~ aaron dong, sharon song, mai fing dang. [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon. good afternoon. good afternoon. my name is shirley sang and i'm the youth leader from the chinatown cdc. today i'm here to talk about the issue of pedestrian safety. over the past three months, 7 deaths have happened in san francisco due to collisions. i feel that we really need to do something to change this issue. we should work toward a solution to change street safety and we can change it by engineering like making refuge on longer streets and extending the countdown time. we can also add designated turn signal on streets that are

needed to prevent collisions from happening. sometimes i see that not only cars, but also pedestrians that pass by red lights. i think that we also need to enforce the education. for example, we can restore the driver's ed in high school for high school students. it does require the mta board to put sunday to reach that vision zero goal. i really appreciate if all of you can put the budget on pedestrian safety. thank you for considering. >> thank you. any other members here to speak? okay. >> aaron dong, mai fang dang. good morning. i'm from [speaker not understood] also. [speaker not understood] free muni for youth. also continue for two years.

bus is mainly the transportation i use. and really if i can get to school, get to my youth program and also [speaker not understood] without really giving too much financial pressure on my family. and if -- it's a good decision to make a pilot program since there are over 30,000 youth in this program. so, i'm sure it would be a good decision to make it permanent. i want free muni for youth to be a fare policy so not only me, but the next generation can benefit from it. i want to support free muni for 18 years old. 18 is just a number. it doesn't represent everything. a person is 18 years old, it

doesn't mean this person has the ability to afford the bus fare. i have many friends. they are still high school students, but because they turned 18 they can no longer benefit from free muni for youth. and they have to pay a high [speaker not understood]. so, i really want to support free muni for youth be permanent and also make it expand to 18 years old. thank you. >> thank you. anybody else in this group? >> mai fang dang? rosie [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon. hi, good afternoon. my name is [speaker not understood]. so, talking about the free muni for seniors and people with disabilities. we need free muni for people with seniors and disabilities because [speaker not understood] for people with low-income seniors [speaker not understood]. most of them might not be able to pay for the cost of transit or even the cost of [speaker

not understood]. and for the [speaker not understood] a problem in san francisco. it is impacting low-income seniors is especially hard. [speaker not understood] for senior who rely on transit but struggle because of the cost of leaving. there are plenty of cities that have free program for seniors and people with disabilities such as chicago, west more land, and other cities. as one of the most well known city in the world, san francisco should really become a role model. we believe that mta should launch a program that serves low-income seniors and people with disabilities. thank you. >> thank you. >> aaron dong.

may fang dang. rosie lynn. [speaker not understood]. i'm here to talk about safety, but the funding of it. we do not have enough funding for pedestrian safety and that is a fact. i do not under why you guys are not want to fund this program or project. this is like a very big problem in san francisco's hands right now. we will not look as good as many years before. [speaker not understood]. >> thank you. sir. hi, my name is rosa and i hope you all had a great day today. a longer day, but i'll keep it short hopefully. but hi, my name is rosa. i'm a youth leader from

chinatown community development center. i actually worked on free muni for youth for the past three years and i was able to get it my last year during high school. now i'm a freshman at university of san francisco. but today my main focus is free muni for senior and people with disability. the reason behind that is my mom is actually disabled and i believe it's a really important thing for my mom. she gave up cable to pay for muni. my dad said to her, you're wasting money on cable and muni. i'll give you one choice. which one will you pick? my mom said muni. so, my mom chose muni over cable. to her, muni is her only way of transportation. we live up on a hill and she takes the 10 or the 12 to get home every day. it's very helpful because we only live half a block away from the bus stop going downhill. so, it's perfect for her.

because she's disabled it's important for her to have muni. she can't walk everywhere she wants. she needs muni to travel. i hope you all can make it happen for her because i don't want my mom to keep worrying about paying the bills all the time, paying for muni. i want my mom to actually be able to have cable again. i want her to be able to enjoy herself, relax instead of always helping me with chores and everything. so, i hope you guys will make it happen and hope you guys put it on your two-year budget right now and today. thank you. >> thank you. hi, my name is lisa. i just want to say on behalf of the free muni for youth commission, i want to thank cheryl brinkman for supporting free muni for 18 year olds because many of us really need free muni to help many of us go to school. or it's like always worried about the budget. so, thank you for supporting and we look forward to it.

