are happened handicapped and sometimes they have not enough money because their ssi is very low and we would beg for you to approve a free muni because we go we go to the hospital a lot of times and for us some of them are really handicapped and financially not supported and they can not supervisor themselves support themselves so many i would appreciate if you could approve that and god bless all of you. i'm glad we can express what we feel about it. thank you. >> next speaker. >> is j u.s. tino david here? adam pavlaka and anthony ballister. >> i'm a resident of the palms a condo building at brannon and

4th street one of the reasons i purchased the building was because of its accessibility i have a number of family members with disabilities so i wanted an accessible unit so on 4th street the sfmta intends on removing the loading zone directly in front of the building i know our building management is working with members of the sfmta but i wanted to bring it to you guys because you are the ultimate decision-making body. it's in front of the building allowing for passenger pickup and drop off for residents and wheelchairs being able to wait in the lobby is key they have the safety and security of the building lobby while still maintaining the ability to use public transit or ride sharing services like uber and when they arrive at the building it's a very short walk to the front door. they intend to

move the loading zone to around the block zero protection from the elements and poorly enforced and it's also a location where car break-ins have happened over night. . taxis are not likely to wait for someone with limited mobility to walk around the block. it discourages use of transit additionally while i'm not a legal expert the regulations seem to indicate that such a change could be a potential violation and we've been told that this was a decision already made and i reviewed the resolution records from 2005 to 2013 and i could not see any mention or record of the bod making the public notice to remove the loading zone thank you for your time. >> thank you sir.

>> good afternoon. i am the general manager of the palms and we did receive notice that our white zone would be moved from the front of the building to around the block i received several e-mails, letters and notices from our handicapped and disabled residents that this would be dramatically drastic to their livelihood and how they make their way from their front door to this unit and having this notice -- we've moved our white zone temporarily and we discovered that it will not work. the communication between sfmta to building management and members of the hoa has not been cohesive and it's underable we know that with construction

things may change from 1 day to the next however parking enforcement has been an issue. we've been told to call 311 if cars are parked there over night we have taxis ambulances fire trucks basically blocking 4th street not allowing if i of our residents to get into taxis or our handicapped residents who are unable to use side entrances and require elevator accessibility are not able to wait for pickups on the side of the building basically our residents are having a very tough time with the communication as well as management and we're looking to maintain our white scone white zone at the front of the building and allow our residents to keep the accessibility that they currently have. >> thank you. next speaker please.

>> good afternoon. >> good afternoon chairman nolan and director reiskin. i'm not here representing sfmta about 2 months ago director ramos suggested that i read the bart report and recommendations. it recommended that a strategy mechanism be set by both parties as well as checkpoints to keep the board updated on on full details of the collective bargaining process and there was and probably always will be a culture of management as the enemy and management doesn't look out for neighbors best interest this culture may exist here at the sfmta i know

we can change some of these perceptions one item that will be discussed in the negotiation process is wage progression for new hires as i mentioned before -- i feel one way to improve labor and management relations is wage progression for new hires after 19 months after training. remember today's new hires are the new leaders of tomorrow we must begin trust building. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon sir. >> good afternoon. i'm a long time taxi driver and also board member of san san francisco taxi worker's a alliance i need

to know why you guys are not helping us after selling 250 $250,000 medallions why are you not helping us? uber etc. are competing with us non stop 24 hours a day and now operating at at the airport i don't think we could make loan payments on medallions you need to give us a free color scheme a lowering of our expenses and reduce the insurance for all other expenses. thank you. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon mr. lee. >> good evening. we pickup.

we don't want to bother the public service we're a very good driver and trying to make it. i went to the airport commission meeting this morning and a lot of drivers are going to get crazy very soon if you don't want to see the group please take care of free color scheme and this kind of procedure so driver's can lower the expenses of our operating the taxi cab business and also i hope that that you can see about five clock at the train station how mess the traffic because you make a lot of bicycle lane so you should tax the bicyclists in this town and make special medallion for the bicyclists they pay a hundred

bucks because they are occupying a whole lane in the city now why don't they pay the tax? this is not right we all pay the tax but they use the whole lane that you spend a lot of money on the lane this is not my business anyway they should pay a little bit for their fare nothing is free in this country if obama get the money from russian let the russian troops come into america what would you do? the president and his cabinet sell america to the russians what would you do? corruption is happening in this country. we can see that because we're asian we can see everything happening everything. please we're cab driver only little voice only we love america thank you. >> next speaker please.

