service for others and happy doing what you're spending so much time. >> my father was a journalist lift and my mom a teacher when we finally decided to give up their lives because of me and now i actually get to serve the city and county of san francisco it makes me feel really, really good not this didn't happen overnight i've worked my entire life to get to this point and much more to learn and i have a lot of changes ahead. >> really think about what moves you what you're pat's about and trust that you are sufficient and enough where you are to begin and then is her that you are being tenacious about getting to the next place

in the evolution but by all means start with you are and know that's enough >> thank you all for being here this morning. i want to touch upon the encouraging news we heard last night, a federal judge just issued a stop against discrimination actions of the trump administration to deport daca recipients in the country. (applause) and we all know it's not the first time the judicial system had to step in to protect our

residents from the cruel and misguided policies of this administration which targets our immigration communities. while we were happy to hear this welcoming news, we know that in this city we must work together to protect our immigrant families. we must stand united in the face of intolerance and today with the opening of this new incredible family resource center we're showing that san francisco supports all residents. i want to thank sam reese here today for hosting us and acknowledge the latino parity coalition for providing families in need. and i'm delighted to be here to acknowledge the role they play in diverse families and the newest member is the el centro

bayview, which will open -- (applause) which will open its doors this friday. and it is just such a beautiful facility. i'm so excited with how welcoming it will be to the community. since 2009 the centers have operated across the city providing cultural services to families and youth. and with the opening of el centro bayview, san francisco can proudly say 26 centers are serving residents and neighborhoods throughout san francisco. they will be specifically charged with providing services to immigrant communities who for one reason or another are unaware or hesitate to reach out for support or services. it is so important that these families step out of the shadows and receive the resources they

need. we understand why they are weary to do so, they feel attacked, we hear the threats from our federal government every single day sadly. and just this monday president trump ended the temporary protective status for our el salvador residents who came because of a devastating earthquake in their country. and similar to haiti and nicaragua and pushing families out for trying to make a better life for themselves or trying to tear them down or build walls will not make our country safer or stronger. the people who are a part of this country, the immigrants and the folks who are part of the communities is what makes our city and our country stronger. (applause)

and we are here to remind residents in san francisco, in this city you will always be defended, you will always be supported and we in san francisco are a sanctuary city today, tomorrow and always. (applause) el centro bayview will be a place of community, a place where families can grow and thrive and children can reach their dreams. when we open the resource center we're telling the administration we will not back down from our values here in san francisco. we will stand strong, we will stand proud, we will continue to do all we can to put the resources into resource centers like this that are going to

continue to support our families. this is so important. this is a major step in the right direction and i'm so grateful to our many community partners who make this work possible, the ones in the trenches doing the work working with our communities and families and at this time i want to bring up sam reese for some comment. (applause) >> and i was going to talk a little bit about family resource centers but somebody beat me to it. (laughter) excellent, you're hired. so good morning everyone. before i say anything more, out of respect for someone who helped us lead the process for this site to become a reality, honorable mayor lee. without his support we wouldn't be here this morning.

with that being said, i would appreciate it if i could use one of my five minutes specifically in honor of mayor lee. a minute of silence, please. (moment of silence) thank you everyone. much appreciated. so, we are here at the site called southeast families united. this is an early care and family facility, one of 11 sites mission operates in various neighborhoods in san francisco. this site is introducing a

family resource center with one goal in mind, that is to provide our children attending these classrooms with the necessary support for our families to thrive. it is the parent who is the first teacher and the first teacher must always be ready to engage with their child, to support their child, to nurture the child so he/she can develop into an individual who is a contributor to our community and our society. the reality is that it's not just what the child learns in the classroom, it's also what happens at the home. unfortunately, many, most of our families whose child is attending our classrooms here are experiencing significant barriers, significant challenges at home. and mostly because they have been through the eviction process. in san francisco in the mission

district in the last 10 years we've lost 8,000 families. that's a lot of folks. and yes, they have moved, they have relocated to counties outside of san francisco, but the neighborhood of choice, there have been two neighborhoods of choice for families relocating, one is bayview hunters point and the other is the exselsior. it's no longer about families renting a room to live in, it's renting a hallway to live in. that places significant issues on our families and the family resource center with a competent team will support these families as they move on to hopefully a better situation. so, i also want to say that i'm glad that our courts have stepped in to address the issue that was just identified by our

