do? >> for the mta, we would not issue individual citations to the users, we would be documenting citations of the vehicle parked improperly. it would be up to them to decide to follow up with the user, or not, but we'll be tracking the amount of citations and the amount of tickets. we'll be tracking those. >> co-chair blacksten: any other colleagues here on the council? sally? >> council member mcdonald: you say you could pull their permit, and that seems drastic. and i wonder if there is anything in between, any kind of deterrent in between yanking the

permit, because i don't see that. >> first of all, based on that repeat infractions, we wouldn't say, oh, your permit is revoked tomorrow, we'd say we need to see this improvement in this amount of time. but we're also thinking about and asking the companies to provide information about this in their applications, what would those steps be, or what would you want to do if we're finding that this isn't working out. so one possible outcome, we find that none of the companies are able to get users to park properly and we need to institute a dock or specific parking infrastructure, or ask the companies to attach some kind of locking mechanism, so you have to lock it to the fixed object the way the jump bikes do. there are certain things we're looking at and we're asking the companies to be innovative and how they are recommending that stepped up level of sort of

approaching those circumstances. >> i have a follow-up. >> council member mcdonald: do i understand that the mts will not be issuing citations for improperly parked? >> we will. but we go out there, see a lime scooter and issue citation to the company. what i was trying to say -- not to the customer. >> council member mcdonald: right, you wouldn't know who it was. >> and we can not issue citations for sidewalk riding, that is police. >> co-chair blacksten: anyone else on the council? >> i'd like to make a comment. who is this? orkid? sure. >> council member sassouni: it's interesting in terms of companies this morning, i saw a scooter in golden gate park, just left there, and you know,

in the middle of nowhere, and two people were approaching in one direction and as i pass, one of them tripped over the scooter left in the pathway. and yesterday i saw kids playing on the sidewalk with the scooter, just playing with it. and it was r.m. too late to -- really too late to stop anything from happening, they were thrilled and it was a very person street. as a deaf person, i'm sensitive to people passing me from behind quickly, or around a corner and there is no regulations or laws in terms of their behavior. it's kind of a wild west show out there. and so our rights as pedestrians are protected. ius to be honest -- just to be honest, i'm not a fan, i hate them. and i feel there is no way to address the concerns that we're experiencing.

>> co-chair blacksten: any one of you want to address that quickly? >> i'll add the concern that you raised about children playing on the scooters, that obviously should not happen. in fact, you have to have a valid driver's license to use a motorized scooter. when you sign up for the app, it requires you to scan a valid driver's license. if you don't have a valid driver's license, you can't use the scooters. i don't think that was our scooters, that's not possible. >> yeah, they were playing with it, didn't mean it was going. >> yeah, they were using it unnecessarily. all right. any more comments from the council. helen, yes? >> council member smolinski: thank you for your presentations. this one is for sfmta, i'm

curious, do you plan or are there already in place different rules for parking the scooters in residential and primary residential neighborhoods? where there aren't any fixed objects. i'll mention an example. i came out of my house the other day and i saw three scooters in front of my house. it was the first time and i didn't want to have that reflex like oo, but i kind of did, i was trying to think of of the equivalent, like a newspaper kiosk, and i'm mid block, i'm curious if there is any thought to that? >> so far, we have not made particular distinctions in our recommended parking partly because we want it to be as clear as possible, so each thing a user has to think about, am i

in a residential area or not? some residential areas have furniture zones with specific things and others don't and distinction might be a form factor issue, rather than having somebody decide a certain block is residential versus commercial, since it is different. >> form factor? >> like we said, if there is a furnishing zone, trees lined app, then based on the physical nature, there are trees, so there is a furniture zone, you could park there, whereas a street without a furnishing zone, you wouldn't park the scooter there because there is no place to do it. rather than having somebody know if it's residential or commercial, it would be more based on what are the physical features? >> could you clarify the different zones? >> like when i say furniture?

by that, i mean the part of the sidewalk that typically has fixed objects. so on any given sidewalk, you would have the property line, there is a sidewalk that goes to the curb. sometimes there is a planting strip along the curb. that we do as a city, make sure if we're placing fixed objects, whether it's a newspaper kiosk or tree or trash can or bike rack, it's in a certain part of the sidewalk. we have staff at mta and public works that have very specific requirements for where those fixed objects can go. so because we already have this part of the sidewalk where fixed objects can go and those are determined for accessibility reasonings, that's the primary driving force for those. we're building our requirements to build off of those.

