question. >> are you looking into more accessible sidewalks? >> yes. >> for people that have mobility devices? >> yes. i can go back. part of our raised crosswalks and speed tables we're putting in, some are midblock, where people are crossing more frequently that are not necessarily intersections. we're looking at the long-term phase of this project to be curb cuts. right now, we didn't have the funding for the near-term improvements we were given the directive to get done pretty immediately. it's part of the long-term strategy. >> thank you. >> thank you, alex. all right. sally, you're next. >> i would just point out, as i

have to you in the past, that the concourse garage is expensive. and that's probably why there's 120 free spots in there at any given time. but i did have another question -- how is the outreach done? and how is it continuing to be done? >> right now, i am providing technical data and assisting where i can for presentations, such as today. in terms of any expansion, the bicycle coalition is doing a lot of the outreach. and they're coordinating the meetings. we did all the initial meetings that i listed her. it was led by our department. and then there were folks that were more into the neighborhoods that we didn't reach out to, so we're expanding that now. and that's what we've been working on. >> i know. i live 1/2 block from the park and no one has ever asked me my

opinion and i will tell it to whoin that wants to listen. >> we appreciate that. thank you. >> excellent. orkid, i understand you're next? >> yes. i'm a parent. and i take my son there pretty often on the weekend and i give presentations, so i attend golden gate park for a number of reasons and events and one challenge is always parking. and it's constantly challenging. if there's more -- if there's an elimination of more parking spots, it's impossible to get to the recreation all areas, because i have to park so far away and it's a long walk to get to that event. and, you know, for me to get from my home to golden gate park, it's a distance. and also in terms of, you know, my schedule is very busy and the

crosswalks, great ideas, i strongly advocate that, but eliminating parking spots, i have a concern about that, because then the park, in terms of access, becomes smaller for some people. >> thank you. i -- i've heard that from many folks. we unfortunately don't have parking meters in the park. we allow free parking for the spots that we do have. we could probably do more outreach with the museums. i know people are coming to the park because of special events that happen in the park. while we have a lot of parking, i'm not sure that we'll able to figure out how to maximize parking in the park.

we're going to be doing parking surveys and going out there with some folks in the coming weeks to see exactly where folks are going when they park, how long are they parked for, and try to see if we can work with the mta on coming up with solutions on that. >> all right. is that it, orkid? okay. kate, you're up. >> thank you for your presentation. i must admit that i have not gun to the park frequently. it's a distance from my home. and, therefore, i don't know, as this may be in place. do you have tactile maps available? >> i have to look into that. i know we have various information booths, but i don't know the materials they have. i can follow up. >> if your committee is ever interested, if you would like to contact us, we have that service to create tactile maps that

would truly help any individual visiting the park that didn't have vision. >> okay. thank you. >> thank you. >> i would just like to follow up -- i wanted to ask you, i take from your presentation that you have some kind of a van service that is provided on saturdays and sundays. can you talk to us more about that, how it's provided? >> sure. >> the shuttle, yes. >> so we have a shuttle. it's -- it's scheduled to run every 15 minutes. that doesn't always happen. so after discussing with mayor's office on disability, we're working with our park rangers that oversee the program to tighten up that schedule quite a

bit. there are 14 shuttle stops, makes its way back again. and so they are -- the shuttles have ramps and pick up wheelchairs and drop them off as well. >> a person like myself, i have a guide dog, a service animal. so i would need to bring her on board as well. >> absolutely. >> all right. i think that's it for the councilmembers right now. i would leak to open it up to the staff. >> hi, gary. thank you for coming today. i really appreciate it. and i very much appreciate the conversations that we've had so far to talk about how to improve

access to the park, especially on healthy saturdays. whichever way the healthy saturdays end up going, some of the conversations that we end up having improve access for all times of the week, so i'm appreciative of that. specific to the healthy saturdays idea, we're still in outreach phase with this now. can you speak a little bit to what the hopeful timeline is? should it be approved or can you share what the general response to healthy saturdays has been? maybe some of the positives and maybe some of the concerns that