mayor. but i also have another stark reality that i think we need to accept. our core value at mission neighborhood centers with early head start program is to prepare the child to enter school and succeed throughout so they can graduate and continue on to college and graduate. now, the reality that we're facing whether we want to accept it or not is in our prison system. let's all understand one fact, fact of life that you cannot contradict, not 50, not 60, not 70, not 80% but more than 80% of our prisoners, of our men and women happen to be high school drop-outs. over 80%. now, yes, it's true at this site we'll only look after 52 children, but all the data that

we have, every single report we have read, those children, children from low income families who have access to early education programs will most likely graduate and continue on to college and graduate from college. that's our goal and with support from mayor breed, we'll make that a reality. in closing, i would like to acknowledge that this effort, our coalition and frc at this point is being introduced because of two other organizations with mission neighborhood centers at the lead, good samaritan community resource center. (applause) is one of our partners. our second is mission economic association. (applause) so with that, i would like to thank the mayor's office of community housing -- mayor's

office of housing and community development. they keep changing the name. my apologies. (laughter) thank you very much. so i would like to introduce our next speaker, a client of mission neighborhood centers, a parent, anna (spanish) (applause) we'll have translation services for those who can't speak spanish. thank you. (voice of translator): hello good morning. i'm very grateful to be here to be here with everyone here at mission neighborhood centers.

(speaking french) (speaking spanish) (voice of translator): my experience with missionary neighborhood centers is they have provided childcare for me and one of my daughters is there as well. (speaking spanish) (voice of translator): there's a lot of people here in our community that don't know a lot about the services here in our community. (speaking spanish) (voice of translator): a lot of the barriers that our latino community here face is not being able to speak english and just

being afraid because they don't speak english. (speaking spanish) (voice of translator): many times we are in fear so we don't seek services because we don't have our immigration status in order. (speaking spanish) (voice of translator): our community here needs houses and jobs. (speaking spanish) (voice of translator): i think that if our community here was aware of more services, things would be a lot easier for us. (speaking spanish)

(voice of translator): i hope that together here in this community of bayview, together we can all do more. (speaking spanish) (voice of translator): many times in my case i live here in the bayview district but have had to go to the mission district to get services. (speaking spanish) (voice of translator): thank you for opening the center and for it being able to support me and to work together. (end of translation) (applause) >> so our san francisco latino parity and equity coalition

consists of 21 member organizations and included in those 21, the executive director is joining us this morning and is the next speaker. (applause) >> good morning. today is a good day. like a few days recently, when we're able to come together and not only celebrate the opening and expansion of services to latino families in san francisco and immigrant families, like we heard our mothers talk about how important it is to have access to services in your community and not have to travel, which is always difficult when you have children, especially if you're taking public transportation and this is a long time coming. the latino community has been part of the bayview district for decades and has been underserved

and so this space creates an opportunity to build a community and black and brown and multicultural alliances, mainly with low income families in our cities. we're proud of the advocacy that resulted in additional resources granted by mayor lee so we could be here today expanding services to our children and families and make the best investment a city can make, in our children, youth and families. and we're happy to say justice is ruling in favor of our youth once again and of what's right. san francisco has been a pillar in the nation and even internationally in terms of expanding protections for immigrant communities, making sure that our city is a city that affirms a value that we're a city for everyone. we know this ruling today will only lead us to a greater victory for the dreamers, because they are one of our city's, our nation's greatest

assets. they're bilingual, they're bicultural. today we're investing in our most precious assets, our children, youth and families. congratulations and let the work continue. thank you mayor. (applause) >> thank you for the words. and also mayor london breed, thank you for being with us this morning. it is greatly appreciated. and with those words, also thank all of you for joining us this morning and this press conference now is closed. thank you very much. thank you. (applause) ♪

