that the businesses are looking through that lens when they are looking at us as a city family. >> so, we have divided up through our discussion points, and recommendations under three categories, communication and partnership, operational sensitivity, and parking management and street use. so, what we have heard from many small businesses, and the small business commission has had a discussion at its meetings is, a need for the small businesses to be seen as the equal stake holder. and equal to a bicycle advisory committee, and the bicycle coalition, the pedestrian safety advisory committee walk sf, livable cities, and residential organizations. to be involved in the consultation, planning design

and policy development, so for the first recommendation that we have is that when you are about to engage in project areas, to identify small businesses and small business representatives in that area, to be the representation and the stake holders, the same as you might do for the bicycle coalition, or walk sf, and then, as consultants as you begin to work on a project plan area. and then, for policy matters, to develop small business representation to and the small business commission can help facility this and be a part of it, but we also think that it is important to work with small of the small business leaders as you are to look at policy matters, either as they need to be reviewed, or you are developing them. second recommendation is to have the sfmta staff also meet

with the office of small business and the office of economic and workforce development staff, upon consideration of a project area, or in the business area. because we too can lend some suggestions and recommendations on what either who might be good to reach out to, in that business area, or some other elements that may be taking place that will benefit the staff that is going to be working on those project areas. recommendation three is the sfmta staff can come and present to the small business commission on projects, that effect small, effect business areas and that is not just neighborhood, commercial corridors but where we do have business and where the project is like the eastern neighborhoods where that is not necessarily a corridor, but that is a business area. recommendation four, to work together and i know that to

work together with the county transportation authority, most small businesses and most businesses do not know that there is a san francisco sta, the sfcta the county transportation agency but they don't understand, the distinction between the two. and i think that one of the unfortunate things for the sfmta is that once the county transportation project plans are shifted over, to the sfmta staff, to and the department to implement, and your staff goes out and reaches out to the business community, and they end up getting, i think, some of the wrath of the lack of out reach that the cta has done in those business areas and so there is a great amount of frustration from the businesses because those are heavy and subnative projects that have said, why didn't we know about this a year ago?

i could have made plans. you know? i just renewed my lease and maybe i would have moved. so that we need to, we want to work with you to work with the cta and i know that director reiskin has said that he in communication and talking to chang to improve communications. but i think that there is an opportunity for all of us to be working together to do the better out reach and so that the businesses have a greater opportunity to be able to adjust to the larger projects that are coming up because they do, they do have substantial financial implications to them, and one or two percent for some of these businesses in a drop of business means whether they are able to stay in business. or they have to close their doors.

then also moving on to want to see the project policies, sensitive to small business needs. there is a perception that small business needs can vary to the needs of other stake holders, there is a perception but i have seen the presentation to business organizations that where we are giving the same presentation to or as they would to the neighborhood organization and so that the discussion and dialogue where the presentations are given, are very two different distinct types of presentations because businesses have a unique set of needs. that are very different from the residents that live in that neighborhood area. and then, these are some of the historical legacies. and then, where, it leads to conflicts is the eliminating of

loading zones when the bike lanes are installed, and adding parking meters and pdr areas. are two examples. and the other area that has led to conflicts is that when we are looking at new combinations of arrangements of modes of transportation, that does not need to be codifieed in the transportation code, or somewhere else. but i took a look under the parking and traffic regulations and so two things that really stood out for me is i myself sort of went through an education. but i learned that with bicycle lanes, the dedicated bicycle lanes in the neighborhood commercial corridors, the plan is for the ability to be able to share those lanes.