you've heard from different comment members? >> well, again, there is no timeline for this. this would have to be done at the board of supervisors through an ordinance. we would also at some point, once we've finished outreach and gotten feedback and come back to you, of course, before we move forward, we would go to the board of supervisors as well as recreation and park commission. i'm not sure if there is support at the board for that. we're doing outreach and trying to get as much feedback as possible. i haven't heard a whole lot of negative feedback so far. there's concern about congestion in the richmond and the sunset, which are legitimate concerns that may not necessarily directly relate to healthy

saturdays. in general when there's large events in the park, it causes congestion to everyone around the park. we're looking into that and doing parking surveys, with the help of the mta. we've had several discussions with the museums. they are not currently supportive, but we're trying to figure out what works best for them. they have some concerns around logistics, with a loading dock that runs out to j.f.k. where the closure is. we're working on that with them. and i believe they have other concerns in terms of parking and, with the 284 spots that are taken up during the healthy saturdays closure. so we're working through that. other than congestion and lack of parking to nearby neighborhoods, i haven't heard any negative feedback.

we've got and good amount of support from the groups we've met with. they have expressed that as a concern as well, but overall, folks are pretty supportive of doing this. it's something that's been very successful for the last 10 years and it's only a partial closer compared to sunday and leaves access to other attractions. >> all right. any other staff people? >> through the chair. hi. nice meeting you. i would like to actually echo the question around ways around the park for visually impaired or blind. we discussed in a meeting we had in the past, community

ambassadors that would help with way finding and the shuttle spots being marked way better and more pronounced that they can be easily accessed for folks that are blind and folks like me that don't read maps very well. and the other question i had or clarification that i would like from you, what did you decide about vehicles -- folks that have difficulty with way-finding rely on transit vehicles because of the door to door service. what did we decide about that? >> i did not tell you -- i followed up with our staff and because of safety concerns, it's already -- we've already got the shuttle going through the closure and we don't allow other vehicles through that closure. and so i think -- it's probably not going to be possible to allow para transit through the

closure, but by adding an additional shuttle stop, i think it would be more effective than not having paratransit going through the closure. >> if someone is entering the park or the closure area, the transit vehicle, they would have to offboard and transfer to a shuttle? >> yes. >> what about the individualized service, the door-to-door service that is provided, that has a limited time to make a number of stops? have we thought about that? >> we can have further discussions, but i think it's a concern of allowing so many vehicles in through the road closure. >> okay. thank you. >> and to your other point about ambassadors, i didn't speak on it because it's -- we would be

coordinating and we've discussed the idea of ambassadors to guide folks on healthy saturdays. >> thank you. >> any other comment from staff? as a blind person, yes, i think having the ambassadors would be great and tactile maps, i'm an avid user of tactile maps. so i think that's good feedback you are receiving from us. is there anyone on the bridge line that would like to ask a question? >> just a moment. >> i feel like i need to make the comment. i apologize if it sounds snarky. i would suggest having the outreach done by the bicycle

coalition who is most interested in having this accomplished defeats the purpose of getting all points of view. there is probably a reason you haven't had a lot of opposition to it because they're only asking the choir, so to speak. we do have two people on the -- two speaker cards here. >> right. we have two speaker cards. who would like to go first? >> charlie doris. >> okay. charlie. >> i'm charlie doris. we're a volunteer group. most of us are disabled or work within the disability community and we help the museums become more accessible. we're not one of the people that rec and park has reached out to and i would certainly second what the comment a few seconds ago was. they've been apparently just

preaching to the choir. we oppose the extension for a number of reasons. first of all, it will eliminate some very close blue spaces. also, there are disabled people that work and a saturday is the best time for them to come to the museum. third, we're closing -- we're going to be closing all of this parking and access during the rainiest part of the season. it's fine to have a shuttle service, but as i recall, those shuttle stops are not covered. and as another person said, the underground parking garage costs $6 an hour on weekends. there are some people that have respiratory issues that find underground parking garages not the way to go. so there are any number of reasons for this not being a really suitable idea.