♪ . >> hi, i'm frank jorge golden go up a utility supervisor for the distribution system i offer seizing see the personnel that install water maidens and water carbon monoxides i've personal proud to work with city and distribution place whether a fire or main break those folks come on scene and get the job done 3450r7b9 what time they're here to take care of each other and make it so a safe and secure way i was encouraged to learn to

deal with the services and breaks and i wanted to move into understanding how to do main connections one the great things that the sfpuc to move to different sections in if you're tdr in learning a different job you have the ability to move up i courage anyone to step out of their comfortable zone and work on a system as large as a our water system we started from one end and keep on going it's a fascinating job and i'm going to stay here because i'll never learn everything to learn about this system >> in 2017 we've had the lowest number of fatalities on our

streets in our history. we still have a lot of work to do. and doing this work is a team effort. it is of course working with the department of public works and the sfmta to discuss infrastructure issues to make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists who are vulnerable to vehicles often times sadly going too fast. we're working with the san francisco police department, doing everything we can to crackdown on those individuals speeding and breaking the law and doing things that could create these kinds of accidents. no one wants to see the accidents on the side of the road, no one wants to experience going to a crime scene on the road knowing your loved one has been hit by a car or sadly tragically killed. i remember years ago on turk

street and laguna, when a lot of us were hanging out and just kind of enjoying the weather, it was a really nice hot time, like in the fall and my god son was crossing the street on turk at the intersection of turk and buchanan where there's no stoplight and he was hit by a car. we watched as you flew in the air and thought oh my god, oh my god, just to see it, and had no control over what was going to happen was devastating. and luckily he had minor injuries, luckily he survived, and i just really felt strongly, we have to do better as a city. we have to do better with the vehicles that are speeding on our streets. we have to do better with our infrastructures and when people push back on me about the improvements and bike infrastructure and all of those

things we need to do, we have to make our roads safe. it's not about catering to a particular group. there are a lot of the bicyclists riding in our city, there's a lot of pedestrians walking in the city, we have to make sure that people know this is where bicyclists ride, this is where pedestrians walk, this is where vehicles are supposed to be, so that everyone behaves responsibly on the road and knows the infrastructure, it helps them to understand exactly where everyone is supposed to be. our ultimate goal is public safety. we want everyone to be safe on our roads and everyone to make it home to their loved ones at the end of the night and that what this is about, this is about a team effort, working with our mta, the police department, department of public health, department of public works and families for safe streets, this is how we're going to change the behavior of what's

happening on our roads and get to the zero, the vision zero that we are promising san francisco. this is an important thing we must all participate in. so, again, i just want to emphasize that i have been in constant contact with the chief because enforcement, enforcement is going to play a key role in helping us address those issues. pulling over those vehicles running stop signs, pulling over the bicyclists who are sometimes doing the wrong thing, if you are breaking the law on our street, then there will be consequences for that behavior. it's not because the city wants to add another layer of bureaucracy or ticket you or collect that money, it's because we want to make sure that people change their behavior so that they're safe on our streets. that's what this is about. this is about bringing the number of 20 in 2017 down to

zero. we don't want another death on our streets because of human error, because of anything we can avoid. if we change our behavior, we change our roads and do a better job here in the city and county of san francisco. thank you all for being here. we have so much more work to do, but we are moving forward and working together to really make sure that vision zero is a reality and not just a dream. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. i think what you heard there is leadership of vision zero is not always easy. it can entail making decisions that are not always popular and there's always trade-offs when talking about redesigning streets and enforcing laws and that kind of leadership we have from mayor breed and the whole board of supervisors and we're joined by supervisor jeff sheehy

who has been strongly behind the difficult decisions we have to make, that's the kind of leadership we need. and the board of directors legislating the changes and faced with the trade-offs but willing to move forward with things that will get us to zero. as mayor breed mentioned, enforcement is an important part of it. a part of ed lee approach to vision zero, there's not just one tool in the tool kit. it's not just about street design. it's not just about education, it's not just about enforcement. it's about a collection of activities we can do together as city and community to drive fatalities to zero. the rules of the road are there to keep people safe, and the work that the police department has done in support of vision zero with direction from previous and current mayor, is a

big part of the story of what we're seeing out on the streets in terms of success with regards to vision zero. welcome our chief of police bill scott. (applause) >> thank you. good morning everybody. i'd like to echo director and acting mayor breed comments, you know, when i first learned about vision zero in 2013 it did seem like a dream. we were not only in san francisco but in other parts of the country because many other cities embarked on a vision zero initiative. it did seem like a dream but now four years into this and we have made significant progress in reducing the amount of traffic fatalities, that dream is becoming a reality. and i think it's very much within our reach to actually realize that vision of zero

