forward? >> that's an excellent question. going forward, we've spoken with p.u.c. staff just to talk about the principle, but because they are having this big event in april where they get to, you know, announce really that they've enrolled so much of the city -- they don't want to rebrand. there's been a brand that's been incredibly effective. we are look to do this. they would need to trek the princip -- tweak the principle ads. the question is the cost of available budget. we haven't heard any definitive numbers at this point, it's all theoretical. >> yes. >> hi. program manager, communications

and community engagement. just to answer your question, commissioner wan, i believe it was a two-month fly for the campaign, i believe it was 200,000. so that was the time for engaging our agency, the media buy, creative services, research, testing -- so our time was separate from that, but that was for the entire campaign. >> any other questions? if not, do we have any public comment on this item? mr. brooks? >> hello. eric brooks again, san francisco clean energy advocates. excuse me. getting over that cold, and californians for energy choice. this is really good. the tacos and the garlic fries,

that's really good. the funding for the next round of this -- and hopefully, there'll be funding for the next round of this. i've got a done of key messages, the key thing that i saw that was missing on the bus line, but it's really crucial. the sfpuc is this same problem in its marketing. cleanpowersf has to be just as big as the word tacos and probably just as noticeable, probably in green because people need to be able to go to their phone, open their phone, and tap in cleanpowersf.org. that's a simple thing that will make this more effective. the other thing that's really techie that's really crucial, even on on-line ads and other

places where people can interact with their cell phone with the marketing, is put the like q.r. code up on the ad. you've seen them for cryptocurrency, it's not just the bars, it's the little scrambled thing when you get on amtrak. put those things on each ad so when somebody's reading the paper or they're on the bus, they see the ad, there's a q.r. code that says use your phone to track this app and sign up. >> thank you. any other comments? if not, we'll go onto the next item. thank you. >> clerk: the next item is

item eight, director's report. the explanatory document is the director's report. this item is for discussion. >> and before we have our director give the report, i just wanted to point out that something very, very cool happened because she was listed -- let me get the proper title here. to director debbie raphael was added to the list of the world's 100 most influential people in climate policy, and this prestigious group includes post francis, paris mayor, al gore, congress woman alexandra ocasio-cortez, and the list goes on. but we are so proud of your work. [applause] >> the work, the recognition

that people who are -- who are in this area, i just watched when we had the global climate summit in san francisco, and when you said you were a member of this commission, commission on the environment, they were just like do you know debbie raphael? it's just a wonderful indication for our city. it's embraced with heart and feeling and such deep commitment, to thank you. [applause] >> oh, yeah. when i saw that, at first, i thought it was a gimmick that they wanted money out of me or something, and then, i realized that apolitical was something in the u.k. there were two cities on the

list, copenhagen and san francisco. i do agree, president bermejo, that it speaks to the world what san francisco is doing, just like all the people that are listed, it's so much beyond all individuals, it's what they do collectively. it's getting late, and my list of what's on here is so incredibly inspiring, so i'm just going to go quickly because i want to call some things out. i want to say congratulations to commissioner wan, and her award was such a kick to see it and so much fun to read about your history. we've had some milestones, the electric vehicle working group, that we've been working on this 1.5 years.

this is going before the mayor for her review and decision. i'm going to be meeting with the mayor the day after tomorrow to talk about our environmental agenda, so this will be one thing on the list of many things that i will be talking about with the mayor. just so you know, the zero rollout, we are making incredible progress on that. no our green business awards, i definitely want to thank commissioners wan and an, who came. i know everybody was not able to make it, but it was phenomenal, don't you agree? yeah, it was amazing. we recognized more than 100 certified green businesses. that's more than we ever recognized. today, he had a deep honor being invited by the rec and park department. they do something once a year called rec park university where they give a conference experience to line staff who normally wouldn't get to go to

conferences, and so they asked me to come talk about zero 8100 roots, and the energy that i caught from the people in the audience was phenomenal and just made me so proud of how deep our commitment is and city staff to do what they can for climate. mike is not here anymore but was so fascinated to your question, commissioner wald, about examples of working on energy efficiency with p.u.c. we actually had a very interesting meeting with barbara hale and mike hiyams t talk about the future, either through the funding charges which p.u.c. will have to apply for? it's labor intensive and we're committed to working with them. it's also committed to exploring revenues with cleanpowersf. once after enrollment expands,