and we are working with kevin jensen from public works and our accessible services program to come up with those. >> just quick follow-up. because i do think there is distinction between primarily residential part of the city that is west of van ness and downtown and soma, i think those are very different neighborhoods. what have you seen the primary reasons that people are using the scooters? because, again, in my neighborhood, it seems like joy rides. >> well, as they're zipping down sidewalks -- i didn't know they weren't allowed on the sidewalk, i have a kid in a wheelchair, and i've got a toddler. i'm like, watch out. >> we don't know that yet. i don't think i mentioned this is pilot program. so we're definitely trying to understand that question. how are these being used?

is it actually a benefit to the transportation network for just for fun? we need to figure that out, we don't have those answers, we don't have those surveys in place. >> co-chair blacksten: tatiana? >> council member kostanian: i'm out in the sunset, i see a lot of scooters around. is there a central place where people go to get the scooters? and also -- how much to rent these things? >> i'll have the companies answer renting, but it's usually a $1 per ride and 15 cents a mile. oh, 15 cents a minute. in terms of the location, it is different for the different companies an could be different when we have the permit program in place. and maybe this would get an

answer to the question, but we are going to be asking the scooter companies to tell us where they plan to deploy scooters, as well as we would need to approve the service areas. so right now, i couldn't tell you for each company, it's a little different where they put them out in the mornings. and then over the course of the day, where people can park them. but there is way in the scooter app for them to say, you can only park in this particular locati location, so for instance, he found a scooter in berkeley and the scooter app told him, you're not allowed to park in berkeley, which there is nothing for him to do. we can specify areas based on geographic positioning systems to say, if you're in a certain area, you wouldn't be allowed to lock up a bike there. so there could be the opportunity to create residential areas or other specific areas that are blocked and then also for them to say,

maybe for the most part they're leaving them in soma, the downtown core, the mission, that's something the companies would propose. >> council member kostanian: when you say they're not supposed to be on the sidewalk, i've seen a lot of people on the sidewalk. and they don't really look where they're going. they're just riding. >> that's a problem. >> yeah, if it's all right, i wanted to add one they think. one of the cool things about this industry, is that we see data about where people are picking up riding and dropping off the scooters, which i know for lime, and the others we plan to work with, so we can identify if there are issues. if we're seeing a continual parking issue in a particular residential area, we can create

a message when people are locking or unlocking a scooter. or if we want to put a red mark around an area like in berkeley, this is possible. and we want to continue to iterate throughout the pilot by looking at the data in realtime and make it collaborative with mts. >> co-chair blacksten: all right. i know this subject generates a lot of interest. and very intense discussion. and i also know that some of my colleagues have more questions of you. so if you're able to stick around until a few minutes after the meeting, you might be able to have some collaboration with us. we want to continue dialogue with you. we want to collaborate. and this is something that is of interest to us. please believe me. so let me go to staff.

is there any staff that want to comment or ask a question? >> yes, i have a comment. first of all, on behalf of the mayor's office, thank you everyone for coming today. my comment and i think there might be a question in there, too, i'm not sure. i have faith that we can educate our community appropriately and to a certain degree, we can control folks' perception and behaviors. however, we can't control things like wind and the elements. and so, one of the concerns that we've heard and i experienced myself this morning, i think maybe orkid and myself were in the same area of the park and didn't realize it. there was a scooter, the wind had pushed it into the right-of-way.

and there was no way around it, except to divert quite a distance out of the way and find another path. when you're in a place like golden gate park, that is easier to do than when you're in residential areas and the scooters fall down. i'm concerned and folks have been concerned that it will dive divert, especially chair users and cane users to try to get around. although it's fantastic we're developing methods to come pick them up and get them out of the way, folks with disabilities need to get places just like everyone. and so, i guess i'm wondering what thought has been given to the elements. that's my question in there. >> sure. yeah, i think that is absolutely an important thing to consider

for the mobility friday for bikes, scooters, anything you imagine. on our end i mentioned we have the ability to alerted when a scooter is knocked over, which is a huge step over, and being creative how to solve this issue. we also wind test our products, and we iterate to make sure we're improving and that our kick stands and the product we're putting on the street is able to withstand the elements as much as possible. and if we still run into problems, then there are other options in figuring out if we need to explore a lock. you know, knowing that is out there. >> co-chair blacksten: that's great. any more questions from staff? >> yes, actually. i have some questions and suggestions.

