into the amazon fresh that attacks our grocery stores that going into wal-mart have you looked at that in how we look at formula retail >> let me try and address our comments in reverse order i think the question about how technology is changing retailing is going to be the dominating question this shapes the character of the city it's going to be championing to a city that has long wanted the people to rely on the material and service needs. we're dealing in another item i'm working on relating to the minimum wage the question of what's the future for retail trade in the city we have

projections we've hit peek two years ago and we're too big lose as a city and country in formula retail tried trading the reason we didn't look at that was strictly whether you're an e conversion business does not look at the regulation and the city needs to look at 9 formula retail are fiat the last war and the face of drones you can fly what you want to your house in thirty minutes and our ability to regulate that and what does that do to the shape of our city. i want to speak to the housing values. we were able to get some data on prices and on the local spending of the different types of retailer we didn't get data on how much the formula retail effect the housing and rents in

neighborhoods so like in many other ways it's like for the planning commission to gage what the resident want if we did that he could line up the numbers and say you know what the housing directing didn't matter but the housing value is the most important thing we can't make 89 recommendations but the question you spoke about the sameness and the multiple things in the same neighborhood in that intends to lower the quality of the neighborhood that's precisely what the residents will inform you about some residents will say the second pharmacy across the street means the first pharmacy didn't charge a lot and now we're turning into a neighborhood of pharmacies but completely how the residents is it's good or bad that's an

illusion of the types of things. we were advised that lane use cancels was not with the land or the yourself that's where we might get stuck >> commissioner sugaya. >> yes. thank you this is more ever a of a comment you can listen and respond if you want. we've been advised that since we're a planning commission and we deal in land use that there are some issues around trying to make decisions for example, on anticompetitive basis and your example of walgreens coming in a neighborhood there might not be a pharmacy or similar store is different perhaps than a different neighborhood there where there are small businesses that sell the same products but we're being advised to think of

that in terms of an economic anticompetitive stance is not within our purview. directly. that the decisions some should be made on land use issues and the land itself is worthy or not worthy. i think this is the discussion we need to have later on today there's a fine line i'm not sure where the bored line is in what i'm trying to say here so - >> let me not try and offer you any legal advice on this question but echo something that supervisor mar found many in our report there are cases when you make a strong case when a formula retail in which the facts would support a conclusion this is beneficial to the economy.

absent any competitive effect there recent cases and i think their highlighted in our report as well you couldn't support that so i think that's all i'll say about that >> commissioner johnson. >> at any one more question for me. so i was going to say this until we started to ask there about this i apologize if i'm putting you on the spot by in the planning department analysis they said we might be fighting the last battle of on old war on brick and mortar but we have store froptd and they're going to be replacing services so for the ordinance for you i might ask, you know, one of the things about perm services they tend to be prescription types like the

gym you don't pay every time you go there you sign up for a perm prescription can you comment on whatnot on having controls around personal services and in terms of of resolving businesses like that what that might do to consumer prices so if you have let's say there's so many different types of services like a gym if 24 businesses downtown >> your schedule allows you to 0 go to one-on-one day and another on another day there's a reason why interests not one in both places are you going to go to the gym or spend money on

both that's a one percent type of problem but there's other services that are not that level across the economics spectrum. >> one of the things your question plies there are greater access for personal services for people to have a bank account or credit i think that's a regulatory question not a planning commission type of question i don't necessarily think you're also only see one type of solution but that's a legitimate concern. >> thank you, mr. egging on. >> commissioners that place us on item 7 embarcadero enhancement project discussion.

>> good afternoon commissioner president wu and commissioners neil ac manager for the city design group for the planning department. the presentation this afternoon is on one of the places in san francisco that's your waterfront and the embarcadero from the ball park to fisherman's wharf we're here to present the embarcadero project it's led by the mta harvey watson's group as the painting but also with the port and diane is also in the audience and john thomas from dpw. today you can that waterfronts have been receiving an immense amount of tense and that trends is going to increase in san francisco we're going to have many, many challenges in front

of us as we battle that in the next 20 to thirty years those questions we don't understand but the challenges we do and one of those is the safest comfort and attractive for the pedestrians and bicyclists as an increasing number of yourselves go into down to the waterfront to enjoy the views there are conditions that need to be addressed and the enhancement project is going to address those directly so with that, i'd like to introduce pacific who b will go over the timeline for the enhancement project if you have any questions, i'll be happy to answer them >> thank you neil and thank you all for allowing us the opportunity to speak with you