traffic fatalities in our city. before i go any further, when we talked about the numbers and the statistics and the fact that the numbers are down and the statistics are down, i don't think it's lost on any of us that those numbers represent human lives and the families here today that have the courage to keep this on the forefront of our conscious, i thank you for being here. i know it's very painful to keep having to relive the loss of a loved one by way of a traffic fatality. thank you for being here today. from the perspective of the san francisco police department, our role is enforcement and also education. any time we have a traffic violation and we engage in a traffic stop or come in contact with a motorist or pedestrian or bicyclist, we have an opportunity to educate and that opportunity to educate is really probably one of the most important things we can do. enforcement is very important but education is even more

important. this year in san francisco, we issued over 38,000 citations and i don't say that to brag, unfortunately that's 38,000 plus people that have violated the law. however, it's also 38,000 contacts that we had the opportunity to educate people about really the impact of some of the violations that are more likely to cause traffic accidents. and our officers really take that work seriously. it's an opportunity to share stories about people that have lost loved ones and probably everybody in the room has a story. mayor breed told one that was compelling and i have one and many of you have their own. but when our officers engage in enforcement, it's more than enforcement. it's education. it's preventing these terrible acts from occurring by putting

it on the forefront of people's minds when they violate the law. i want to go through a couple of things of how we intend from the police department's perception to realize the vision. our captains coordinate efforts with patrol officers and our traffic unit on the enforcement. we work carefully with mta to use data to determine which intersections and corridors are more likely to have accidents and that's one of the ways we focus on those particular streets and intersections. the five violations that cause, speeding, running stop signs, failure to yield to pedestrians, failure to yield to turns, running red lights. those are the violations most likely to cause fatalities.

this year there were 20 fatalities, 14 involved pedestrians. my ask of the public is number one, be aware of your surroundings, be aware of the laws, be aware of street signals. be aware of crosswalks and try to work within the laws designed to keep you safe. it is really important that this effort be a partnership, not only with law enforcement but partnership between the community. if you follow the laws, you have much less of a chance of becoming involved in a fatality. that is particularly important with pedestrians. just the laws of physics. it takes a little while for 2,000 pound or 3,000 pound vehicle to stop. physics is going to win every time. if you pay attention, if you follow the laws you have less of a chance of getting involved in these type of incidents. for the elderly in the community, it's more important.

a majority of our traffic related fatalities involve elderly. people can't get across the street as fast, they may not hear as well as some other members of the community. so for our elderly, let's pay attention. let's help them in terms of paying attention to our roadways when we are driving and bicycling, that is a huge issue in our city. our outreach is a huge priority and again we use traffic stops as a way of outreach but we also have many public campaigns to remind drivers and pedestrians and bicyclists of their responsibilities when they are often the roadways. the partnership we talk about between the mta, city government, board of supervisors, fire department, the department of public health, it really is a team effort to

realize the vision of zero fatalities. i remind you, look at where we were and where we are. this vision will be a reality, it will be a reality and we'll work together to make that happen. i thank you for your time. families thank you for being here and remember, vision zero is about all of us. thank you. (applause) >> thank you chief. the chief made reference that back in 2013 it seemed not a very realistic goal and we were one of the first cities in the country, i think perhaps only new york had adopted vision zero and now it's more common term and many more cities have adopted it. back then one of the things we started doing differently from the transportation standpoint, thinking of it as a public health issue and not just public safety issue. with the leadership of

department of public health is a large part of why we are where we are, taking that view of the issues not just street design or enforcement view, i think has been a game changer for us here in san francisco. we're grateful to be able to co-lead between sfmta and department of public health and joined on behalf of public health director garcia and chief medical director argon. (applause) >> good morning everyone. first of all i want to thank acting mayor breed for being here today and being behind this vision zero, which is really important to the department of public health. i was born and raised in san francisco. i grew up in the mission district. i live in glenn park, i raised three children and my wife is a

first grade teacher. we have been dealing with the issue of traffic and pedestrian safety all of our lives. and i can tell you that what's happened in 2017 is a big accomplishment. if you just walk outside and you see the volume of people, the volume of cars all the activity, and the fact that we are down in terms of the number of deaths is a huge accomplishment. it's a huge accomplishment and i think everyone should really take pride in that. the other thing to realize is for every person that dies, there's a dozen who were severely injured. so think of it as a pyramid. the whole pyramid is getting smaller. again, that's a big accomplishment. we all have to remember that all of us, all of us every single day no matter how you get to work, school, wherever you go, all of us are always