with the taxi and delivery vehicles. but it is not okay for a residential corridor but i think that without these things being codifieed there is a lot of confusion, and there is a lot of confusion in terms of just exactly what are the rules and what are the regs? of the governor ans and what is appropriate and not appropriate. and that is as much for the people who drive the vehicles as for the people who ride bikes and for the people who walk as well and as for the delivery companies. and my one of my concerns with the ability to be able to share the lanes with the delivery vehicles, is either one of two

things might happen delivery vehicles are going to be adverse to share the lane. so that they will be parked, double parked and blocking muni's ability to be able to function correctly, or if they do park in the lane, and the bicycle does maneuver out there is an accident, and there is an injury, then it is likely that the delivery company to be able to choose and to be able to pay out in relationship to that injury. and so, that it is important and we are going to be and we have a lot ahead of us in what is planned in terms of how we are going to be utilizing our streets that we make sure that there is a really clear means, either in our municipal codes and communication, education, and so that we all understand it.

recommendation four is to establish a pay and paint policy so that we are not doing or building out permitly recycled tracks or bike lanes or permanent ones, especially in the neighborhood commercial corridors or areas where we have our business districts but a lot of development is happening. and this a pave and paint approach and you have the most ability to be nimble to adapt and change as things change and you are able to understand the dynamics of an area. recommendation five is to conduct with the businesses directly adjacent so that installing the bus shul shelters and and to work with the businesses that the bus shelters are going to be the plans to install are close to.

and again, the storefront is an incredible is incredibly important for our businesses on the street front level and it really does effect a business's business. and so, to really work with the businesses when you are working to install the bus shelters. and the recommendation six, we have put forward a list of sort of impact analysis, methodology to use, and this can be or we are happy to work with you and work to sort of formalize this or, in project areas, prior to going into the designing the infrastructure. and so, this, i will be very quick but, to insure that the project plans could support the general plan, or industry

priorities, of the mayor and conduct the assessments of all business types of the activity in district areas, taking into account the zoning designations and types of activities in those areas. it works with 25 corridors and they have been doing a lot of assessment and so they are able to provide a resource to assist what might be the impacts on commerce before and after construction, the passed and off parking volume and this includes, and it is a soft recommendation of taking a look back three years to assess the history of any sort of natural

attrition of the parking to the removal of the off street parking and any new proposed developments that might anticipate, an increased number of vehicles, in that area. and the garages need to be included and the projects, excuse me... the projects that eliminate the parking meters or garages there is an interest to have an understanding about where the revenues go in relationship to the revenue loss, and the revenue offsets. >> and then, also to assess the number of locations of loading zones, and have a loading zones are utilized for deliveries and the number of businesses that require the deliveries and i want to stress that the deliveries are not just ups and all of those type of delivery vehicles and we have small

business and florists and caterers and so we have, hardware stores that have smaller vehicles, and so, to do an assessment of the type of deliveries and sort of the days the hours and the frequencies so that we also get a good understanding, of that transportation need, and dynamic. and the projects impact the loading zones and or the deliveries must include the proposals to mitigate the impact and assess and analyze the green zones and any impact resulting in the loss of those green zones, the green zones are usually businesss that have a high in and out for the customer base. and where can they go in and out quickly.

and then determine if the project area will effect any other city initiative such as partlets and things of that sort, because sometimes the neighborhood and both the neighborhood and the merchant corridor may be planning or community business at districts also planning on doing parklets. >> and the recommendation seven develops the small business street designs and uses and so i pulled out from the administrative code the better streets policy and what i thought this governing the multiple departments and what i thought was very interesting to me and this is very indicative of why i think that often, the small business is left out of or not given the full consideration that is needed but under d2, it says, that the streets that support the initiative use and including safe and active and ample space for the pedestrians and bicycles and public transit and

more conductive to a public life of an urban neighborhood and an efficient movement of people and goods. and street designs primarily to move the automobiles. the decisions regarding the design, use of the city's limited public street use shall prioritize for the pedestrians and bicycle and public transit for over space for the automobiles and so the last sentence to me says it all, and it is leaving out, in our business areas, the business commerce and the business activity. and so, i think and i just pulled this picture as sort of i think that the classic representation of when you are designing from that last sentence what it looks like and for the business, and for us and for the small business commission in our office and the business community, what is left out of this picture here is really, the dynamic of