they should have more revenue, and we gave them some options for energy plans that they could help us fund. lastly, i want to remind you that earth day breakfast is not happening this year. the mayor made the decision that she didn't want to focus on one event, but a month of service, a month of action. so we have been reimagining our earth day celebrations, so we are having an s.f. month of climate action. we'll be launching that on april 1, with the mayor, along with other announcements, so look for that, we'll give you more information once we have it. there will be a month of opportunities for all of us to participate, from planting trees to putting solar in to cleaning up the city. we're launching a website around climate action that people can do. it's also movies and lectures. there's so much going on in the city in april.

we will let you know just like we did with gcas what some opportunities are for you to represent the city in april. and then, of course on april 24, which i hope you all have on your calendars, that is a closing reception, it is an evening reception in the green room where we will be celebrating a month of action and based on the work that you have done, the first ever mayor's environmental service award. so we will be launching that and mayor breed will give the first inaugural service award which we hope will be an annual event. we've given her a list of potential candidates, so we'll be working with her on that. so i'm very excited. it's been exhausting and

exhilarating. i want to give a shout out to those who have been working so hard. and i want to end the meeting with an introduction. i hate to do this to giana, but i will because it'll put context to you. this is the new tamar. >> oh. >> oh, welcome. >> yes. i'm giana. this is my second day working for the department of environment? i am super honored and grateful to be joining such a strong team and to be picking up where tamar left off and hopefully to be taking the environmental education to the next level? i'm an irmt environmental educationo -- i'm an environmental educator, and it's exciting to educate the next level of environmental educators. thank you for having me.

>> welcome. [applause] >> any questions regarding the director's report? any public comment? hearing none, next item. >> clerk: the next item is item nine, committee reports. this item is for discussion. president bermejo, we received a request to table the item from a commissioner. is there any objection? >> okay. sounds like a plan. >> due to the lateness of the hour, and that was 1.5 hours ago. >> i guess we ask for public comment on tabling the item? is there any comment? okay. next item. >> clerk: the next item is item ten, announcements. this item is for discussion. >> commissioners? any public comment? okay. thank you. no public comment?

then. >> clerk: the next item is item 11, new business, the speaker is charles sheehan, new business and policy advisor. >> thank you, commissioners. i'll be brief. the next policy commission is on april 8. we're still working on a policy commissions meeting which will be sometime in may, and the next date is may 28 for that meeting. we are looking to bring you a presentation about our carpool pilot program as well as some things that our director alluded to regarding electric vehicles and our work with the city and other city departments on the promotion of electric vehicles within the city. so stay tuned, that will be a very substantive agenda topic that we're hoping to bring to you. >> okay. thank you. any comment? any public comment? >> yes, i do -- i know it's late, but i -- there's something that was brought up by one of the public commenters on an earlier item that i

really think did warrant a future agenda item for the commission. and that is this idea of building for transit density. the commenter made the comment that senator wiener's sb-50 would increase transit use and increase affordable housing, and nothing to be more opposite than the truth -- from the truth. the reality is that those -- legislation like that has been repeatedly used to build market rate housing. and if you look at the legislation and unpack it, you will see that most of the housing that will be built is market rate. so market rate and luxury house, if you look at the numbers that have been crunched, the people at those

income levels do not use transit, they drive cars because they're wealthy enough not to use transit. so when you build a building and it's only got ten to 15% or sometimes unfortunately even less affordable housing in it, you're not serving the transit center that you're building the building next to, you're just increasing car jams in city centers. another huge problem with this legislation is that it specifically targets, specifically targets places that are -- already have transit centers that have transit -- accessible transit nearby, and if you look at the news reports about this legislation, you will see that there are suburban mayors and supervisors and city council members who have said boy, we're not going to build transit now if that passes because if we do, they're going to come in and take over our city and build super high-rises

because the legislation allows them to do that without us having a say locally. so it's actually -- this kind of legislation, unless it has incredibly high amounts of low-income and middle working class housing, those people do ride transit when they're next to it. if it doesn't have really high levels of that kind of housing, it actually makes the situation worse. and then, to top it off, it -- the amount of market rate and luxury housing gentrifies the area, and they use a car to get into the city and create even more emissions. i think it would be good for this commission to have a really lengthy hearing about how transit density actually works and how to actually get it to happen. thanks. >> thank you. okay. next item.

