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 can manage it in the best way possible and that again, it is a opportunity for us as we think forward about how to man the transportation in the city. and so with respect to the transportation system, there are opportunities, that we have. and that the transit system is one of the densist provisions of the transit in the country and i think that it is something like 90 percent of san francisco residentses are within two blocks of a muni

stop and so we have a very robust transit structure that we are starting with and the demand and a lot more people who would like to be able to take the transit but it is either too crowded or too slow and so i think that there is more people who would like to be able to use the transit, and but, made choose not to based on the current circumstances. we are one of the most walkable cities in america. and we are a city of neighborhoods. and it is part of the great attraction, the fact that we are geographickly small means that you can do a lot of what you want to do in san francisco, on foot. which is a great thing. in terms of cycling we are one of the most bicycle friendly cities and it is a fast growing mode of transportation in san francisco and we have seen a lot of growth of creative ways of getting around and we launch the bike sharing a couple of months ago and san francisco has been a leader in car

sharing. and a lot of other services are developing to try to make it easier for people to get around the city. but we are also not without our challenges and i made reference, already, and i will and i don't think that i need to talk about the challenges that we have with the muni and despite the fact that we are a very walkable city, in terms of pedestrian safety, we really compare pretty unfavorably to many other major cities in the united states, really the exact opposite of where we want to be. and our bicycle network, and despite the great growth is some what fragmented and we have portions that are very friendly and attractive and others that are much less so. and we do have because we are a very geographically small area, we have a fixed amount of right-of-way to play with. and there are absolutely trade offs, that we have to, and we make it every day and we will continue to have to make as growth comes to the city.

as part of this strategic plan the board of directors did adopt a goal to try to really directly speak to the call from the transit first policy. and that was to shift the role from 39 percent to 50 percent of all trips during the 6-year period of the plan. so that this would be really the first time that we are trying to move the needle on that policy of the city that was enacted 40 years ago. further context is that there are other policies that guide the work that we do beyond the transit first policy. and i think that the director made reference to the better streets plan, and i think, you know, the language in there, it is quite clear. that guides what we are supposed to do and the general plan, and it has the transportation element, and there are other parts of the charter, the section 8 a is the or the section of the charter,

and other areas of the planning code, of the transportation code of public works, codes that guide what we do, and with the exception of changes to the division two of the transportation code, all of the rest of this is governed by the board of supervisors, and the voters. >> so, we do have a lot of different stake holders, whose needs that we are trying to address, and speak to. and we have certainly heard from small meetings that i have had with the small business leaders from the commission meeting that i came to from the discussions with oewd and the office of small business, we understand that there are concerns about where does the small business community and the small businesses fit within all of these stake holders? and i do think that there is certainly room for improvement and i think that some of the

recommendations that were provided in the previous presentation would help to put us on that path and we do try in balancing the stake holders not to pick one or the other but to guide the work that we do with the principals such as those in the center in the blue and the public safety first. and transit first, but again, not transit only. and planning for an economic vitality for population and job growth, using pilot programs, and paint, to test, and customizing to neighborhood and balancing the needs that we get that each commercial district is different and each neighborhood is different. and then, communicate early and i think that is where we certainly see great opportunities for improvement on how we do some of that. this s and there is a lot, and some of the bigger projects, and most of which have not happened, they have only been proposed.

they have been part of what has caused some of the concern, i think, or at least that i have heard from the small business community, but i think that it is the director made reference to, there is a lot of work that is happening every day, and not much of it comes directly to us not through the office of small business, but every day, things that different parts of our agency are doing in support of small business is often as a result of direct requests from the small businesses. but this just highlights what some of those are and there are many, parking and traffic changes if you look at an mta board of directors agenda, you will see those changes every month, or twice a month and you will often see requested by business or requested by merchants to make the changes in the color zones and the signals to permit the street closures. and we support business requests for things like bicycle racks and we do advertising in support of small businesses and a lot what we do

in the meter parking and the parking garages that we work with, the small businesses in the area, including having enforcement in place so that the parking regulations are effective. and we establish, contractor permit and recognizing the specialized need that the contractors have to do to do their work and the folks that are using those are small businesses. and we are also, a big spender, we spend a lot of money in buying things and delivering services and we have a very strong small business program something that we take very seriously and making sure that people benefit not just from the improvements, that are products or that our projects and services provide from the work itself and making sure that the small business community and the san francisco businesses benefit from that and so, there are a number of things that we do. and i think that regina also made reference to things like small business week, which we

host with the office of small business. and working with sf travel and working on things like small business saturday and helping advertisements for those, and i think that there is a lot of things that we are doing outside of the big projects every day to try to facilitate and encourage commerce, particularly small business commerce in the city. so, in terms of the projects, the capitol projects, which i think have been probably the main source of concern, this flowchart is meant to show kind of an over all, over all process. and one of the things that i have spoken to a number of you about, is our opportunity to do the public engagement and out reach, better, including engaging people sooner in the process, and as i have also shared, we are developing a new approach to that. and which we should very soon have a draft of and be happy to work with the office of small business and the office of

economic workforce development, and the small business network and any other stake holder who is interested in reviewing it and giving us feedback because i do think that that is an important part of the project. and there is a lot of process, in these projects and a lot of things don't even get to the sfmta board because, we take them in a different direction, and we generally bring things to the board where we have consensus, and it is not always the case, but that is generally what we try to do so before that, we have the community meetings and we have the stake holder meetings, and at some point, things go to a public hearing before they come to the sfmta board and so there is a lot of process already. and often, we are critized for too much two ses which makes the delivery slow and we recognize that there are ways that we can improve how we do that. so finally, somewhere along the lines of the recommendations of the first presentation, this just some ideas and i think that many of these dove tail

well with those recommendations about how we can better partner with the small businesses, the commission level but also down to the neighborhood and where possible, the individual level, i think that there is some work to be done in the area of research, as well as assessment and i think that was one of the recommendations and in understanding how transportation patterns and traces, impacts small businesses, and how projects that we might be leading are part of. and projects like them can impact the vitality of a commercial corridor and i think that there is a lot of data out there that we could get smarter and better about how we are using or how we are using it.