commerce taking place. and so we don't see, the delivery vehicles, and so, that is what we would like to work with you on. and so the small business needs and problem solving culture among the sfmta staff, we are really happy that currently, the liaisons that we have been working with, have that. and we want to encourage sort of the institutionalization of that so that we have had a need with lacacina and put in the commercial loading zone in front of it and so that there is microbusinesses can come in, load, and unload for their caterers. and the down side is that, there are businesses are so small and the vehicles that they use are not able to get commercial vehicle plates. and so they started to get

ticketed. so, we contacted your staff and a solution was found, and so, that is the kind of environment that we like to work with. and but also, i want to, this is probably a one-off solution and maybe we might need to think, is there something more that we can do so that if there is other situations around the city, we are not having to deal with it on a one by one situation. one thing that we would like to work on a little bit more is small businesses with commercial plates that cannot access the red top loading zone and meter areas that are primarily in the c3 downtown district. and again, we have small businesses that are not necessarily six wheeled vehicle businesses and that, it ends up kind of precluding them from being able to engage and doing business in those areas. and then, change in an

off-street parking with the small businesses in the areas that not effectively assessed in terms of small business impacts, and so, again, this kind of this more of a directive in terms of, or a direction in terms of what transpired in the eastern neighborhoods but a cumulative impact from the development proceeding. and preserving our business and we went through the extensive work zoning-wise, but there are times when that might be, so, my apologies. so we want to make sure that the policy goals, in terms of working with transportation, are also supporting our

economic policy goals. and recommendation 8, clarify the parking principals when making a presentation on a project area, how the parking areas principals are applied either adding or subtracting the meters, state the sfmta plan to offset the meter losss from revenue, and when there is parking meter, removal. and then, recommendation ten, include a look back period as i stated in the business assessment, of on and off street parking, both sfmta parking and private parking. and the recommendation eleven, improve the signage for under utilized public and private off street garages, there are some that are not as heavily utilized in certain areas, and some of that from our commission has noted is due to

signage. and number 12, develop occupantcy reports of all sfmta parking lots to inform the board whether the existing hours of operation is appropriate in certain areas, especially in areas in or near the extensive night life activities and how can we utilize the parking garages more for those areas and i apologize i didn't add that our commission is very interested in having a discussion at some point or, tonight, about what we can do about adding parking garages i know that it is not, there are issues around that, but if they are going to be substantially removing parking then and we are adding a lot of new residential buildings, this may be xhg that we may need to bring back on to the table and take a look at. and what can we do together to deal with that?

and then lastly i want to acknowledge what you have done over the years. you are probably, i would say that you are the most stellar, department, in terms of utilizing technology, to improve its delivery of system and communications and primarily around the sf park, with your app being able to take credit cards and demand pricing and real time passion, with the new app and the 511.org and the next bus, we all have highly rely on that and again that goes back to our employee, and you know, i keep saying our, but to the businesses employees being able to get to work on time and so that has been, you know, a real asset. and then, of course, really want to thank the sfmta for its support around small business week. and so with that, i, conclude

my presentation. >> good afternoon. >> yeah. >> we will get you there. >> mr. chair and mr. president, members of the board and commission, thank you first of all for hosting us here, and particularly to the small business commission and i did not realize that you were seating your meeting time for this joint gathering, but i think that this is a great opportunity for us to explore the ways that we can help each other because i think that our goals are very much aligned as i think that the director mentioned and i think that the cozy seating arrangement is a good model for efficient board meetings. i have i will try to be brief.

i do want to give an overview of kind of where we are coming from and the context within which we are operating. but i think that we will be helpful for the conversation, i think, many of the recommendations that came out of the first presentation, you will see kind of directly in or directly, i think that many of them we are doing, or could be doing. and so i think that it was very helpful to have that kind of specificity. the existence and the intimacy and the vitality of small businesses in san francisco is a part of what makes san francisco a great place to live

and shop. i try very hard to only patronize small, local, independent businesses and i don't shop on-line and i don't go to the big box and i don't go to chains because i love what small businesses do for and mean for the city. so, i think that i am very comfortable also, in speaking for my board in seeing saying that the work that we do to make the transportation work in san francisco is work that we want to do in ways that are supportive of small businesses and individual, small businesses and the small business community in general. and so i, i hope that you will kind of see that throughout here but we want to make that really clear from the front that we absolutely want to be doing work that is going to strengthen the businesses that you represent. so, probably our aseminal guiding policy is the transit first policy that was adopted by the san francisco board of supervisors 40 years ago.