a question for the scooter company. and suggestions. as you make up for a lot of the issues that are about sidewalk riding. so do you currently have technology on your product that will be able to alert you if the individual rider is actually riding where he or she is not allowed to ride? that's question number one. question number two, with scooters having a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour, if you have an area and if you're riding on the sidewalk, they could seriously injure someone. is there a way to regulate the speed to a safer speed

accounting for the -- for that possibility of bad actors? and third, many of you talked about equity. from the perspective of accessibility, there are many folks with disabilities that have stamina issues. but they're not exactly ready to use a mobility device. have we thought about ways of designing products or designing some of area products to be more sort of user friendly and accommodate a wider range of your user base. so it's now a typical 20

something fast moving young kids from point a to point b. we used to have the same for bicycles. is there such a concept, or has it crossed your mind, about creating a similar trend? because i think it would address a lot of the unsafe behaviors as well. >> we were just having the conversation in the office the other day, because i walk with a friend of mine, who is in her 60s, and would love to try one, but doesn't feel comfortable and would like to see a three-wheeled version. kicking around ideas. i'm not on the product side, so i'm not privy to those conversations, what is happening, but certainly, definitely, behooves us to reach as wide a group of people as possible in terms of access and mobility. as far as the speed regulation

goes, we regulate all the scooters to 15 miles per hour. which is -- it's still slower than a class 2 electric bike which are technically regulated as bikes according to the california vehicle code. the 15 mile-per-hour number was set and i'm not sure how that decision was come by. but we're open to hearing other things. we're very, very concerned about getting people off of sidewalks. we repeat it many times in the app. we are going to try to do more in-person education. down in santa monica, we're talking to a local affiliate, the bicycle coalition about perhaps plugging our users into the adult rider program, giving them a better idea how to share the vehicle with the streets. in santa monica, they're not allowed to ride anything on the sidewalks. >> they shouldn't be allowed

either. >> in santa monica, we're dealing with the people who are a bit more aware of that as a reality, because no vehicles are allowed on the sidewalks, bicycles included. it's really about culture. and education. and you know, definitely want to very aggressively work to assure that people, even if they're not using the scooters, if one day they want to use it, they're aware of the rules. >> your company has the pictures. you were requiring the users to send you a picture of where it was parked. >> we'll keep that as a record. and it allows us to know whether it was the wind that knocked it over rather than a bad actor. i like having technology on the scooters that alerts you when

they fall over. i'm going to take that back to the office. >> any thoughts about sidewalk riding? is there anything you can put in the app or product that would detect the difference between a street, a bike lane and a sidewalk? >> right now, the g.p.s. is not quite -- it's not so pinpointed that they can tell if you're five feet over. so i mean, i do think part of the answer is, you know, eyes on the street. you know working with like the bird watcher program, we're trying to have our people out there who are stopping and addressing bad behavior in a face-to-face contact. it's one thing to look at the app and another thing to have

someone come to you and say, hey, you're not supposed to do that. right now, i don't think the tech is specific enough to be able to determine where you're at. we do cordon off in our app as well, places where riding is strictly forbidden. like on the promenade in santa monica, or other places, we put a big red mark on so people know not to ride there. but as far as the g.p.s. knows, it needs to get along further. >> co-chair blacksten: we're running tight on time. i know there are more questions. is there anymore from staff? let's go to the bridge line?

>> i want to thank her for the fantastic presentation, hit every point, nail on the head perfectly about the concerns that the new products are raising. as someone who uses a wheelchair, i've been impacted by more obstacles on the sidewalk. and i'm just very concerned with how this program even launched. i think it was in very bad faith, just littering the sidewalks with hundreds of these things. i've only seen people ride them on the sidewalks. and i agree with miriam that locking them up, having like the

way the ebikes are locked up, for the equipment, and i really am concerned that a lot of this is being pushed onto the drivers and not onto the companies to be held accountable for what is happening here. because i don't think users are going to just magically change. i mean, the government has been spending millions of dollars to get people to quit drinking and driving, yet 10,000 people a year die in drunk driving accidents. that's a high number. so this is a problem for the companies that are introducing into the public streets, which they are littering this new product. and the burden should not be placed on the consumer. i want to say, i also notice there is no helmets, pads and i'm very concerned about the people that are paying to use the scooters, even if they're riding in the streets, are taking a great safety risk in

san francisco. i would like to see the companies do something about that. but i think miriam really laid it all out. the issue of equity and accessibility for people of all financial brackets as well, is another concern with the product. and -- concerned that another obstacle to -- and we're going to be -- on us to report -- [line breaking up] -- more obstacles. >> co-chair blacksten: let's allow them to respond. >> no, they don't respond. >> co-chair blacksten: i'm sorry. >> just to clarify, the council has the opportunity to work with the presenters to help provide response to those responding to public comment. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you for clarifying.