pedestrians. this is really -- this impacts all of us. from a public health issue, one of the side effects of having pedestrian safety is that it really promotes community health. it allows people to walk more, to bike more, to do what we call in public health, active transportation and this is really good. it's promoting health in other ways, reducing people's stress as they feel they can take a walk in the neighborhood and feel safe while getting healthy. and i also just want to acknowledge the clinicians and workers at san francisco general hospital working 24/7 so when someone gets injured, we have a team of people part of the city family who are the best in the world of taking care of the patients who are injured. the last thing i want to say is for us in public health, everybody coming together, working together, this way, this

collective action, this collective impact, to us that's the best way to do public health and we're very excited. we have a lot of great staff, please visit visionzero.sf. you can read about our collaborative success. again, thank you so much. (applause) >> thank you dr. argon. to echo the praise for the folks at the san francisco general hospital, i heard a stat a couple years ago, i don't know if it's 100% accurate but nearly half of the admittance are from traffic issues. you think of the first responders who bring the folks there and the impact it has on the system, it gives you the scope of the impact of traffic

safety in san francisco beyond what we're talking about here today. the folks on the front line are largely from the police department, the first responders to the scene and it's not just fatalities but 200 or so people who are seriously injured each year in san francisco. so the fire department plays a critical role in getting people to the trauma center to be helped as quickly as possible. i want to acknowledge and ask to say a few words our fire chief. (applause). >> good morning. thank you for being here. i wanted to comment on the alignment around vision zero and acknowledge the progress being made and has been said by many speakers before me, one death is one too many. we come some times from

different angles but the san francisco fire department is fully committed. the men and women of the san francisco fire department are some of the first responders to the difficult scenes. we experience the emotion and have the conversations with the families and i want to acknowledge the families here that have lost loved ones due to traffic collisions and fatalities related to our congested city. and it is worth noting as dr. argon noted, in a city whose population is rising, there's more vehicles and pedestrians and bicycles on the street, to have a reduction is significant but there's more work to do. there are three prongs i believe are part of vision zero, the education poliiece that the pol department has a role in. it is important to be alert and

aware at all times. i know as a pedestrian, i'm the mother of three boys, one of the things i say, try to gain the eye contact with the driver and don't assume because you have a green light or ability to walk across that it will be safe. so awareness is a key factor. our role is one of education as well. we have the contacts to support the family, enforcement obviously, the police department does very capably. i would like to touch on the engineering piece, the mta does a great job in engineering and reengineering our streets, we sit regularly with the mta, sometimes it's looked at as a competing interest, we want to as first responders be able to navigate to the scene of an emergency in a timely fashion but one of the things we heard loud and clear and i have seen, and we have worked closely with the city administrator's office,

we have taken bold steps, not always popular in my department but bold steps to shrink the responding apparatus. very proud that just last year we took delivery of eight new fire engines with a smaller profile, easier to maneuver and increased visibility for the drivers to make us safer as first responders and more responsive to the vision zero goals. i have driven the engines and they're more responsive in the city streets. we're piloting two new ambulances, they work different, we're hoping to work with our members to get them on board to take a look at a smaller ambulance as well. i drove that yesterday and it's much more user friendly through our narrow streets. we're hoping from an engineering

perspective as part of vision zero to be very responsive to the size of our apparatus to be able to continue to fulfill our goals of saving lives and property but also be responsive to our growing population and many different varieties of pedestrians, bicyclists, cars and public transportation on the street. so thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you chief. from the executive branch and other government agencies, department of public works, one of our main partners and public utilities commission, planning department with the unified school district, dozens of other agencies all working together. and i want to invite up some of our community partners, but before i do that, the bridge between the executive branch or one of the important bridges between the executive branch and our community are the elected

officials that represent the community, our board of supervisors represent the citizens, businesses, schools, institutions in their district and that bridge is important to us in terms of feeding the community voice to inform what we're doing and as i said earlier, it requires great leadership and sometimes great courage on the behalf of individual members of the board of supervisors to support the work that can be controversial but ultimately is important and necessary for us to get to zero. one of the great champions of that, district eight supervisor jeff sheehy. i want to ask him to say a few words. (applause) >> thank you. and i think this has been said, but i really do think that it is time to reflect on mayor lee's legacy. this is tremendous. we're here today recognizing the lowest level of fatalities