>> okay. thank you all. thank you very much. next speaker, ms. boomer. >> all right. is david chang -- no. bob allen. tom radulavich. [speaker not understood]. miriam marlin, martin. lourdes verola. peter -- i can't pronounce his last name. he's from grubele -- okay, those are the next speakers. bob allen here. sometimes you just can't read the speaker card. >> good afternoon. good afternoon to the commission and to the packed house. i guess this is what -- like when you start to build the movement around an issue that matters to people. i think it's a symbol and i think a response to the

leadership of the board in doing something that quite honestly many sectors of the city haven't done yet which is really to address the affordability crisis. i want to acknowledge the whole board's leadership around that. and i think prioritizing the communities need transit riders [speaker not understood] really reflects the demographics of the folks in this room. i want to commend you for your leadership. today director brinkman and ramos and the whole biordi for initiating what we think is an important addition and what we intended for the free muni for youth and closing the gap at a marginal cost at this point ~. i think we can go, you know, go further in terms of the continued address affordability for folk with disabilities as soon as we can. i'd like the board to see what we can do taking action today. you know you have competing interests. again, this is a board that has

stepped up and has showed real leadership on addressing the affordability crisis. we hope you can do that for the folks who need it [speaker not understood]. this is a larger effort to [speaker not understood]. we're working on that for possible measures on the fall. we're working really hard. just want to express gratitude for the leadership of mta for taking a lot of time to work with us. we think -- hope the board knows we've been spending a lot of time in those meetings as well and this is more than single issue politics. and i think there is a real foundation for a broader coalition to get even more funds because we know the system needs more than what is being considered right now. but i think you're really at the steps of building a foundation for a winning coalition to go forward and funding the system needs and become responsive [speaker not

understood] jesus perez, martin verola [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon, mr. radulavich. good afternoon, tom for livable cities. [speaker not understood]. i was a little astounded to read that mta has a $6 million surplus, that you've got 6 million in extra cash that you just don't need for any purpose. if so, you're in an enviable position. no other transit agency in america has that same problem. but unfortunately that's not the problem you have. mta continues to fall short of its performance measures, riders aren't getting the transit service we deserve. and despite the carnage in our streets, this budget is a pitance in terms of what we need to be spending on pedestrian and bicycle safety in this city ~. so, meter enforcement is good for neighborhoods serving small businesses, for the mta budget,

less pollution and safety. [speaker not understood]. transit riders would see higher fares and continuation of the poor service that they have been seeing for the last few years. we badly need this revenue. doesn't really matter what you spend it on. there's a lot of competing priorities here. whether you use it to sustain and improve your service. to bring it up to the levels to [speaker not understood] bicycle safety in the city, whether you use it to expand the free serve is he a lot of folks city auditorctiontion about as a down payment on capital need, you need this revenue. don't give it away. we're asking r for more livable, sustainable city, hold onto the sunday meter revenue and spend it on the good things in your budget [speaker not understood], hang on to it. >> next speaker, please. >> [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. good afternoon, commissioners. i'm [speaker not understood]. and i'm just here to support.

~ the free muni for seniors and the youth. [speaker not understood] i come and speak a part of them. they said you guys, you know, pass the 18 years old. there's a lot of students that get on the bus and they can't afford to pay the $18. so, thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker, please. >> miriam martin. lourdes [speaker not understood]. peter [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon. [speaking through interpreter]

hi, my name is [speaker not understood] and i'm here to support the muni for youth to become permanent, also expand to seniors and people with disabilities and also 18 year olds. and i'm also asking that the

transportation ticket be longer in the amount of time that we get. so, the time that i go out and take my mottv to appointments. i'm only allowed to another time to take her to another appointment, i have to pay again. i end up spending $8 a day for transportation. >> thank you. my name is lourdes and i'm here to advocate and i'm here to ask you to amend the program for muni for use. we think it's ridiculous the kid are fighting for transportation to get to school. and that's not what they should be fighting for. it's a program that should be permanent and extended to 18 year olds and extended to seniors with disabilities. further, i also want to say that

i'm also here for item number 10, i do see on the list betsy carmichael. there are children that live in this area. they live in the neighborhood, too. the design of our streets needs to change in order for us to have better safety for pedestrians and then i'm asking you to amend your budget when there is money. that's all. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> peter corbell. nicole snyder. >> ms. snyder is here. was here. >> all right. justin [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon, [speaker not understood]. good afternoon, my name is justin. i'm a san francisco resident and i ride muni most days.