i was involved 11 years ago when this thing came up the first time and it was very controversial, contentious, and it's a shame it has to be brought up again. right now, j.f.k. is closed basically year-round sunday, half year on saturday. 75% of the time. why is that not fair? and i think healthy saturdays, healthy san francisco, that should apply to everyone and it should apply fairly to everyone. i think that -- and i realize the disability community is not of one mind on this issue, but we will be the ones that pay the price. so i would strongly advocate that you not go along with this expansion. it's just not necessary and i think it will put all of us in a hardship. is access by the disability community in san francisco so good that we can make it less so? i don't think so. >> all right.

thank you. >> any more -- okay. one more speaker's card. >> sasha bitner. >> sasha? >> i have lived in san francisco for 35 years. i it's difficult enough to get to golden gate park and get around it. the proposed seems to make it more difficult. i have very serious concerns about moving forward.

i have a disability where it's difficult for me to read and i have the -- to go into the park, i feel like you need a -- you don't need to talk with the

biking people. that's all i have to say. i was not prepared to talk. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> all right. thank you. so, do you have any comments to make to that? all right. >> thank you. just to clarify. para transit is still allowed in the park and it's currently not

allowed in the closure during saturdays and we wouldn't be allowing it if we expanded it as well. there is still access through tea garden and other areas of golden gate park. there's never been access for para transit through the closure on saturdays. the majority of the stake holders that we've spoken with are not necessarily speaking to the choir. they include district supervisors as well as the museums and the majority of neighborhood associations and groups that are around and we're still continuing to do outreach. if we've haven't reached out to someone yet, we will be. >> thank you so much. this is to clarify. this is a public comment period and the speakers are not obliged

to make responses at this time, but we want to hear and note all of the public comment that we have so we can do appropriate follow-up. >> we have two more speaker cards. >> leah vandermy. is that correct? >> hi. good afternoon. pardon me. i'm the director of guest operations at the academy of sciences and serve as the academy's ada coordinator. the two key areas are process and access. as public institution, we believe it's important that we have a fair and open process. it's also critical that stake holders are well informed with the needs of the community. we sent a survey of our email recipients, in which we received 10,000 responses.

we are compiling them now and will share them with anyone who is interested. we're committed to equitable access. including for those not able to walk or bike through the park. we have encouraged environmentally friendly transit like bart and muni, but many of our guests need to travel by car out of necessity and we have strong concerns about what would limit this group, particularly the weekend, when parking is already limited. so i wanted to thank the council and staff for starting this discussion. it's a good first step, but a lot more process and discussion needs to happen with all the groups. thank you. >> thank you for your comment. and i think we have one more speaker's card. >> is this on the same issue?

oh, the j.f.k. let's wait until the end, then. >> okay. so i think that -- this concludes the item we heard. i want to thank the speaker for coming. we've had lively discussion and it's a great first step and we look forward it having more interaction and discussions with you going forward. all right. so i think we're at the break. and my watch says about 2:27. we have a great ceremonial item coming up. i hope all of you will stay. stick around. let's come back at 2:4 >> we're moving to item 9, which

is a ceremonial item of the late mayor edwin lee. and i want to say that any councilmembers or staff and people from the public are welcome to share your thoughts and stories and memories of the late mayor ed lee. i would like to just get it started if i might for a few minutes or so. i just want to say that i remember the late mayor lee rather well. i'm a long time resident of san francisco and what i remember him for is the economic boon that took place when he came into office. he came in in january, 2011, when the former mayor, gavin

newsom, went to sacramento and became the state lieutenant governor. and at that point, there was a projected $380 million deficit. and the city budget was over $7 billion. and in his six years in office, the budget is up to $10 billion, which is more than many states. considering to his staff, 140,000 jobs have been created as a result of him being here in the job. and i distinctly recall that he didn't really want to be mayor. he didn't like the political spats and being in the limelight. but yet he took the job because

he felt it was the right thing for him and the city to do. so from my perspective, what he provided was an ability for tech companies and real estate developers and agents to really thrive in this town. and that, i will always be appreciative for. that was his first term. his second term, i really remember his contributions in terms of humanitarian. he said on the second term, well, now that we've economically started to come back, let's focus on affordable housing and doing something about the homeless problem we have here in san francisco. and a number of steps have been taken from my view to help make that a much better situation.