>> good afternoon mr. gruber. >> thank you with san francisco taxi worker's alliance and there was a protest at the airport last night first of all san san san francisco airport has allowed in and rewarded them with permits there's still gaping holes in their insurance which the airport is not fulfilling and it's a condition of the permits that the airport issued and they are letting them in anyway and to top it off these companies can use their aps so this is a huge problem. >> secondly i'd like to call your attention to something

that willy brown wrote in the chronicle over the weekend and it's kind of interesting and significant originally mayor brown was working for one of these ride service companies he was their lawyer or consultant for a company now called wings and now he's saying just take a look at downtown san francisco where an ever expanding fleet of ride sharing drivers no longer content to wait for a call for their perspective services we see it all the time you need to to take control of your streets. this is in your ballpark. lastly let me just say about the taxi insurance issue -- a company like yellow cab, self insured and doesn't technically comply with the

regulations and a collection of companies and multiple companies is not allowed to write insurance. thank you. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. my name is mr. singh and i'm a board member of san francisco taxi worker's alliance and i have some documents. we're filing an application they are filing a petition because they can not afford to make a payment because we lose 40 percent in the city now you guys give permission to the airport and we are like 4 or 5 hours at the airport you know how are we going to make a payment making

a mortgage of 3 $3,000 kids going to school. you guys not taking any action. thank you. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon sherman nolan i've been here a long time the taxi business has exhausted me and i'm burned out. i think it's important to realize that the industry is if a bad state at this point and you are partly to blame for it and i think you need to look at yourselves to what you can do to improve the situation. first we have corruption and the rumors about what he did and didn't do and we deserve to get some answers or we're just going to mistrust the staff at the mta and two

there's a lot of missing transparency we still haven't gotten information on what the investigators are doing we were promised reports where are they? why don't you be be transparents to the people who are paying you money? three, we have an ap, flywheel it's important to have an app first it's not an outline of the policies and how the driver should be using the app and how if they get abused or taken off the app and also acknowledgment is poor very poor i was explaining to you but i don't have time right now the other apps out there have much better technology and much better and useful regarding the financial benefit you have been getting millions of dollars out

of the industry what do you do? shove it against the wall and say you all as all suck well what are you going to do? you are going to get an industry that as you that sucks unless you want to help improve it i suggest you create a taxi cab advisory council again and, would with staff to better improve service in the industry thank you. >> next speaker please. >> keep the microphone down, please. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. great to see you all. my name is jessica layman with senior disability action and i'm here to talk about free muni to low

and moderate seniors and people with disabilities. we talked about this in in the spring so now it sounds like the election is over examine over and we're continuing to hear from seniors and people with disabilities who are struggling to get around town so the time is now to go ahead and put something in place and we know it's not a huge sum of money for the mta but it is a lot of money for people who don't have anything to pay for rent and medicines and you know for a lot of people transit has turned into a luxury right? obviously you have to pay your rent if you can there's other things there's no option about but choosing to go to go to the grocery store once or choosing to go with the little you have in your kitchen you know those feel more optional but we don't think they should be so we're

asking you to go ahead and implement free muni foreseen i for, seniors and people with disabilities showing you not only value people with disabilities but shows that you really value with seniors and people with disabilities being able to be full participants in our community. thank you. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon sir. >> good afternoon. my name is paira i'm also with senior and disability action and last time i was here i think was in april and there was a promise made by the board and i appreciate it, that by january the board would start looking at free muni foreseen i for, seniors and

people with disabilities. it's january isn't it? it feels like it especially when rent and utilities are going up and in fact a lot of people and seniors are being tossed out of their places because they can't afford it and at the same time we've heard rumors even before the election that muni has been doing quite well if well financially so i think it's time now because think of it -- a nice holiday spirit. [laughter] wow it's the time and to address someone who says nothing is free -- well, most of us already paid for it. just like social security. we paid for it now they are saying they are going to cut it. well, we have paid for it. we've been here for years we helped put together muni and put together mta and paid our dues it's time that we continue living in the city not

to choose between riding muni or having a hot dog for lunch maybe but it's time that we can have food, shelter and transportation to where we need to go. thank thank you and i appreciate you hearing about this and this is just an appetizer. [laughter]. >> okay. next speaker please? >> bob anderson. >> mr. anderson? >> hi my name is bob anderson thank you for allowing me to speak i live at fell and van ness and here to talk about the positioning of the -- >> that item is coming up shortly. >> i'll come back. okay thank you thank you. >> good afternoon: i'm a cab