i think it's very he disturbful quite frankly you guys want to hike our fears given the fact the quality of muni service has not improved substantially the last decade. ~ fares you want to do away with sunday metering to satisfy the [speaker not understood] needs of the mayor. i think quite frankly sunday metering ha been beneficial for those who have to drive and park and find parking. also, the benefits would benefit from additional customer quite frankly. moving it would undermine us of mta's goal. it would put politics ahead of the people. it would be a big slap in the face to those who walk and bike in such dangerous conditions and finally for those who ride muni.

i would just urge you to really consider not doing away with sunday metering. doing that would make it hard to find parking and increase the amount of traffic congestion people have to circulate around. that's all i have to say. >> thank you. next speaker. >> peter gubalay from the chamber of commerce. i'll stop reading his name. nicole snyder. seal wicklund. nicholas percy. >> good afternoon, ms. snyder. good afternoon, nicole snyder from san francisco. thank you all forted time to talk about the budget today. i know we talked about [speaker not understood] safety a lot the last few months, including two weeks ago and even the last couple of weeks we've been really happy to see mta's 24 projects that will be

implemented in the next two years to help toward in really happy to see that come out, the projects in the ground to pal [speaker not understood]. we were here two weeks ago and many of you raised the question of how we're going to get to vision zero. how in the budget are we going to actually a havoc vision zero. we asked for the staff to come back with some sort of plan for how we're going to achieve it and then also you asked for a plan if in the event the november ballot doesn't pass, which we hope it did you, we have to figure out how we're going to -- the dollar amount that's currently -- currently set aside if the ballot measure doesn't pass. we hope it does pass. i looked at the budget.

it looks the same as it did two weeks ago. so, i'm just wondering why this hasn't been addressed, how we can get it addressed. we heard from a lot of community members it isn't true in their communities. the measure of safety also ties into half of the people hit and killed in our streets is seniors. it ties into free muni for seniors and people with disabilities. so, i would also like to support that and walk san francisco does support that. and we also support sunday parking meters, maintaining sunday parking meters because that does created a revenue stream for the projects we don't have enough money for. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> taylor wicklund, nicholas percy. gina bay. arnold townsend. are any of those people here?

thai wicklund. >> good afternoon. good afternoon, directors. my name is [speaker not understood]. i serve as the chair of [speaker not understood] and i'm also currently a senior at [speaker not understood] high school. first and foremost i'd like to thank this board for your leadership on the free muni for youth program. your efforts almost passing it last year and implementing it have been really -- have really set a precedent for other transportation agencies throughout the country to follow. that being said, there's a significant population of students over 3,000 that are unable to participate in the program as they turn 18 while they're still in high school. many of them are 18 year old friends. she was either to not ride muni or to [speaker not understood] because they can't afford the $2 ride or $6.60 per month fare and this is for a program that we all know and we all hope builds the next generation of transit riders. it's pretty harmful to have this gap in affordability

within the program. the san francisco youth commission student advisory account for and the board of education have all unanimously passed resolutions urging the mta board of directors to include 18 year olds in the free muni for youth program. so, i know there's been a recommendation to continue the 18 year old matter until 2015. and both me and the free muni for youth coalition would like to applaud director brinkman for making a motion to include 18 year olds in this year's operating budget. if this board can afford to lose $10 million in operating budget revenue for sunday parking meters, you can also forward about 10% of that for helping over 3,000 high school students afford transportation because at the end of the day, while the fiscal situation may change a little bit between now and 2015, this really isn't a fiscal issue. it's a priorities issue. and you believe in the program,

the money will be there if you find it. that's the same thing that happened with free muni for youth. so, please stay consistent with transit affordability and thank you for your time. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> is taylor wicklund here? okay. arnold townsend. peter mendosa. rufus abercrombie. thank you, members. reverend arnold townsend, church without walls in san francisco, also vice president naacp. thank you. we're certainly hopeful that you will continue on the course to not give out tickets on sunday, to not have the meters in effect. i do want to say about extending to 18 year olds, i don't understand why this has been so difficult. i cannot understand why the day we went away from neighborhood schools and required children to go outside of their neighborhood to school why that wouldn't have become automatic. we are telling our children that they're entitled to a free education.