that's what i thought. can we have a response? if you care to. >> you know, addressing the issue of helmets, i know that is a state law that everyone is required to wear a helmet while riding and they offer helmets free to all users in the app. i have one myself. and speaking of somebody who actually lives in santa monica and was a little frustrated with the way bird launched there, too, when it came out. part of the reason i joined the company, just two weeks ago as a matter of fact, i believe they were reaching out to me, the shared street activist, because they're working in good faith to learn from the initial bumpy ams takes to improve what i believe personally can be a genuine asset for someone like me who doesn't own a car and doesn't

want to. and have what i'd like to call, an ecosystem of diverse transportation opportunities for people of all abilities and financial backgrounds. that's where we can be heading with this and that's why we're all here today, to make sure that's where we go. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you very much. if there is not any more comments from the bridge line, we want to thank you for your presentations. this was great. now we're going to public comment. >> tiffany from diverseability. >> hi, my name is tiffany, two quick things here. if the scooters aren't allowed on the sidewalk, why are they allowed to be parked there? because they're free standing, can they be parked on the streets similar to the scooters from that company scoot? and then the second thing, if

they're going to be treated like bikes, there are so many rules that were outlined in the mta presentation around all of the places they can't be parked, but can we just limit it to they can only be parked in the places where bikes can be parked? >> co-chair blacksten: thank you for your comment. i think we have a second one. >> we do. >> hi, everybody. golden gate regional center. my question is first it feels like education, community engagement, accessibility weren't weaved into the fabric of the business plan from the beginning. it sounds like the companies know that government and legislation is slow, so you just did things and then asked for forgiveness. is this the first conversation you've had with the city, with disability communities? how many of these conversations

have each of you had to gather feedback before launching? >> co-chair blacksten: we appreciate your comment. are there any more comments from the public? >> no. >> co-chair blacksten: all right, well this has been a great time to have a conference with you. we expect to continue this conversation going forward. so i think that's going to conclude the 8 information item on scooters and now let's proceed to number 9, information item. improving the quality of muni/bart elevators at powell and civic center stations. our presenter is tim chan. welcome to the mayor's council on disability. >> hi, thank you for having me.

my name is tim chan, i'm the acting group manager for bart in the station planning program. so this is my baby. this is my project. we worked really hard in partnering with sfmta and hunters point family to deliver this project. i'm going to tell but it and what we have heard and some of the data we received from the first three days. it's no surprise, right, to anyone what goes on in the elevators and it's been going on for a long time. much to the frustration of our customers, both bart and muni, as well as the staff. the minute our cleaners come in to clean it, right behind it, someone goes in and does stuff. it's never ending battle. so we were really inspired by the pit stop program. that is run by public works. and i meet with them on a very regular basis to cover all issues around the bart stations

in san francisco. and so as i learned more and more about first the program, the successes around the program, and then also the partnership with hunters point family, we started to have conversations maybe we need to do something similar with the elevators as a pilot. and that's what we did. so we had many meetings with sfmta, they're a funding partner for this pilot. and then probably the eventual rollout of the program, but then also with hunters point family, we wanted to make sure that the organization was going to deliver what it's reputation is with the city. and in fact, they have. so essentially the scope of the pilot is that we have elevator attendants, they're in the elevators at all times. they are operating the elevator. they're the ones pressing the buttons at the street level and also at the platform level. they don't exit out of the

elevators unless there is a specific need. so for example, if our cash handling people are coming in, they step out, allow the cash handling staff to go into the stations and then go right back into the elevators to operate it. they're there from the moment the station opens around 4:00 a.m. in the morning to the time it closes at 1:00 a.m. and their job is to do a few things. first, they greet our customers, bart and muni. they greet the customers and take information about the types of customers that are using the elevators. they do an actual count, every time someone comes in. and record that information. so first, i'd like to give you data and then i'll tell you about the responses we've heard from many people. so we have always known the elevator was well used, i don't think we had a sense of how well used it really, really was. and we think with all of the