because of the leadership of mayor lee. i think of his understated way of leading our city, the way he has brought our departments together and i do think once again we should think about this as an important piece of his legacy. and i want to commend mayor breed for her leadership on the board, as ed ruskin mentioned, through the work on the board and enormous amount of feedback we get when the changes come into our neighborhoods, the ability to work collaboratively with the executive branch and agencies has been key. so mayor breed's leadership first as board president has been essential for this and going forward we'll continue to push the numbers down. i'm grateful for her leadership. i know for me personally i

focused on bike safety and i hope the next year brings significant improvement, getting protected bike lanes so people can bike around. i think of my daughter, 12-year-old public school kid, we bop around all over town, pedestrian safety is critical. school starts again on monday, so i hope as you are reporting today you will encourage people to slow down, to be mindful, to recognize that you're going to have more cars on the street on monday, more kids on bikes, more kids walking and that's one of the great things that the transportation authority has been supportive of and mta, getting kids to get to school without necessarily having to be in a vehicle and the education for kids on public transportation and walking and biking and walking school buses is an innovation that is great that i have seen folks in my neighborhood implement.

if we could be mindful monday that kids are going back to school, not a lot of them are going to be happy about it. you're going to have grumpy kids dragging their feet and be slow and mindful. thank you. (applause) >> great messages, which i hope you will help us convey. two of the leading voices that challenge us are walk san francisco and san francisco bicycle coalition. everybody, whether you live here, visiting here, work here, everybody starts or ends their trip on foot. we're all pedestrians. and bicycling is the fastest growing mode of transportation in san francisco. you are more vulnerable road users traveling in those ways. i want to welcome walk san francisco and executive director from the san francisco bicycle

coalition. >> thank you director ruskin. how did you know my speech would be do more, do better, do faster. i don't have to say anything. in all seriousness, we're here to acknowledge the good news of 2017. i think after 2017 we could all use some good news. not only did the total deaths on our streets from traffic collisions decrease dramatically in 2017 but pedestrian deaths decreased as well. since 2013, every single year fewer pedestrians have been killed on our streets. this is really good news. of course this good news does not mean that we're all here today to pat ourselves on the back and move on. 20 lives lost is too many. and so each of the lives lost needs to be a call of action to everyone here to do better. no family should get a phone call that their loved one is in the hospital or their love one

worse has been killed due to crashes we know are preventable. people talking in san francisco and so many folks have said this today, every one of us here shouldn't have to put their lives on the line walking down the street. in san francisco, low income communities, people of color, immigrants and seniors are more likely to be killed in crashes and we need that to change. seniors should be able to grow old in our city. instead, they're the most likely group to be killed in crashes. these crashes, make no mistake, they're not accidents, they're predictable and that means they're preventable and that's why the city has invested a tremendous amount of funding policy into vision zero since 2014 and which we're extremely grateful for and why we're here today. at the same time, we need to do

better. to get to zero, there's the better part director ruskin, to get to zero, we need to step our game up a little bit. we have six years. we need to increase investments in safe streets and get projects into the ground more quickly, before more people get hurt and pass automated speed enforcement in san francisco. city community, advocates, families, i believe working together we'll reach zero by 2024. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. on behalf of the san francisco bicycle coalition, i'm the executive director and our 10,000 members, i want to thank many people here, mayor breed, supervisor sheehy, director ruskin, chief scott and his wife and all the other departments who have worked to draw

attention toward the progress on vision zero. in 2014 with pressure and leadership from many of the organizations and individuals here today, san francisco officially adopted the ambitious goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries from our street. the bold commitment will be one of the endearing legacies of mayor ed lee. i know he believed in achieving vision zero. he cared deeply about the safety of people walking and biking in our city and followed through by directing city agencies to deliver infrastructure improvements with the speed and urgency necessary. we owe it to mayor lee's memory to remain just as urgently focused on delivering safer streets faster. in 2017, san francisco proved to the nation that progress toward an ambitious goal like vision zero is possible. because of that progress, 10 people are alive today.