driver for the past 20 years also a san francisco taxi alliance member. so i don't know where you guys -- you are just sitting there i see a lot of handicapped people sitting there we should have compassion so why are you letting the -- we are supposed to comply with that so why are you guys sitting quiet you are letting these gas guzzlers flooding the streets of san francisco and i use my old taxi it's 350 ,000 miles what i got was $20 insurance insurance on that car because i just wanted to test it. i'm picking up people people are riding my car so are they safer in my car? how about if i kill somebody? will i be responsible? so you

should look at that. we've been driving for for 25 years live in an expensive part of this country. mortgages are high college kids are so so you could be one of us. we protested at the airport today and it was just a sample and we'll fight tooth and nail we won't let this go on thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next speaker please. >>. >> good afternoon sir. >> i'm driving the cab for the last for the last 21 years with regards to all of you sitting here i respect our seniors and our disabled people. i mean the city is paying a lot of money to mta and muni the highest paid people in the people in the united states. why not? you

decide who allow them to give them little more money to give seniors the chance to have a discounted fare or free fare. please do it. don't disturb the cab industry. >> i mean the cab industry you guys have created you guys have made the rules you guys have done everything of the why . why? you are destroying it. you are sitting on the tree and you you are cutting the same branch. why are you guys do it. shut it down give those money back to those people. have anybody saw how much money the muni drivers are making? some of them are not even high school graduates and they are making a hundred thousand. why don't you look at that? what specialty do they have? they are making more than a pilot or scientist. what has the cab driver done wrong to the to

the industry and the people? please. i know you guys can do it. one thing you can stop it. one thing you can stop it and that is uber taxi why they are not stopping it. why mta is not doing it? they can put the law on us anytime hey don't don't do that. why can't they do this what's holding them? there must be something. i hope the board will look into that please look into that and why you guys are not doing it thank you very much. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon. >> on on november 4th the public utility commission held a 9-hour meeting and i sent you a clip earlier today the 10-minute presentation and and

i thought kate comported herself extremely well. so willy's world column worked his way through law school as a taxi driver for yellow cab but his article says this is not the sharing economy it's people selling rides i'm going to call it the share cropping economy and the landlords are the ceo's meaning uber and silicon valley billion air and the insurance fraud by the drivers. they pay a hundred bucks or so for a private policy and drive commercially and forego the money to protect the public and they can offer a ride to to

the airport for for $20 less than us. we'll go out of business if you allow it to continue. and lawsuits all over the country. can the . connecticut alleges racket eering and unfair competition i think here in san francisco if you look where normally there would enforcement your body plus police commission airport commission and commissioners i think they are all appointed by the mayor i may be incorrect. so particularly the willy brown mentioned he sees people taking flags in the streets maybe your investigators can look into this. >> good afternoon.

>> i'd also like to address the increased insurance requirements. the mta now you are requiring the the higher rating insurance really are you kidding? are you trying to get us out of business? these ride stealing services driving around? we certainly know during phase one they are not insured and i don't think they will ever be. so no matter what anybody says so no surprise they can offer these rides at half of ours and surge pricing ripping people off and allowing these services to operate fully we're the only city in city in the world without any restrictions. the medallion program has been suspended and find out people

sold their medallions and they were told it slipped through the cracks how can that about? every day i see drivers that are qualified and they have been passed over and we never knew what the qualifications were actually it was never clear. last night's action at sfo some people may ask what were the cab drivers trying to accomplish and i think it's it's solidarity and this is a lonely time for all of us so i applaud my brothers and sisters from the union and the taxi worker's alliance and it's a very sad time for worker's all over the world and all over the country even for uber workers and 1 week the tnc is going to be allowed to pickup at sfo and as of now they don't have any firm plan in place or

regulations. i think next week they will be allowed to operate i don't know why they are not doing enforcement now. anyway thank you brothers and sisters. >> thank you. okay that will conclude public hearing public comment. a couple of things i'd like to raise. the 4th street location the loading zone i'd be interested in hearing a little bit more about that sounds like they made a compelling case of course we haven't heard the other part of it but i'd like to take a look at it and to our friends in the disabled community and senior community. >> i believe it's the second meeting in january there will be bringing to the agency fiscal review that was part of our budget approval looking at a number of things that you would make contingent on that review one of which and the top

priority of which by the board's direction was free muni for low and moderate seniors and people are disabilities and also per your direction we started taking steps after the budget approval so we'd be ready to put it into place sooner than june 1st which was what was originally proposed in the budget again based on the board's direction with approval of the budget. >> so i'm very happy to hear that that somebody was talking about january 1st so i'm looking forward to continuing dialogue about how we can do this to make it happen in the coming year and finally it strikes me the various taxi issues being