promotional and the marketing and the stories around the elevator attendant, that increased that number. but i am happy to report, so the first three days, we saw an average at civic centre, almost 1900 users. so your jaws can drop, because mine certainly did. we also did capture different types of users. we cover people with bikes, people with strollers, luggage and ada. i want to be clear, we don't ask people if they're disabled. we do not ask that question, but if they're obviously physically and visually impaired, and mobility-impaired then we note that. so when i give you a number, average is 192 civic center, know that there could be more than that, because we don't capture all of that number. that's what we're seeing at

civic center. and at powell street it's almost 1800 users and of that number, about 128 are clearly ada. so we're incredibly encouraged by the numbers. and what it does, it makes the case to our executive team, to our managers and then also to the board that this is a service that is so critical and desperately needed. so we expect it to continue. our budget goes for adoption to the board i think on june 14. so this for a full year, will be included in the budget. i don't think our board is going to reject it. i think it's going to continue all the way through fiscal year 19. and then from there, we will also look at rolling it out for future years as well. now, we do -- we have already received questions about whether or not it can be rolled out, expanded to other stations. and that's a question that we're

going to have to really figure out. we've already had early conversations. nothing identified or confirmed. but know that the cost of delivering something like this for a full year, it's about $1.2 million. that is not for bart staff charging, that is not for sfmta bart staff charging, that is for a hunters point family to deliver all the support they need for the program. so $1.2 million, that's for two stations if we were to roll out to other stations, we have to double that, or triple that. and that means that bart and mta have to have the difficult conversation about what we're not doing. and it's not to say it's not worth it, we know it's worth it. we have to have the tradeoff discussions. the feedback we've gotten has been tremendous. through social media, all the

e-mails we received, sent to our customer service. it has been overwhelmingly positive. yesterday i wasn't to see the folks over at sfmta to give a similar presentation. i don't get applause very often, but certainly people there were happy and they did applaud this effort. i don't think they're applauding me, just the effort. i'm just so happy, at a time when public transportation and our projects and conditions are so challenged in the city, that we've got some wins going on and it's really making a big difference. i wanted to share that with you all. and i'm open for questions. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you for the presentation. that's great. alex? >> council member madrid: thank you for coming. i have two questions. one is that when you said about

the cleanliness of those two stations, right now it's very clean around are they going to continue to clean the elevators? because when i -- staffing maintain, because it's pretty clean so far. and the second question is, i ride bart and go to 16th and 24th street, and it's pretty disgusting.

>> oh, i know. >> council member madrid: i'm just being blunt. have you guys, i understand the money issue is tight, and the question is, how come those stations are not included for this time around? and the last question is reaching -- possibly thinking about adding this muni and bart budget to maintain this program? >> ok, so i think the first question is, the answer is yes.

i mean, even though -- so our aten dapts, part of the negotiation with the unions, they were not going to do any union work. and so that's why we limited their scope in terms of really just saying hello, how are you, greeting the customers and then doing recording, but they're not supposed to do any work that is associated with our system service workers, our janitorial staff, custodial staff, station agents. so they're not there to clean. in the event there are incidents around safety, security and cleanliness, their job is to immediately notify the right people who will immediately dispatch the safety security, our police officers, our community service officers and then cleaners to address the situation. you know, in terms of the pilot, we wanted to not be too ambitious, right? so in a pilot, we wanted to make sure we keep the scope relatively tight. we did identify civic center and

powell as the most challenged of all the stations we have, so it was a no-brainer to select those two. that's why we didn't do 16th and 24th. however, we're already having conversations and we know the elevator cleanliness challenges at those two stations. and that's part of the tradeoff discussion, how much more is it going to take, probably another $1.2 million, to cover 16 and 24th and what is it we won't be doing as a result of that? and bart, our system is 50 years old and i think you know we have challenges. we're delivering new rail cars, they're not completely funded, we have rail cars to think about and a bond program, but that doesn't pay for cars. we have a lot of deferred maintaenance we have to start taking care of. there is a lot of stuff that is part of the mix. and that's part of the

discussion at the staff level, executive level and board level. know it's on the radar. so don't think we haven't or won't forget about it. >> co-chair blacksten: fantasti fantastic. >> i wanted to make inquiry about a thing that happened in the station with the drugs, how is that received by the people of san francisco and by -- >> i'm sorry, with the drug, with the recent stuff? yeah. so it's been very, very well received. and so what happened, last week, there was a walk-through with the mayor, three of our bart directors, as well as our general manager and other staff to really look at the conditions of civic centre. they already have seen the video, right? they've seen that and so they did a walk-through and it was