>> clerk: the next item is item 12, adjournment. the time is 8:23 p.m. . >> we are adjourned.

>> look at that beautiful jellyfish. the way to speak to students and motivate them to take action, to save the planet, they do, they care and my job is to speak to them in a way that they can understand that touches their heart and makes them feel powerful with simple actions to take every day. ♪

♪ >> i was born and raised in the desert of palm springs, california. my dad was the rabbi in the community there. what i got from watching my father on stage talking to the community was learning how to be in the public. and learning how to do public speaking and i remember the first time i got up to give my first school assembly, i felt my dad over my shoulder saying pause for drama, deliver your words. when i was a kid, i wanted to be a teacher. and then when i got into high school, i decided i wanted to get into advertising and do graphic art and taglines and stuff like that. by the time i was in college, i decided i wanted to be a

decorator. but as i did more work, i realized working my way up meant a lot of physical labor. i only had so much energy to work with for the rest of my life and i could use that energy towards making a lot of money, helping someone else make a lot of money or doing something meaningful. i found the nonprofit working to save the rainforest was looking for volunteers. i went, volunteered and my life changed. suddenly everything i was doing had meaning. stuffing envelopes had meaning, faxing out requests had meaning. i eventually moved up to san francisco to work out of the office here, given a lot of assembly through los angeles county and then came up here and doing assemblies to kids about rainforest. one of my jobs was to teach about recycle, teaching students to reduce, reuse, recycle and

compost, i'm teaching them they have the power, and that motivates them. it was satisfying for me to work with for the department of environment to create a message that gets to the heart of the issue. the san francisco department of environment is the only agency that has a full time educational team, we go into the schools to help teach children how to protect nature and the environment. we realized we needed animal mascot to spark excitement with the students. the city during the gold rush days, the phoenix became part of the city feel and i love the symbolism of the phoenix, about transformation and the message that the theme of the phoenix provides, we all have the power to transform our world for the better. we have to provide teachers with

curriculum online, our curriculum is in two different languages and whether it's lesson plans or student fact sheets, teachers can use them and we've had great feedback. we have helped public and private schools in san francisco increase their waste use and students are working hard to sort waste at the end of the lunch and understand the power of reusing, reducing, recycling and composting. >> great job. >> i've been with the department for 15 years and an environmental educator for more than 23 years and i'm grateful for the work that i get to do, especially on behalf of the city and county of san francisco. i try to use my voice as intentionally as possible to suppo

support, i think of my grandmother who had a positive attitude and looked at things positively. try to do that as well in my work and with my words to be an uplifting force for myself and others. think of entering the job force as a treasure hunt. you can only go to your next clue and more will be revealed. follow your instincts, listen to your gut, follow your heart, do what makes you happy and pragmatic and see where it takes you and get to the next place. trust if you want to do good in this world, that (clapping.) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i think we have more companies anywhere in the united states it's at the amazing statement we're not trying to be flashy or

shocking just trying to create something new and original were >> one of the things about the conduct our you enter and turn your your back and just so the orchestra. the most contrary composer of this time if you accountability his music you would think he's a camera come important he become ill and it was crazy he at the end of his life and pushed the boundary to think we're not acceptable at this point for sure it had a great influence he was a great influence on the harmonic language on the contemporary up to now. i thought it would be

interesting because they have e he was contemporary we use him on this and his life was you kill our wife you get poisons all those things are great stories for on opera. i was leaving behind a little bit which those collaborative dancers i was really trying to focus on opera. a friend of mine said well, what would you really want to do i said opera what is it not opera parallel. why isn't it are that i have the support now we can do that. i realized that was something that wasn't being done in san

francisco no other organization was doing this as opposed to contemporary we are very blessed in san francisco to have organizations well, i thought that was going to be our speciality >> you create a conceptual idea for setting the opera and you spear ahead and work with the other sdierndz to create an overview vision that's the final product felt opera. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i was very inspired to work with him because the way he looked at the key is the way i looked at sports looking at the daily. >> so much our mandate is to try to enter disis particular