it was put into the charter. and we are the agency charged in the charter with implementing it. and i will make reference later, transit first is not transit only. but it is making an effort to accommodate as many trips as we can, in san francisco, and other than the single occupantcy private automobile, and you will see later, why with the growth that is coming to san francisco, it is all the more important that this policy is in place and it is implemented and it is very foresightful 40 years ago and it is really becoming time in san francisco where we need to realize the goals of this policy, if we are going to keep it the great place that it is today. so, we have a lot of folks that governor our activities at different level and this slide just, gives a glimpse from the federal to the state, and to the regional and then down to the local level, at different

folks who constrain or guide or regulate what we do, or transportation in the city. and so there is a lot of different folks that we need to be responsive to. and then, more specifically, director made reference to this, there is confusion times because there are two transportation agencies in the city here and the county transportation authority is a legislative branch, and agency and they are governed by a commission that happens to be the same members of the county board of supervisors. whereas the mta, of course, in the executive branch like the office of small business, we have slightly different roles, but sometimes, they overlap a little bit. and particularly when it comes to the transportation, planning but i wanted to include a slide to try to help probably not so much for you but probably more for the public to try to understand the distinction between the two agencies we do

sometimes enter face, and on specific projects, where the planning will start at the transportation authority, and then, hands it over and then we have been working hard to strengthen and improve, our coordination and relationship with the ta, as with other city departments. and just kind of a visual, to show, some what of the unique role that we play here in san francisco, relative to other cities, most other cities as a matter of fact they don't make any other city has a transportation department that has been entrusted with all of these different roles for managing traffic, to and parking, to running the transit, to regulating the taxis to facilitating the commercial vehicles, bike sharing and car sharing, and it is really some what of a unique structure, within the united

states. that the voters put this in place, through ballot measures in 1999 and 2007 and so it gives us a great opportunity, to really think about the transportation network and manage it in a comprehensive way and i think that is a great opportunity that we have to improve how we work with small businesses. my board also adopted a strategic plan and it was adopted a year and a half ago and actually coming up on two years ago and it is guiding the agency over the course of three fiscal cycles or six fiscal year. and it identified a vision, of san francisco, as a great city with excellent transportation choices, which has meant to really importance that the transportation plays because we are so dense and compact, and how it plays in making san francisco and keeping san francisco a great city. and that word of choice is important. and this goes back to talking

about the transit first policy and that it is not transit only. it is we see our role as creating choices for people having good options for people so that they can make choices and how they get around, and facilitating what the needs of san francisco are today, as well as what they will be in future. four goals, that the board identified in the strategic plan that we need to achieve in order to realize that vision, the first being to make sure that the transportation vision is safe and pretty much everything that we do is being driven by that goal. and the second really is the essentially the transit first policy. and making those modes of preferred means of travel, and which also to the extent that we get people on to a bike and on to their feet in to a muni bus and into a taxi and it makes more space available. and whether it is in the traveling lane or a parking

lane for the people who do need to drive or for the vehicles that do need to be using those spaces including commercial and delivery vehicles. the third goal is improving the environment and quality of life in san francisco. and the fourth, one, looks like it got cut off here, but it is creating a collaborative work enforement and strengthening the agency and how it interacts with the other agencies so that we can deliver on all of the other goals. and i made reference to this before and maybe this will be the stimulus for some conversation, but we have a lot of growth coming to san francisco, both in housing and jobs, and this is what the planners and they expect will be coming. and it is, you know, probably coming, and regardless of whether we wanted to come or how it is going to come. and so, i think that it is incumbent upon us as the city family to plan for it so that we ca