really fantastic to hear the mayor, you know, acknowledge the challenges that we face at that station and the station area. and really to dedicate police staffing to help bart. we are short almost 30 bodies in the bart police department. we are desperately trying to hire high quality candidates, but it's very difficult. as we are continuing to try to hire, we need help from the san francisco police department and that's what the mayor and chief scott has helped us with. on wednesday, i was there in the morning doing site visiting and immediately, i saw san francisco police department at the top of the top of the entrances and patrolling in the concourse area. and i started to receive lots of compliments from people. they're cheerful, just again, adding that positive energy we desperately need at that station. this will continue. we had a follow-up meeting with

the mayor and his team. this partnership is going to continue with sf police department and we're excited about that and it's going to be fantastic for our customers. >> co-chair blacksten: sounds good. any more questions? >> council member mcdonald: i don't understand how it costs $1.2 million to service two stations. i mean, why does it cost so much? >> they are paid $15 an hour, so we start with that. they're not $3.50. but there is also a fair amount of administrative support costs. so it's not just the attendants, it's the site supervisors, the project managers, the executive staff. and they're not charging full-time, but they are spending some time on this. there are people entering information into the computer.

there are uniforms we need to purchase. there is a lot of other direct costs and administrative support costs we had to add to the attendant program. we're staffing about 35 attendants right now, because we're talking about 21 hours. so we have i think five people doing 7-hour shifts and there are three shifts. so you can begin to see why it's about $1.2 million for the whole year. >> co-chair blacksten: really appreciate the clarification. if there is no more comments from the council, i know it's about quarter to 4:00, i need to go to staff. any questions from staff? >> hi, thank you so much for being here, i'm nicole bohn. on behalf of the mayor's office -- i want to applaud bart. >> don't forget mta. >> the civic centre space is a

portal to our office, so we're appreciative. my question is around some of the data and wondering a couple of things. it might be too early, but i'm wondering with the attendance, if you're seeing breakdowns happen less frequently. and as a follow-up to that, i'm wondering if part may be able to consider using some of this data you're collecting. >> first of all, i'm happy to report, so we are tracking that metric. multiple metrics. we've collected it before we rolled out the pilot, and we're going to keep tracking around elevator availability as well as cleanliness. so the number of service calls that are needed each time. and so we will be able to start reporting that 6 months to a year time frame.

i am also very excited to report and this is something i'm working with sfmta and the transportation authority. we know that if one elevator is down, that's it. we've heard time and again from our frustrated customers where they have to backtrack and go to a different station and pray that elevator is working. that's just not acceptable. so we're working with the other agencies on putting together a design study to identify -- and we've done station modernization plans, so we have a sense of where the redundant elevators are going, we just need to take to it the next level of design. the plan is to put an extra street elevator on the other side of market street somewhere. and then at the concourse level, we have like civic center and at powell street and montgomery,

they're serving both bart and muni. not only that, it's not easy to get to. so what we're doing, those elevators we're going to enclose it in a bart paid area. and we're going to identify a new muni-only elevator in the muni paid area. and what is going to happen, on the bart side, that elevator will also serve muni in the event of emergency or repair or something. and then the muni-only elevator will serve bart for the same reason. but know there is always going to be redoneredundancredundancy. but it's so needed and we're moving forward with that. >> thank you so much, that would be another great presentation when you're close to that plan. i know we're short, but it's really important to ask, what

does bart need to terms of letters of support, or advocacy to continue the program do you think? what would be most helpful? >> you need money, that is always helpful. [laughter] so anything you all can help us with in terms of identifying potential grant opportunities, that would be fantastic. being our biggest advocate is also great. but when we do the grant stuff, is when the letters and all that really comes into play. you know, it never hurts to write letters to our general manager, to ed riskin, to our board, bevan, nick, latifah and just letting them now how happy, thrilled you are with this and love to see the program continue. i think that would be fantastic. >> thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: all right.