work there's great dancers and theatre actresses and choirs we've worked with and great video artists is a great place to collect and collaborate. i had a model they have a professionally music yes, ma'am assemble and as a student i benefited from being around this professional on and on soccer ball and as a conductor i'd be able to work with them and it's helped my growth i had a dream of having a professional residential on and on soccer ball to be an imperial >> it operates as a laboratory we germ a national the ideas technically and work with activity artists and designers and video all over the on any

given project to further the way we tell stories to improve our ability to tell stories on stage. that's part of the opera lab >> i was to investigate that aspect of renaissance and new work so that's why this piece it is important it was a renaissance composer. >> there were young people that are not interested in seeing traditional opera and like the quality and it's different it has a story telling quality every little detail is integrated and helps to capture the imagination and that's part of the opera how we can use

those colors into the language of today. >> so one of the great things of the stories of opera and story combined with opera music it allows people to let go and be entertained and enjoy the music instead of putting on headphones. >> that's what is great about art sometimes everyone loves it because you have to, you know, really great you have to have both some people don't like it and some people do we're concerned about that. >> it's about thirty something out there that's risky. you know, disliked by someone torn apart and that's the whole point of what we're drying to do

>> you never take this for granted you make sure it is the best if you can. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> thank you all very much for coming out on this rainy san francisco day to help us celebrate a landmark project for the people of this city. my name's ed reiskin. i'm the transportation director here in san francisco, and really glad to be able to be here today to celebrate long-planned improvements for one of the most important corrid

corridor in our city. it was more than 30 years ago that some folks were looking at our city and thinking about the future of it and back then identified the geary corridor as one of the most important corridors for transit in our city looking forward into the future, and they were right, because fast forward 30 years later, the geary corridor is one of the highest if not the highest bus ridership transit corridor in the western united states. it's -- you have -- it's pretty impressive. it's alone -- if the geary transit were its own transit, it would be among the largest transit systems in the bay area, so the folks back then had it right when they recognized the importance of the geary transit system to san francisco. so fast forward to today. we at the sfmta have been maded

improvements over the years within the constraints of the street as it is to try to add more service, to try to improve the service. but the project that we're breaking ground on today really takes that a quantum step forward in terms of not just making improvements to muni but also upgrading the infrastructure, modernizing the infrastructure and making the street safer, which is really pulling together a number of different city priorities and bundling them into one project here that we're breaking ground on today. that kind of project, hitting that many city policy goals, doesn't just happen. it takes a lot of work from a lot of leadership, a lot of our community partners. you'll hear some of them speaking today, but it also takes policy and political leadership, so i want to

acknowledge the sfmta board of directors, our chair heinicke and director torres, art torres is here. it takes the board of supervisors who sit as the transportation authority board, and vallie brown is here, the supervisor from this district. it takes leadership from the top, and from the time she took office, three priorities of the mayor have been upgrading muni, and making our streets safer. it wouldn't be the same without here, so please join me welcoming our mayor, mayor breed. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: hello, everyone. exciting day to be here. every time i come to the neighborhood, i think about my childhood, and i actually grew

up right down the street. and we used to take certain routes when we were kids. we would hangout -- i mean, i went to rosa parks elementary school, but we would hangout and jump the fence and play on the playgrounds. then, we would walk across geary beforehand, and we would not necessarily walk across the lights. i think the video game frogger was probably designed because we would leapfrog through the streets which were definitely not safe as kids, and that's why this project is so important. we would head over to japantown and hangout at japantown bowl. and back then, things were a lot different. we had fun as kids, but we got into trouble probably some here and there by crossing the streets where we shouldn't have, and we really want to focus on trying to make san francisco a better, more safe place, and make our public

transportation system a lot more reliable than it had been in the past. i think about, you know, just what we've been able to accomplish in this community. you know, a lot of great improvements in our public transportation system. in fact, when i served on the board of supervisors, because there was a geary limited, which is now the geary rapid. i didn't understand why the fulton and the 510 and all these buses that came between the west side and the east side transportation, why we weren't thinking more about our transportation systems and thinking more about the 510-r. thank you to the sfmta because it's been a great addition to our public transportation system. but i also think about the past. if we had built all of our transportation systems underground, it would be even a

more amazing system with not only better transportation but safer transportation. this project today as we break ground on what i think is going to make such a significant impact on this community but also folks who live in the west side of the city, people who rely on the 38 geary, whether it's the rapid or the regular 38 geary, to get to school, to get to work, to shop, and to do the kinds of things that so many people want to do on our public transportation system. providing the geary b.r.t. i think is going to change how people are getting around, making it a lot more efficient and making our public transportation system much more reliable than it had been in the past, and that's what this project is about. it's also about safety and improving access to our public transportation system for people who are seniors and those with disabilities.

