director brinkman present.

>> director borden. >> here. >> director lee. >> directors please be advised that electronic devices are prohibited at the meeting. anyone responsible for one going off may be asked to leave the room and cell phones do cause microphone interference so the board requests that they be turned off. do i have any comments from the board or the public from the minutes of the last meeting? do i have a motion to approve? thank you. all in favor. minutes are approved. >> communications directors

please be adviced that there that there will be no closed session today so the closed session will be cancelled. >> do you have anything from board members new or un finished business? all right. >> item 7 directors report. >> thank you members of staff and the public. a few things that i want to update you on today. starting with at the beginning of the month we launched the agency's official blog moving sf something we had been working on for quite a while a daily electronic publication that shares with our stakeholders and friends and allows us to put out our

own story to increase transparency and also boost employee moral and it will provide overviews and updates of projects and also new initiatives and also allow us to give people a little bit of a deeper look about the nuts and bolts of the agency and how the agency works and a strategic plan to give more people insight of the transportation system so that that they can learn more about it. it is online on our website at sfmta.com slash blog and you can subscribe for daily or weekly updates and they they can be found on the blog page and welcome suggestions in terms of content anything you would like to see pushed out on

the blog so to get that underway. the next thing i wanted to mention in a few weeks from now from 3 to 6:00 p.m. at the golden gate club we'll be hold be holding our annual safe driver event. we want to to honor and recognize 180 safe drivers people with 15 or more years of safe driving record and recognizing and supporting the the good work that these employees are doing and to inspire all the rest to operate safely and it it can be done despite the challenges on our streets here. >> next, last week our buses

were -- we were on the buses we rolled out the first adds for pedestrian safety program we're the project lead along with the police department public health department and walk san francisco this ad campaign all part of vision zero. it came out of a lot of analysis that looked at data and used focus groups to really identify what needs to be targeted and to whom and it's -- it will be targeting the driver violations of pedestrian rights of way responsible for nearly two-thirds of all pedestrian collisions so we're trying to use not just put out random ads out there but trying to be thoughtful and strategic about

what behaviors we're targets and the it stops here graphic that graphically depicts the behavior we're looking for as for such as drivers crossing before the crosswalk and they had seen a number of different options. in could in conjunction with that the enforcement campaign and coordination with the education campaign providing 24 high visibility enforcement days where officers will be on the streets and citing drivers for violating pedestrian's right of way and they have stepped up traffic enforcement and this education campaign we're particularly excited about. also we're working with community groups and the the california conservation corp we

have people out there talking to pedestrians and businesses in our 4 key corridors some some of the highest collision corridors as well as highlighting needs of the drivers to give people in the crosswalk the right of way and we'll have bumper stickers for cars who are willing to take the pledge taxi companies have been taking the pledge and soon be bringing the pledge to people travelling on bikes and we'll get some bike bumper stickers and as you know when we talk about pedestrian safety we talk about the 3 e's education enforcement and as we continue the engineering design changes that round out our path towards vision zero so very excited to see that

roll out and finally also our very exciting -- recently you all recommended the the board of supervisors approve the contract to replace and expand our light rail vehicle fleet happy to update you i guess it was last tuesday the board of supervisors unanimously i'd say enthusiastically accept your recommendation and approve the contract we hope to to to be entering a notice to proceed to the contract or by the end of this month it's maybe one of the single biggest thing we'll do as an agency to improve transit service in san francisco and the first car would come in towards the end of 2016 and the first couple of

dozen by 2018 and expand beyond it from that point forward and very exciting some good news there and that completes my report. >> thank you. i just continue to be amazed 180 drivers that have 15 plus years driving without an avoidable accident it's really an accomplishment and thank you for noting we'll roll out to the bicyclists i think that will be good. i remember in southern california when i was younger pledging a slower driving speed. do we have anything else. >> the blog is amazing i really appreciate it whoever is behind it and look forward to it. >> i think more people should

make sure to tweet it out. >> a credit to our communications directors the chief of the blog and a lot of folks on the agency providing content and hopefully it will be useful. any public comment? >> no member has presented an interest. >> so this is the council report mr. murphy is not here so we'll move onto general public comment this is an opportunity for members of the of the public to address the board not on today's agenda. we'll start with richard rothman followed by nate tweery. >> good afternoon my name is richard rothman i live on on the 800-block of 38th avenue i