10 people are biking and walking to work. 10 people are waiting for muni and 10 people are coming home today to their families. and i want to recognize alvin and san francisco bay area families for safe streets, those who have lost their loved ones for being here and continually sharing their stories. we're here to acknowledge progress but also to recommit ourselves to vision zero. we have to work harder, even harder moving forward if we want 2017 to be the beginning of the trend and not just an aberration. while we saw significant decreases in fatalities for people, and in particular people driving or riding in cars, the decreases were not nearly as significant for people walking and biking, our most vulnerable. in 2018 san francisco must show more resolve and urgency, starting with everyone standing here today. i want to highlight infrastructure is a key part of

vision zero and we know there are plans in place for all streets in the city. without all of us working together and strong leadership, the plans will remain just that. i want to highlight one project in particular, the better market street project, transforming 2.2 miles of the street into a safe and comfortable place to bike and take transit. we have watched as this project experiences delays and we cannot afford to wait longer. for the safety of the thousands of people who travel down market street every day, construction must begin as soon as possible. the memories of those who have lost their lives are dishonored by further delays. so as we look ahead, we must prioritize the construction of safer streets.

dismantling the old barriers and throwing out the old excuses. there is no other way to continue progress in this new year. the lives of our friends, our families and our neighbors hang in the balance and there is not a moment to waste. thank you. (applause) >> thank you kathy and brian. as the chief said, ultimately it's not about numbers, it's about people. so finally and i would say most importantly, we're honored to have alvin lester here, one of the founding members of the san francisco bay family for safe street. i think the voice of those who have lost a loved one are one of the most effective and compelling tools we have to change the behavior that needs to change to get to zero. please welcome alvin lester. (applause)

>> good morning everyone. my story is simple but it's necessary. i'll just get right to it. i'm alvin lester. the father of amonde lester, he was struck and killed in the bayview neighborhood in the city. i'm here to support safer streets so no one else has to suffer the pain i have from traffic violence. i'm one of the co-founders for san francisco families for safe streets, volunteers who have lost loved ones. we are fighting to help change the culture of unsafe driving habits. we have endorsed vision zero campaign to put an end to traffic deaths and serious injury by 2024. using education, engineering,

and law enforcement. it is critical that our city officials focus on the proven tools which will help reach the no death, no serious injuries goal by 2024. join with us as we push forward together to make san francisco a safe place to walk, ride, drive. and to add to that, i'm here to honor my son. he was a wonderful -- he was my only son and as a father, you put a lot of time and effort to raise kids and teach them the correct things to do and doing so, i had great expectations his life would be satisfying not only to me but to himself. we fight today to bring honor to san francisco. i'm a native and i have seen the changes in san francisco over the 20-30 plus years dealing with high volume of traffic and

pedestrian movement on our streets. we need to take our streets back. we need to help people change the negative behaviors that they have built up over the years and we need to do it today. no parent, no family member should have to go through the suffering of burying their children or mom or father because of preventable collisions. so, let's fight. let's fight. let's make a good fight. you know, there are good things we can do. we have proven tools that help people to drive correctly in our cities and i want to urge everyone at the sound of my voice to make some corrections. if you operate a motor vehicle, think about it, think about the person standing on the corner, think about how fast you're driving, think about the stop sign you're going to come to. just think and just doing so, you'll help someone live another day, i gandhi that. i guarantee that. so i just want to thank everyone for being here and i want to

thank our public officials, walk san francisco, bicycle coalition and everyone here who has a vested interest in saving lives. we all deserve to have safe streets. we shouldn't have to figure out which street to take this day or tomorrow, your life depends on it. you don't want to hear the phone ring and have the news that will rip your heart in two. it's tough, every day of the week i think about my son. he would have been 25 in may of this year. so he was in school, he was working, he had a promising future. however, the individual who took his life didn't care nothing about that. we have to care for those who are living. we have to care to make sure that crossing the street doesn't cost you your life. or end up in a hospital with life threatening injuries. we have to do it. so i'm here today to bring honor to those who have lost their

lives and support all the individuals here to help make these things, the numbers come to fruition. i want to thank everybody. thank you. (applause) >> i can't say it better than that. we are certainly committed within the government to do more and better and faster. as alvin and the chief and supervisors said, we need everyone to pay attention, to slow down as they're getting around the city. it's going to take all of us to get to vision zero but it is achievable. we can do this san francisco. thank you for coming today. (applause) ♪

>> chair peskin: good morning and welcome to the san francisco county transportation authority meeting for today, tuesday, january 9, 2018. happy new year. our clerk is mr. alberto quintanilla. mr. clerk, if you could please call the roll. >> clerk: item one, commissioner breed. cohen present. commissioner farrell. farrell absent. commissioner fewer. fewer absent. commissioner kim. kim absent. commissioner peskin. >> chair peskin: present. >> clerk: commissioner ronen, present. commissioner safai.