i know that this community wanted to save the laguna street stop because we have a lot of seniors who use that stop, and going up and down the hills are not necessarily an easy thing as you get older, and we were able to do that because of this community. we also know the laguna street -- the webster street bridge is something that was important to this community and particularly to the rosa parks elementary community. so we've been able to do things and making sure your voices were heard as we move forward public transportation here in san francisco for all residents. so i'm excited to be here today because this is a long time coming. yes, when we did the central subway, and we visited the -- there was this big machine called big bertha, and we got a chance during that ground breaking to write, you know, messages on big bertha, the --

what do you call it, the thing -- tunnel what? the tunnel boring machine, the thing that's driving the hole underneath the ground, and i wrote on big bertha, see you on geary boulevard. well, my dream project is to go underground on geary boulevard, but the money is not necessarily this to do that. but we're doing the next best thing. we're providing bus rapid transit service on geary boulevard with the goal of improving public transportation on one of the busiest corridors of our city. it's going to make an impact, and i'm excited because it's going to be a challenge. congestion is a problem in san francisco. people are frustrated. there's a lot of construction that's happening. and what i want people to know is i gueet that we have

challenges, and we're going to be doing some short and long-term fixes to address those challenges. but just imagine before any of us was born, some of our leaders made a decision to go underground then and were inconvenienced at that time how we would be dealing with a better transportation system now. we have to make some tough decisions to improve transportation for future generations. that's what this is about, improving our system for the future so that the future generation of san franciscans are not pointing the finger at us and blaming us for not doing the right thing and making our system better for all of us. i also want to take this opportunity to talk just a little bit about safety and safety on our streets because we know, sadly, more recently, there have been a number of fatalities that have happened because of collisions.

and part of what we need to do, yes, is improve our public transportation system, but more importantly, improve our infrastructure so that people are safe on our streets. and also one of the things that i am pushing for is making sure that our police department, they're issuing more citations for those drivers who are basically creating a bit of a nuisance on our streets, the people who are driving too fast, and that is just really a problem. so i know none of us want to get a ticket, so i want you all to slow down. people are walking, people are riding bikes. seniors are trying to make it across the street and may not make it across before the light changes. we have to do more as a city to protect residents, and that means making improvements to our infrastructure and holding people accountable who are out there, creating challenges on the road. not an easy thing to do, but a necessary thing to do as we

improve our infrastructure. i know congestion is frustrating. i know that people want to get from point a to point b, but i ask you to be patient with us. i ask that you slow down, and i ask that you continue to support these projects that are going to make our city better, make our public transportation, and make our city safer in the long run. with that, i want to introduce someone who has had an important role in helping me who, when i was on the board of supervisors, we were able to secure funding for this project, as i said, we were able to save the webster street bridge, and we were able to save the laguna street stop. and as someone who has played an important role in this community and all the challenges it's faced in the past and will continue to face in the future is your supervisor, vallie brown.

[applause] >> supervisor brown: i just want to thank everyone for being here today. i also would like to thank the rosa park elementary school. mayor breed, you missed their performance, and that would have been your favorite part of this. that was an -- amazing. i usually don't quote famous figures, but i think mark twain has a good quote for this particular day. good things come to those who wait if you don't die in the meantime. and i think a lot of us have a few gray hairs since prop k passed in 2003 for the b.r.t., the geary b.r.t., but here we are, and i'm really excited about this, and i'm really excited to look around the room and see so many people that were part of this process. and i know i've talked to a few of you, and you all remember the meetings that we would have