want to thank you for the 5 l it's great i can make it down to city hall in half an hour that's great but what's not good news is balboa street. 38th and balboa they forgot about 28th and balboa they made parallel parking there but there's no bulb out, no stop sign, i've seen accidents. i won't drive across the street the last time i walked across the street, i almost got hit by a car so i won't even walk across the street anymore. dpw ran out of money and doesn't want to put them in and one of the members from the engineering staff recommended that there be stop signs there but apparently m u.n. i thinks that it's more important to

have an m u.n. i buses not stop so what's more important? moving forward or vision zero? well, my mind is vision zero and there needs to be a stop sign there and the engineering won't put it in because the the m u.n. i people don't want the buses to stop for another five or 10 seconds there and i really think something needs to be done and talking about mta i was on a safety advisory committee and chaired for 1 year and one reason i left i couldn't deal with the m u.n. i staff it's very hard to communicate with most of them and they make up there plans before they come to the public so you take it here or we'll do it our way anyway and don't listen to the public so this stop sign needs to be put in right away. thank you.

>> thank you mr. rothman. >> hello again. i'm with yellow cab. you hear an awful lot of complaints from the cab industry about the so-called rent a ride companies. they are unfair, they they are possibly questionable legality and it helps to complain and say to you help us. you need to know how to help us. but we're trying to help ourselves at yellow cab and i'm sure other cab companies as well engaged in an effort to get the drivers to be more customer conscious and more customer responsible i i won't go into details but we want to be paid on a customer base and regain the customers we we lost and make new ones. that's neither

here nor there but i'm here to ask you to help us with some muscular regulatory support and a couple of things one is a carrot and one is a stick if you could see your way to considering doing something about what i would call abusive drivers. i'll give you an example we had a driver recently accepted a service call saw somebody with luggage threw the customer out and in mind in my mind this kind of action needs to be dealt with -- this person should not drive a cab and i'd like to see regulations addressing abusive behaviors by drivers who's consequence would be you lose your permit to drive a cab and i figured if

this message got out it would be helpful to us and the public and that's one thing. as as far as a carrot is concerned it would be helpful to us if you had -- >> i'm sorry that's time. thank you. >> tone lee. >> good afternoon directors. i'd like to comment on a recent study from uc berkeley that was widely reported which i believe gave an unfair negative view of taxi industry response times the study used a poor poor methodology. for one thing, why didn't they compare aps to aps a slower dispatch service

as well as our very fast ap services and in fact our aps have shorter response times as uber and lyft and so the study had they compared aps and aps i believe the study would have found a very different story. in fact when it comes to response times on the aps, our small local taxi cab companies are running in neck and neck with billion dollar global corporations and another comment you may have seen press reports showing photographs of a suspect wanted for a murder and that picture that appeared in the papers was taken by a taxi cab security camera one of the forward facing cameras and likewise sfpd recently asked

for a video for dozens of taxi cabs that were in the area of fifth and mission a fatal hit-and-run incident and both of these instances are how taxi cabs enhance the safety of our city and also i love the new blog it's really good. thank you. >> thank you mr. rathman. >> good afternoon i spend a few hours to write down a point of view for my taxi industry so i make a copy so everybody have one of this kind of report. you said report about our business, the middle high school -- and the team if they have full-time you know that

that's what's happening to the cab driver now. each cab driver here to compete with 6 or 7 in the cab industry and they are making below them the minimum wage and go home for a long time already even in this busy system and cab driver trying to find justice from you or from the city and county of san francisco because it's a main part of that money here but very soon they are going to engage with the state they like to to go through all the democracy ways to find justice and fairness for the industry but maybe they are going to get crazy sooner or later because the taxi driver already struggling i saw the documentary about the chinese driver before their shift they have to go through the -- they have to have a conversation