getting to the place of education ought to be free as well because that means it is not free. so, that's just a no-brainer for me. but getting back to the churches, but i also want to caution you that to be watchful of the parking meter control officers for double parking on sundays as well because some of you, if you were here, may remember when we were here last time over the meter issue, we raised double parking. you had the director of that division stand up and assure you that they would not be pursuing double park cars outside churches. that very night we were at third baptist church for a revival. and at church was over and people were leaving and people ran in, pastor brown and i, and some other pastors were talking and two parking control officers were outside rudely telling them that if they did not move their cars immediately

they would be towed or ticketed. so, everything they tell you may not be true. i'm asking that you be watchful of this and that you continue the course. the amount of money [speaker not understood] the heartache it causes. secondly i've always sensed a certain hostility towards faith communities in this town. so, i ask you to stay the course. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> peter mendosa. [speaker not understood] abercrombie. [speaker not understood]. mary toronto. if there is anyone else who has not turned in a speaker card, please do so now. >> good afternoon, mr. mendosa. good afternoon, mr. chair. members of the board of directors, mr. reiskin. my name is [speaker not

understood] and i'm come to you to express our agency [speaker not understood]. to access transportation is only a right issue with disabilities. and a fundamental right we believe for all and many people that we serve every day in our agency really have to make hard choices. whether to pay rent, buy food. a person shouldn't have to make that choice. we need to make sure that people really have access to transportation so that they can live in the community they lowv and no matter what they choose, they can go wherever they want and need to go. i would ask you that you hear our collective voices. we only represent a fraction of

the people that really -- that this issue is very important to. and we ask that you really make free muni for 18 year olds and seniors with disabilities happen right now, not wait and work towards making it permanent. thank you. >> thank you, mr. mendosa. next speaker, please. >> rufus abercrombie. [speaker not understood] naranjo. barry toronto. toby edelhart. >> any of those folks here? good afternoon, sir. hello, my name is rufus abercrombie. i'm standing because i want to tell you how i feel about my country. i got drafted in the army from balboa high school when i was 20 years old and sent to vietnam. and i depth just go once. they sent me back twice and they sent me back three time.

i served my country with proudness because we are a country of christians and i had values even in war. and i got promoted as a staff sergeant in war when i was 20 years old and could barely read and right, but i was pretty good at reading a map. i grew up in texas, about 150 miles out of dallas. i'm talking to you today because i've had just about every part of my body cut into, my brain. i have false lip. they gave me new surgery. and all of this, i realize that i would have to die one day. when i close my eyes i wanted to tell god, lord, i gave it my best wherever i was. and where i was, if i saw the street dirty i would try to clean it up. it has cost me a big price to come down here today. my car has been pulled away. they told me it would be 6 or $800 to get it back. i came because i wanted to get out and go to church every sunday where i worship at

[speaker not understood] bethel, golden gate and fillmore. been worshipping there since i got here 15 years ago. and we have a lot of old shoes that come to church across town across the bay they've been coming from years. their outlook on life is coming to tell god that they thank him that they are still here. i'm praying that you will not let anything stand in your way and stop letting someone else make a decision for you where we cannot park our cars where we can get into our church. we have nowhere else to park but on the street. so, as a leader, as i see you, i really would pray that you would look at yourself and say, one day i'm going to die and i want to make decisions for the folks that we love here trying to keep our country safe. they are not criminals. they are people that keeping our country civilized. so, think on that point and i just thank you for hearing me. >> thank you, sir. next speaker, please. >> theresa naranjo. barry toronto. so n ~ sophie edelhart [speaker

not understood]. my name is sophie edelhart [speaker not understood]. and director ramos for seconding it. i really hope you all consider expansion of this program that will help over 3,000 18 year olds, including me in nine months. and as always, thank you for allowing me to be part of this conversation. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> is theresa naranjo here? no? barry toronto followed by eric rue, then rosie [speaker not understood] and alejandra [speaker not understood]. if anyone has not turned in speaker cards, please do so now. >> hello, mr. nolan. [speaker not understood]. i thought we were going to have general public comment as well. i want to talk about the budget. you know, the taxi industry contributes a