year and year, and they were up in the cathedral, and i think someone reminded me, one meeting -- community meeting, someone stole the comment box. so -- yes, yes. so this has been a journey. but i'm very excited about this project. you know, the geary b.r.t. has 54,000 riders a day. so if we're able to save two minutes of every san francisco ride, that's 18,000 hours a week. that is 75 days a year that we save san franciscans. that's pretty amazing. if -- this is something that mayor breed and i have dealt with for years, the safety of the geary boulevard through vanness through stannion, and i know she had talked about it,

but there has been tragedies. people have been hit and killed there, and it's something that we've looked at, everybody has looked at it, how to make it safer. the geary boulevard has eight times as many collisions as anywhere else in the city, and that's disturbing when you think about that. so what is exciting about the geary b.r.t. is it actually will be working on pedestrians safety. and just adjacent here to japantown, it's going to be happening, and that's exciting, and so many of you in this room have been fighting for this for years. and it also is going to bridge the community back together with japantown and the western addition that was separated by this huge busy freeway and

redevelopment, and something that we're going to make good onto bring these communities closer together with this kind of pedestrian safety. so i wanted to thank everyone for coming, and i want to thank sfmta and all their great staff that has put up with all of us through these years. and i say let's get the -- let's get it started. and i think this is the ground breaking. i'm not really sure -- or we're planting something, not really sure. either way, thank you, everyone, and we'll see you soon. [applause] >> good afternoon, everybody. i'm malcolm heinicke. i'm the chair of the sfmta board. it's very nice to be in this building not yelling at my daughter to dribble more with her left-hand. so thank you all for indulging. it's great to have a school

like rosa parks named after our community's history. my fellow director on the board, art torres is here. you may remember him as a state senator, leader of the california democratic party. also went to church with rosa. he has wonderful stories of her. i think it's great that we have our own pioneer from the neighborhood here today as our mayor. mayor breed, it's really a privilege to call you our mayor. [applause] >> so in addition to being nice to the mayor, what qualifies me to be the chair of the sfmta -- she didn't appoint me, but i really just respect her in her own right, of course, is that i ride the system every day. it is my primary form of transportation. i get to work, i get to the gym, i get to my children's events on muni. and i live in a part of town

where i can ride the underground. i ride the metro every day. when it works, most of the time, i have a ten-minute commute free of obstruction, and i feel like a real san franciscan. i'm not polluting the air, i'm not congesting the streets, and i'm taking, quite frankly, is what is the most efficient route for me. i want that experience for all san franciscans, and here, on geary street, as the supervisor mentioned, we have 54,000 customers a day. 54,000 customers who don't have the free, unobstructed ride that i do, at least not now. mayor breed is exactly right. we could have made choices earlier, but going back in history doesn't help us. making the right choices now does help us. so with mayor breed's leadership and the leadership of my fellow directors, i'm proud to be delivering a

product that as i've said many times before will be the above-ground subway for our residents. it will priev efficient service and hopefully, the folks who ride this will have the same feeling i have about my commute. this is the most efficient and attractive way to go. that's how we will reduce congestion, pollution, and accidents. now, this isn't just a transit efficiency project, this is a very significant and broad project that as director reiskin said will increase pedestrian safety, increate cyclist access and of course make the overall system work much better. so i am very proud to be here as we move around some dirt in planters to signify the opening of this project which is really just going to be fantastic and serve these customers so well. and -- and one of the things i get to do here, i have the

privilege of introducing director nuru to you all, this is a partnership. sfmta works not only with the mayor's office but with our partners in other departments, including the department of public works to bring all these projects together, and we're so grateful for that partnership over the years. and i will say personally, i've been doing this now for 12.5 years, i'm grateful for all the support you've shown us over the years. please, come celebrate with us. [applause] >> chair nuru: thank you, director heinicke, thank you, mayor breed, thank you, director reiskin. i want to begin by just taking this opportunity to reiterate our commitment from san francisco public works to the city's vision zero goal of making the streets safer for all users, whether you're driving, you're biking, or you're in transit.