with their supervisor look at their face it's okay or not okay and second go go to the machine and they had to answer all the computer questions on the machine so before they go go to the shift so they are catching up the western subway system within 15 years and they only use 15-year because they are using a good system for safety of the public. thank you. >> thank you mr. lee. >> good afternoon directors. i'm with desoto cab i just want to make a few points here today on public comment and the rest i'll reserve for the taxi agenda item and i think it's extremely important right now to enforce the red lanes and

this has privileged taxi cabs to get around the city faster but they are not really enforced and we're seeing others using these lanes without problems and i hope you would make it clear that there are consequences for doing that that and we need to enforce that and i speak for everyone that would go a long way and i want to make it clear there's nothing wrong with a company like uber or other technology companies that are using an interface but i want to remind the public where i where things are inherit ly unfair with an un licensed public passenger vehicle driver we can not compete in an environment where there's 7 to 10 thousand people acting on demand in

their personal cars doing the same service as taxi cabs no matter what we do our wait time 3 and a half minutes to get a cab when you book a cab with us. our driver income -- there's there's a demand for service out there but people feel they don't need to get a public passenger vehicle driver's license anymore go to a class understand the geography get a background check when they can take their personal cars and do the same service downloading aps and no control on the numbers and when we're playing by the rules and our competition isn't we may not survive that. >> thank you. >> just a few steps away from

union square is a quiet corner stone of san francisco's our community to the meridian gallery has a 20-year history of supporting visual arts. experimental music concert, and also readings. >> give us this day our daily bread at least three times a day. and lead us not into temptation to often on weekdays. [laughter] >> meridians' stands apart from the commercial galleries around union square, and it is because of their core mission, to increase social, philosophical, and spiritual change my isolated individuals and communities. >> it gives a statement, the idea that a significant art of any kind, in any discipline, creates change. >> it is philosophy that attracted david linger to mount a show at meridian. >> you want to feel like your

work this summer that it can do some good. i felt like at meridian, it could do some good. we did not even talk about price until the day before the show. of course, meridian needs to support itself and support the community. but that was not the first consideration, so that made me very happy. >> his work is printed porcelain. he transfers images onto and spoils the surface a fragile shes of clay. each one, only one-tenth of an inch thick. >> it took about two years to get it down. i would say i lose 30% of the pieces that i made. something happens to them. they cracked, the break during the process. it is very complex. they fall apart. but it is worth it to me. there are photographs i took 1 hours 99 the former soviet union. these are blown up to a gigantic images. they lose resolution. i do not mind that, because my images are about the images, but

they're also about the idea, which is why there is text all over the entire surface. >> marie in moved into the mansion on powell street just five years ago. its galleries are housed in one of the very rare single family residences around union square. for the 100th anniversary of the mansion, meridian hosted a series of special events, including a world premiere reading by lawrence ferlinghetti. >> the birth of an american corporate fascism, the next to last free states radio, the next-to-last independent newspaper raising hell, the next-to-last independent bookstore with a mind of its own, the next to last leftie looking for obama nirvana. [laughter] the first day of the wall street

occupation set forth upon this continent a new revolutionary nation. [applause] >> in addition to its own programming as -- of artist talks, meridian has been a downtown host for san francisco states well-known port trees center. recent luminaries have included david meltzer, steve dixon, and jack hirsch man. >> you can black as out of the press, blog and arrest us, tear gas, mace, and shoot us, as we know very well, you will, but this time we're not turning back. we know you are finished. desperate, near the end. hysterical in your flabbergastlyness. amen. >> after the readings, the

crowd headed to a reception upstairs by wandering through the other gallery rooms in the historic home. the third floor is not usually reserved for just parties, however. it is the stage for live performances. ♪ under the guidance of musical curators, these three, meridian has maintained a strong commitment to new music, compositions that are innovative, experimental, and sometimes challenging. sound art is an artistic and event that usually receives short shrift from most galleries because san francisco is musicians have responded by showing strong support for the programming.

♪ looking into meridian's future, she says she wants to keep doing the same thing that she has been doing since 1989. to enlighten and disturbed. >> i really believe that all the arts have a serious function and that it helps us find out who we are in a much wider sense than we were before we experienced that work of art. ♪

>> >> september 16, 2014, >> >> city of san francisco >> city council meeting. board of supervisors >> >> please stand by... >>