today patrick i work to the sfmta within the liveable subdivision we prize pedestrian safety and traffic projects i'm here to talk about a new project for the embarcadero. the embarcadero enhancement a program to improve the safety and comfortable from the bridge on the south up to the polling and jefferson street on the north ends this phase designs a project for a protected bike way the project includes the stakeholder process to generate and review and comment alternative concepts and balance trades office with the identifiable of a consensus project that is financially and

file number viable and meet the goals and traveling along the embarcadero. the project is fund through primer through a grant from the m t c the budget is $500,000 and we at the sfmta are joined by our project partners at the san francisco planning department and the port of san francisco and the public works. but let's back up one minute and talk about the embarcadero itself this street has become one of the most iconic places it attracts people to world-class attraction for the physical south you know this place imitating so think about what you love the most about the embarcadero i guess it's related to american people expense you had there. we see that everyday and forget

it's a backdrop for lives moments just in decades it's taken an important place but along with being one of the most iconic places it carries delivery trucks and pedestrian cabs and roller blardz with the view of the bay navigate misinforming so many people want to use this street in the world i was surprised so find out right outside peer 49 the pedestrian volumes are comparable to broadway and manhattan it's that popular, of course, in in addition to moving those goods it must play a fundamental really for the residents that live there including utilities and waste

collection and other things businesses needs goods delivered at all hours so there's a constant flow of the materials as well. the entire lengths of the embarcadero has different needs from access and delivery the ranges of access is huge and change on a block to block basis this is from blue ships and the giant and peer 39 and the restaurants and residents all of varying needs have different demands the need for the embarcadero and the needs for the space is so great it results in conflict that is a daily occurrence on the roadside but on the promenade and the promenade of the waterfront does the sidewalk is unique it is designated as a multi use path so the bicyclists and he

pedestrians are allowed to use the path while this may have worked well, the port has made it clear had are safety and comfortable issues would the road and the promenade. it's to popular that the experience what about degraded and out right dangerous large sections of the route have been identified from our walk first initiative where that initiative illustrated on on 6 percent of the streets it accounts for 60 percent of pedestrian injuries and also appears on the high circling as well projected growth are expected to bring nor visits to the street illustrating the need to address

these issues i've identified. what are the goals of the project. one is to make the embarcadero contestant autonomy people on foot but trivia and take transit we want to improve the access for the workers and visitors we want to improve the efficient byecy by better managing the curve activities and support the accommodated employment growth. maintain and enhance the high quality of urban design from embarcadero and integrate any transportation improvements will as a result of this improvement as identified as the waterfront improvement assessment. some of you mooipt might be wording how a bike way is

different than today it's a designated walkway in the case of embarcadero each mode of traffic like muni has a dedicated impact and as movements with bike ways are separated at intersections to reduce conflict and a a number of bike opposite one way or two-way or sidewalk level the type of separation from medium curves to parking vehicles everything is on the table in the process including the physical location of where the bike way might be located. how will the project benefit san francisco and the embarcadero a number of ways it will make the

reside safer by reducing the collision by bicyclists and pedestrians it will provide for more predictable movement so if you're going along embarcadero it bicyclists are less likely to hop in our lane. studies have shown that the bike ways have made improvements for the rules of the roads it should make be viable transportation choices for a large sector of the population and most studies in san francisco and across north america show if the bike ways have an increased activity and the business receipts and finally the comfort comfortable should attract more folks on foot. there's a narrowly scoped project we're going to enhance

the embarcadero through the design of a bike way it's not a redesign but we're limiting our scope of work to the embarcadero. we're just looking within the right-of-way that currently exists and looking to protect the facilities not only a minor improvement to the lanes out there today, the wire b will remain fixed the muni tracks will stay in place and, of course, balance mobility and educates needs to make sure that the embarcadero works efficiently for everyone not only for the recreation trail but for the businesses that line that location too >> this provides a board scope of a scheduled project that is anticipated to be close to a 2 year project to the selection of a preferred option.