>> thank you so much for coming. i called you last minute and you jumped at the opportunity. as a regular bart customer for the past 12 years, coming from west oakland to san francisco to civic center, i personally want to thank you, because i've gotten way less sick since you started that program. there is also this area, it's also high employment area for people with disabilities. and we also are beginning to realize that sometimes we have to wait in line to use the elevators because everybody else wants to use the elevator. so it's no longer just a disability access point, it's a universal access point. we have seniors, we have bikers. so now up until that program started, nobody wanted to use the elevator. and it was not just the

cleanliness, but also the safety. over the last two years, i've been assaulted, i've been sick, i've been pickpocketed in the elevator. and based on where it's located for the elevator, there is areas not patrolled by bart police. tripped over individuals who were passed out, injecting. it was pretty horrible. so, i would say, as you're beginning to think to calculate tradeoffs, really start thinking about the safety issue that you're taking care of. and the potential lawsuit. and liability that comes with that. for many of us, we have no other option but the elevator. it felt like we were on the bottom of the food chain.

and you know, thank you so much for that program. i had an opportunity to talk to director and there are other issues, but the safety is a huge one. >> thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you. all right, let's go to the -- if there is no more comment from staff, let's go to the bridge line. >> anyone on the bridge line? >> yes. zack here, i'm going to have be to the odd person out, i do not share enthusiasm for this project. i'm very -- bart has a very poor track record for the disabled, i'm a wheelchair user in san francisco. i cannot buy a onetime disabled pass to get on bart. many bart stops don't have restrooms which is why people

urine ate in the pel viator, but -- elevator, which bart police have targeted and i don't want to see people being brutalized more because they need to relieve themselves and they do it in an inappropriate way. i'm concerned whether or not these people, in the elevators are going to be armed. i do not feel safe with bart people who are armed with their track record of shooting people in the back. bart has a poor track order of taking disabilities into account. there have been elevators not working continuously, there is always one elevate that doesn't work. this is constant. and this is just an example of

how much bart does not prioritize people with disabilities. and again, like i cannot buy a disabled one-time pass, getting onto a bart train. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you for your remarks. >> -- so i'm very skeptical about the goal of this. i do want cleaner elevators that people have mentioned, i do want safer elevators as well. i'm concerned at the motivations here and i would like to see restrooms at more bart stations at the same time as something like this is considered. thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: thanks for your comment. all right, so we have one person, public comment here. >> >> hi, just a quick comment. i think what is great, you are creating jobs and i would urge you to actually hire people with disabilities as the attendants

or people experiencing homelessness. given the fact it costs half a million dollars for each station, i'm curious if you're looking into other alternatives like increasing video surveillance, et cetera. >> co-chair blacksten: i want to thank you for the comment. for the speaker, i want to just simply say to you, this is -- you're doing a lot of greet work. we want -- great work. we want to continue having a conversation with you, collaborating with you and i want to simply say from my perspective, as a guide dog user, there is an additional safety hazard for me. i have to go to the civic center, bart station quite often. we walk across needles and many other things. and it's a risk to her. so you need to be aware there is a guide dog user community out there, and we have to deal with it, too. and so, you're doing great work, thank you.

i'm going to close this item out. great discussion. that's all i can say. all right, so now public comment. are there any comments from the public that is not on the agenda today? >> brief comment. i just want to thank everyone here today for the time. i think there has been great discussions. i want to provide my e-mail. totally looking forward to hearing from people and continuing the conversation. and lastly, i just want to ask, to mod in a general suggestion, concern, for local organizations, i'm really concerned about the response time for a request, a communication request around accessibility.

as well as request to speak to a supervisor. i bring these two issues up, because i've had many experiences where i've waited weeks or months for a reply from sfmta and other organizations. and have sometimes been refused to be able to speak with a supervisor. so i'm just kind of wanting to follow up on that. and that seems not right to me, so i would love to work with mod staff possibly to look into those issues. thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you. we'll make note of your suggestion. and move forward accordingly. are there any more public comments? we always want to hear them. all right. not hearing any. let's move on to item number 12 -- i forgot correspondence. >> there is not any correspondence at this time. >> co-chair blacksten: thank

you. now we go to council member comments and announcements. are there any from my colleagues on the council? none. no comments. i don't have any either right now. you'll hear further report from me next month. this has been a great meeting. i appreciate you all coming. if any of the presenters are around, i'm sure you may get questions. we want to continue collaborating and talking with you. with that, i think, hey, we're right on time, just about 4:00. do i hear someone to adjourn? >> i move that we adjourn. >> co-chair blacksten: all >> co-chair blacksten: all right, we're adjourned.

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