traffic engineers get involved. i haven't heard that specifically mentioned yet, but that's a good comment that i can take back. >> please. are there going to be accommodating area with seating disbursed along market street. >> on my briefing on better market street, i didn't talk about the full complement of features that will be provided on market because i focused on the disability issues. it's about imagining a street where people spend time and not just a place where they ride through on a bus and so in the area that would be between the face of the curb and various locations anywhere from 7 to 12 feet toward the sidewalk, it's going to be what we call an
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activity zone or furnishing zone or cafe zone where you'll see tables and chairs and amenities that really encourage people to stop to sit down and to interact. >> thank you. >> you bet. >> tatiana. >> excuse me. i wanted to address something also about the market street. and i don't know how we can do it, i have some ideas but -- we're going to have a lot of people who are elderly and disabled who like to keep their independence, but sometimes there may not be a place for them to park there it
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would be, and they don't have the strength to walk distances and it maybe not good to our city too, so i'm concerned about our well-being. >> good observation councilwoman. so all of the three options would still allow for taxis and peri transit and also vehicles with plaqueers to be able to drop off pedestrian on market street so you would still have that vehicle relationship to market street. >> i'm just thinking that some people may bring their car and that's another thing that we have to allow them to have that independence. >> it's a very good point. parking is a level of independence. you're absolutely right.
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>> okay. thank you carla, heather, joanna and iman. >> we have a report from the department of building inspection and senior and disability action on the implementation of the single room occupancy grab bar ordinance. presentation is by rosemary bosque, chief housing inspector and tony robles senior and disability action. >> good afternoon council members. >> grab bars being installed in the bathroom of residential hotels begins with the introduction in the legislation of october of last year by supervise mar and i'm happy to report that currently the property owners have been active in pulling permits to install these grab bars to minimize the amount of traumatic injury that can occur
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in the bathrooms and the residential hotels. there's a lot of individuals that had influence in allowing this to occur, supervisor mar had a great amount of advocacy to assist him with introducing this legislation and i'm sure tony will speak to that in a moment. the one thing i do want to indicate is that the department of building inspection felt strongly about implementing this ordinance that when it come came to the building inspection, they took a move that i haven't heard them say in many years and that is they waived the permit fees for the first 60 days to encourage the operators of residential hotels to file these permits to get the grab bars installed as soon as possible. and with that, i'm pleased to report of approximately 500 buildings that will be -- that are sublt to the ordinance in question,
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we have 170 permits that have been filed and that doesn't even include those buildings that already had grab bars installed prior to the adoption of the ordinance. the ordinance went into affect in april of this year and the property owners had until june 4th to be able to apply for the permit where the department fees were waived and they were left with a nominal fee. they would have done that as well. so now what is happening is as we speak, we'll processing permits. and i processed one yesterday. so they're coming into the department everyday to have the grab bars installed. that's only part of the picture. we could not have gotten anywhere near here as far as what we're doing without the help of carla johnson and her office as far as creating that wonderful informational
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manual that was included, a mailer we sent out. it's on our website. we give it out as much as possible and giving it out at the counter. we have our outreach contractors giving it out and it includes our -- collaboratives. and they are aware and i'm constantly in contact with them on any problems they may have as far as taking out the permit. so you're probably all familiar with the wonderful job that carla's group did putting this together with photos and materials and any question that a property owner or operator could think of asking. they covered most of it, at least 99.9 percent of that. we get to come up with a survey and i have the housing inspectors to go out and there and take
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photos and give carla information so they can prop out what we're going to see. we continue the outreach and to encourage the property owners to put these in and also that is also included attending the senior and disability action monthly meeting. we have supervisor mar here for the building inspection commission who may want to say something about that. he's been supportive of this and he's been attending those meeting and i will let you know that the housing inspectors as they're constantly in the residential hotels on a day to day basis, we're seeing the grab bars installed and if you see any problems then we're work with the property owner and the building inspector to make sure we continue this progress so when september 4th comes, which is the compliance day, we want to have as many as of these installed as possible. if we do need to do code
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enforcement, we'll start that at in particular point in time, but we push the outreach and making sure the information is out there. we do troubleshooting when somebody's trying to file a permit if submission comes. if there is an ongoing code enforcement action from the property, we do not let that stop the issue of this permit. i don't have too much top add, but i know mr. mar may have comments on that as well. >> thank you. good afternoon, council members. i'm the vice president and we don't like to waive fees because our department is totally self sufficient. we don't get anything from the general funds. all of our staff is it paid totally from the fees we collect. we were happy to waive these fees because we think that it was an important issue but i wanted to share
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that this program has been, i feel, the most successful fee waiver we've done with over 100 plus permits being applied for already. mainly because of the partnership we had with the disability community, with the senior action network because people did the outreach. a lot of times we get approached by the board of supervisors, the mayor's office saying we should waive fees because it's small business month and they want to do some work on their businesses and we waive the fees for a month and we get three applications for a permit. how many permits did we get rosemary? almost 150 permits and that's because the collaboratives, the people you work with went out there and did the outreach. so i really think that if anything, i want to commend people here for
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