we about to launch our stakeholder we'll start conversation with them and this is to introduce the cyclists to the project and to travel along the embarcadero and start to work towards designing some of the initial treatment and move into a design alternative phase as well our technical team will that get involved with working with the stakeholders towards devising technical feature and finally working toward achieving a final design. i want to emphasize the final in product of this phase is a conceptual design a high-level thirty percent design this is subject to the design phases not part of the scope. and this project will also be

subject to environmental review as well. so planning for a range of ways for people to share their thoughts and ideas from public open houses to workshops to one-on-one direct conversations with the project team we hope to reach anyone so everyone can get involved as much as we want and how often. our first public open house is july 14th on peer 1 and follow-up with workshops as well as additional open houses with the one-on-one conversations and presentations that i referenced earlier. finally, i wanted to give attention to the team family that's been working together and look forward to working harder

to deliver a successful project >> thank you. thank you. >> do the representatives from the port or dpw want to make comment? >> good afternoon, commissioners my name is a diane i'm with the ports planning and development team and it's a high pleasure to be here today to launch this project we're very excited about it's opportunities for taking a fresh look at the embarcadero to see were there might be some facelifts for the overall dine quality but there's operational and business concerns about the conditions that have developed that we've seen particularly within the last few years i think the america's cup brought to a head the property and the volumes of people and frankly

the need for a more predictability about how one ghettos around the embarcadero we're excited about participating in the project. as patrick mentioned it is the historical routings roots it's an access to the peers for trains and horse drowning drawn buggies we don't have two of those modes but the access needs for the businesses that really get they're only way by the embarcadero to the cruise terminal that's going to be opened in september a lot of those staging and provisioning ship operations curd in the embarcade embarcadero roadway and to take

it off the roadway into the pier so the crews operations are going to be a key consideration and we're doing special outreach and attention to our port businesses and in fisherman's wharf to make sure they participate and understand all the different factors and tradeoffs we have also heard about a lot of traveler behavior issues and compliance with traffic rules some may tend to look at the bicyclists compliance with the rules but frankly pedestrian behaviors and vehicle behaviors too that will probably fall into the fold. we look forward to the opportunity to gave me with the public and hear the best thoughts about how to carry out this project. thank you very much >> thank you. okay. let's open for.

any public comment on that item? >> good afternoon. welcome commissioner johnson were i'm sue hester i've been working with the residents in lamp from the embarcadero. for the past 15 years. i'm surprised at how much the same issues come up no matter where dealing with people in south beach against the bay bridge and dealing with people in chinatown and the golden gateway there's shocking attention being paid to the people in the city in relationship tosto the embarcadero when we had a workshop about six or seven years with the protecting people

in seniors in dht that were near the embarcadero up washington street i was truly shocked that people got on a bus to go to fisherman's wharf they didn't think of the embarcadero down the street from them two blocks or 3 blocks away as part of their world it's the same in south beach i'm dealing with people because of the warriors arena attempt and i have a lot of dealings with the people in that general area all the way over to second street a lot of people walk their dogs in embarcadero and as you listen to them and they're going to walk their dogs on embarcadero or go there for the kids they're going for the kids or their senior

citizens and go back and walk on the embarcadero because it's there and they need the experience. the planning department and mta are really good at outreach to the bicycling community and to the visitor it's spotty about the connections to the embarcadero there's no real connection from the housing on transit none. chinatown is the cut off. and if all we do is go to the same usual suspended that will be a nice upscale for embarcadero visitors but we're building a lot of upscale housing it's all upscale housing proposed along embarcadero there are traditionally people that

live there some are senior citizens on a fixed income living in the golden gate way and some or are the careers of south beach and chinatown i challenge those with the people. thank you. is there any additional public comment seeing none, public comment is closed. i.e., wanted to add some thoughts to what ms. hester said the waterfront is an expensive place the cost of goods and the restaurant are high and the costs of doing anything on the waterfront is high i think that possibly public realm improvements is a way to look at quality or accessibility who feels cajole on the waterfront and the restaurants are there nonsense to northeast waterfront

planning and resident in chinatown didn't think that the 10 minute walk to the waterfront was where they belonged or didn't enter into their understanding there's a visible barrier or wall that keeps people from going places i encourage mta to look at that in their public outreach i think that includes the language accessibility in public outreach not only having a translate our but to really look at transit access number one if you can't take a bus to the waterfront >> commissioner moore. >> talking about the larger questions which the enhancement study might bring it is a terrific idea to move forward it has an industry that has two

sides while the majority of people congratulate tattoo waterfront side we need to look at how to dmirn congestion by making the west side equally trophy and including the blocks you look at the longer view towards the waterfront and the bay we need to find an equal way not only to treat both sides of the street that will happen but to find that landscaping and paving and kind of more sensible approach to make people want to walk open the side that is the issue of connectivity and ultimately in order for the majority of resident to come the

waffling we have to cross somewhere like broadway or washington or jack it is extremely painful and frustrating you might stand there before the light chunks in our direction from the train and it's unacceptable when you want to walk to the farmer's market or when you want to meet someone for coffee ultimately at this moment the mode of cars and the speed of light signals is ail biased towards the car not anything to do with the boulevard so i strongly encourage we look at embarcadero