so from a humanitarian standpoint, he really made a number of great contributions to this city. in addition to that, i think that mayor lee was very sensitive to the needs and concerns people with disability. a year ago, there were only two of us on this council. now we've all come on board. i have to commend him for doing that. i understand he had quite a sense of humor, told some corny dad jokes, had a mustache, and he was a pretty good ping pong player, too. maybe some of you will talk to that. i've been a resident of san francisco since 2002.

and i go back a ways. i appreciate being a part of his legacy that he left here in this city. with that, i'd like to open it up for anyone on the council. if you want to speak or from the public. let's see who would like to do that. >> i will. this is denise. >> all right. kate williams. >> mayor lee and i weren't buddies, i have to say. i spoke with him only twice in the 21 years i've been a resident in the city and i will always treasure that letter i received from his office appointing me to this committee. i'm very proud of that letter. i will probably frame it one of these days. [laughter] however, in my life here in the city as a disabled person, i know in the background, i will always see mayor lee.

specifically, one of the experiences that has benefited all of us on this council is his -- even though he didn't show up every time, he was very much behind something that i personally participated in that's been very gratifying. rule 115 was imposed several years ago and languished in the city regarding employment. it just wasn't used. we had an advisory panel, which i sat on with some of the people in this room. although he did not show up at our meetings, he always made certain that someone from his staff attended and reported back to him regarding our process. so after many weeks of input from the disabled community and projects spearheaded by jonathan lions, we were able to meet with

the board of supervisors one-on-one and we had something phenomenal happen. after the budget was passed, we were able to add on to begin the a.c.e. program, rule 115 at that time, and had a recruiter come on to staff to hunker down and increase employment within our community. i'm grateful that that took place and it's making a profound difference in our community. thank you. >> all right, thanks, kate. >> go ahead, sally. >> my recollection is something more personally. i didn't know mayor lee personally. but all of us on the commission owe our position on the commission owe that to him. doesn't mean we know him personally.

he showed me a small kindness. this was at the opening of ucf children's hospital and i was asked to speak as a representative of the families, like the voice of the families, who use that facility. and my daughter, who had significant physical and developmental disabilities as well as medical issues what what we call a frequent flier at ucf. she was there all the time. she passed away in 2014 shortly before the new hospital opened, this was a press conference to celebrate the new hospital and i was asked to come meet with the mayor. this doesn't happen to me often, so i said, sure. away from the press, away from the cameras, extended his condolences to me on the loss of my daughter. and it wasn't -- sorry. it wasn't something he had to do. it wasn't -- none of the other dignitaries there did that, but

i will never forget that, because it was heartfelt and personal and i felt like he was worried about me as a resident of san francisco and i really appreciated that. thank you for sharing. any other members on the council? yes, alex. >> i didn't know mayor lee, but there was a lot of disability and homeless work. i just want to commend him on that and it's pretty shocking and sad and what happened to

him. >> denise, yes? i acknowledge. i know that you wanted to say something. go ahead. >> thank you. thank you, jim. i would like to piggyback on what some of my fellow colleagues have brought up with regards to mayor lee's legacy. he loved his community, but he never forgot the most vulnerable population. >> can i speak up a little bit? >> yes, sorry. excuse me. he never forgot about the most vulnerable populations, which is people with disabilities. he was there as a champion since he took over in 2011 and he's

been involved in several initiatives ranging from transportation issues and i will just name a few. he was very concerned about access on demand transportation needs, not just with the transportation network companies. people with disabilities having access to ride-sharing services he was very concerned over the decline of cabs that had -- that were accessible for people that had mobilibility issues. he was very interested in accessible voting machines, that people with disabilities have access, because their vote was just as important. he always recognized the needs for housing issues and heard the concerns of the disability community. i believe back in 2016, if i remember correctly, he gave an

example directive, i believe, to increase the housing population in san francisco. i believe to 150%, which included 5,000 new housing units a year and he wanted to help the process and the development in making it easier for permits and going through the process of approval for housing. i know our director, nicole vaughn, had ongoing -- and she can speak about this -- discussions that he was planning and wanted to continue to engage with the council. i remember one of the things that he did back in 2014, was the transfer of the ownership of all the 29 public housing sites. and i believe there was over 3,500 units from the san francisco public housing authority. and the ownership went to

community-based, affordable housing teams. and this was part of his public housing plan with housing and urban government and it was the rental assistance demonstration program. what this did with transferring the ownership, the buildings were given the necessary funding for crucial repairs for the most vulnerable population and to make areas safe for them and their families. and they could begin to address the deplorable conditions in public housing for people with disabilities. and through various, i believe, subsidies, they had the funding, along with working with community-based organizations in identifying these funds to begin repairs and improvements that i believe at the time, and i could be wrong on the estimate, that

was around, and so he understood the need for the community to have affordable, accessible housing. and as kate williams talked about, the a.c. program, people with disabilities need improvement, need to make viable income, so they can live in the city. so we appreciated his champion and he did want to work on these initiatives to the end of his term. and we're very saddened at the loss of his passing. and we'll support the administration and acting mayor london breed. through the chair, i don't know if nicole vaughn would want to add on any more information to the initiatives 5 brought on. nicole? >> through the chair, thank you, denise, for that recap of mayor

lee's support and concerns. i would say a few things. one, denise mentioned that it's true that he was interested in really -- in the exchanges that i've had with him, really wanting to find solutions to key issues like transportation, voting, access to support. and then, again, as denise mentioned, he was very instrumental in the r.a.d. program, which is still moving along. we're in the next phase of development and there's more and more affordable, accessible -- housing is going up every day and it's because of mayor lee's

efforts to sally's comment, i would echo that he definitely was interested in solving problems and getting things done in response to the community, but it was also true that he's a personalable person. he always took the time to say hello and ask how you are doing and that the experience that sally has had of him being a personalable person that genuinely cared about the people of san francisco from my experience is also very true, also very true that he told some pretty corny jokes, as jim had mentioned, and i think that just

really he is and will continue to be missed. i will say, though, from my personal with mayor lee that i truly believe that he would want us to continue to move forward with all of the issues that matter and that are important to us. i want to encourage the council for the issues that were brought to the mayor's attention that maybe he didn't get a chance to followthrough. please bring them, again, bring them to the mayor's office again. keep moving forward. keep talking about those things that you want the mayor and administration to know about. i guess that's what i would add for now. >> thanks, nicole. that's great. and i really appreciated his

sense of humor. i didn't know him personally, but had an opportunity to hear him speak and talked to others and he was really quite personal to say the least. and i can certainly understand from sally's perspective that he would have really shown his concern for her and no doubt he did that for others as well. so we will miss him. are there other people on staff or in the audience in the public that would like to talk. i think we have two speakers cards. no. that's for later. >> good afternoon. i'm hillary brown. i've been a san francisco resident virtually all my life, which is like 42 years. i met ed lee this past summer,

2017. he was doing -- he was involved with the grand opening of the willie b. kennedy center. i believe the fact that i'm legally blind, there was like 1,000 people there at the opening of the center. he said hello to me. i felt special at that moment. i think he died four or five months later. i had a brief chuckle. maybe he recognized me in the election commercials back in 2015. i think from other councilmembers, he was working on affordable housing the last four years ago. he inspired me to look for 1-bedroom in the city that's all i want to say on that part. >> thank you.

thank you very much. all right. who else may we have from -- who would like to have a word? >> that's it. >> going once. twice. okay. we're done. well, as i said, we'll miss mayor lee and we'll be moving forward and always remember his legacy in this city. all right. so we don't have quite as many agenda items today -- >> we do have the -- you were going to the next one? we have one for public comment. i don't know if she's still here. >> oh, yeah, yeah. that's the next agenda item. public comment. so we have one or two cards? >> we have two, unless -- i don't know, ms. brown, is that the comment you wanted to make? okay. good. one second. there was one from ms. ellen lee

zoo. she left. okay. so you are up again. hillary brown. >> hillary brown, go for it. >> my name is hillary brown, again. i was one of the original v.a.c. members that was launched in 2014. i believe in accessibility. i can relation to that being visual impaired. i was legally blind since the '90s. and i'm glad they're implementing vote by mail, like in san matao county. it helps people specifically like for my condition being vision impaired. and i'm glad that you are willing to accept my comments in regards to people who have sight issues like myself. i wish other people who were vision impaired to speak about how they want to get

accessibility to vote and get advice from san matao county or even the secretary of state office. that's the comment i wanted to make. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. so i take it there's no more speaker cards? >> that's it. >> all right. so we're moving on to item number 11. it's information. is there any correspondence? >> there is not any correspondence. >> none today. all right. thank you. number 12, any councilmembers have any comments or announcements to make? >> no. >> well, i have one. orkid does not. >> i have one announcement to make. and i'm sure that some of you will appreciate it.

i don't think i mentioned this in november, though i brought her with me, but i do have a new guide dog. it's my second. we were trained together, in-home training in early november. it's a work in progress. she's a wonderful dog. and so she will be coming to all future meetings for perhaps a long time to come. so there you go. all right. i think we're at the end. so we're going to -- unless anyone has any other comments to make. i appreciate you bearing with me today. i originally had the welcoming statement. i was going to read. i love to read in public and somehow i don't know what happened on the floor drive and my unit, boom, all the items got deleted and i didn't do it.

anyway, we made it through that. and i think this has been a good meeting. thank you for coming. we appreciate it. and i am adjourning this meeting in honor of the late mayor of san francisco edwin lee. thank you. coffee. >> how many agencies does that

take in order to convert a parking lot into affordable housing in the middle of the tenderloin? well no longer 7, of course, tndc of course, the mayor's office of housing, of course, the incredible financing organizations that came through the department of hud enterprise came in indicating to construction their compressed be contracted so all the agencies came together with tndc working with the community making sure at least one and 13 unit get built all accountable jobs are another stake and certificate of preference and having the schools and community they're all at stack if we can't get in housing built i'm here to thank everybody for putting this together and making sure wear on

our way to do more housing that by the need and build the kind of housing housing for everyone but in particular the hardest thing to build 100 percent - even if a parking lot so many fencing mechanisms to meet the champion >> (clapping.) >> sew mr. mayor i think what is really special about this project the fact over 60 percent will think two bedrooms and three bedrooms apartment we know there a sdaerth of family housing no inform has an incredible impact on the economy and, of course, on the communities if you can't have families that work here afford to live in the city they living live and work we have much, much more to do across the country to make sure we're housing the middle-income and working-class

this supplement will help to solve the problem thank you for making that neighborhood healthy and congratulations to tndc for the groundbreaking thisyou.

>> today, i wanted to kickoff and welcome you to the first every family well forum (clapping.) >> compromising is carmen chu currently which this of the family forum we put this event dough went to a lot of community meetings and we're he and she about families worries and troubles aaron planning for the future and ahsha safai for buying a home and college and retirement and for many of the

seniors how to passing on their prompts to their kids. >> the family forum benefits throughout san francisco i'm supervisor norman yee representing district 7 people are homeowners fritter buyers and they don't thinks the planning. >> what you'll notice if you walk around today's activities multiple languages transactions available for people in the seminars and 101 counseling and the today, we not only have vendors that have come here the seminars where people are lining about important topics was of most unique pieces we have one-on-one free counseling for people so important that people understand about taxes and how you transfer your assets to our next generation because we do it

wrong as you may know to lose much money. >> we did if grassroots on the radio and worked with all nonprofit and partners to get the word out we personally went to community meeting to tell people about this event we'll have a whole line of people that will wait to ask skews i'm thinking about passing on my property or so glad i can speak but i cannot speak english well we created in first every family forum and hope that will bring a lot of people good information to plan for their future three hundred people signed up for 101 counterand we so hope that is a model for success for the future and hope to do more if we learn from this one to be better