every traffic fatality here in our city is heartbreaking. and when we lose someone, whether it's a neighbor or classmate or someone, these are situations that are frankly unacceptable and preventible. and so i'm excited about the improvements that are coming to geary boulevard. and as the population in our city continues to climb, our city is getting more congests and, we have to double down on our efforts to make our streets much safer and improve the transportation infrastructure. one of the exciting parts for us is while we are improving the transportation infrastru infrastructure, we are going to be improving many of the sewer and water lines along geary, which will be ensuring the customers and businesses that you will continue to have

quality utilities. the geary b.a.r.t. -- b.r.t. is making safer crossings, making greater visibility between traffic and pedestrians, and slowing the traffic down in our city, which is something our city really needs. we will also be repaving a significant part of geary so that people who drive will have a much smoother and safer experience while they're driving on geary -- on geary boulevard. this project is a major undertaking, and we heard that many agencies are involved, but also, a huge partnership with the community, so -- that have been involved in bringing the project to fruition, and at this time, i would ask tilly chang from the transportation authority who's been a major

partner to say a few words. [applause] >> thank you so much, mohamed, mayor breed, and honored guests. i'm so delighted to be here on behalf of the transportation authority to congratulation the sfmta and our partner agencies on this very happy day, and the entire community, really, for this collaborative effort. as mayor breed mentioned, this has been a long time coming, and recognizing that the plans began well over 30 years ago as well as the vision for this area. this muni vision was expressed as early as the 2001 plan, carried forward in 2003, and then carried forward by voters in the prop k expenditure plan. because we all recognize to bring the community back together and heal the division that had been created through

the earlier development of the division section, but also improve the ridability for the 50,000 riders who use this essential corridor every day. so i just wanted to recognize all the hard work on this project, from board members past and present, c.a.c. members past and present, and i see many of them here in the audience today. i'll just recognize a few, ben horn, richard hashimoto from japantown. i'm sorry if i missed a few others. we welcome the community effort from the members, the merchants, the riders, and you're seeing the fruit of that collaboration in the designs that are kicking off today. of course, this is an essential transit safe reliability and travel time improvements, as supervisor brown mentioned in

fantastic fashion with the 75 days a year of travel savings when you add it all up, but it's a significant safety project and a way to knit the community together. i just want to thank all the hard work that my team and many others across the city family have devoted in all the hours and the outreach and the funding phase, and working with groups like the japantown task force and fillmore communities and the merchants such as everything from the cpmc which just very happily opens at the intersection of vanness and geary to the smaller businesses and the medium sized businesses in the japantown area, the fillmore, all those folks who will be able to be confident that we have safe and accessible routes to essential transit services for the

commuters again and everybody who relies on this important line. so i just want to thank everyone for your hard work, your collaboration. mayor breed, thank you. especially when you were on the board of supervisors to challenging us to really work with the community to ensure that we were listening to them, whether it was the laguna stop, whether it was the western street bridge, whether it was making sure that we were maintaining access for everyone and preserving as much parking as we were. i think we were able to maintain 95% of the parking along the corridor. these are really important features that we can ensure a complete project. we were even able to ensure north-south travel and integrate the masonic project. so i thank all the agencies and p.u.c. now. we're really going to be able to upgrade the p.u.c.

infrastructure. we were able to provided about $13 million in local fund along with g.o. funding to collaborate on this project. i want to make sure we gather very soon, i think in 2021 for the ribbon cutting to celebrate this important improvement but also ahead to delivering the full project together in the coming years. thank you so much. five, four, three, two, one. here we go. [cheers and applause] >> providing excellent customer service to each other so that we can succeed together.

because we're a small division out here, and we're separated from the rest of the p.u.c., a lot of people wear a lot of different hats. everyone is really adept not just at their own job assigned to them, but really understanding how their job relates to the other functions, and then, how they can work together with other functions in the organization to solve those problems and meet our core mission. >> we procure, track, and store materials and supplies for the project here. our real goal is to provide the best materials, services and supplies to the 250 people that work here at hetch hetchy, and turn, that supports everyone here in the city. i have a very small, but very efficient and effective team. we really focus hard on doing things right, and then focus on doing the right thing, that benefits everyone. >> the accounting team has several different functions. what happens is because we're

so remote out here, we have small groups of people that have to do what the equivalent are of many people in the city. out here, our accounting team handles everything. they love it, they know it inside out, they cherish it, they do their best to make the system work at its most efficient. they work for ways to improve it all the time, and that's really an amazing thing. this is really unique because it's everybody across the board. they're invested it, and they do their best for it. >> they're a pretty dynamic team, actually. the warehouse team guys, and the gals over in accounting work very well together. i'm typically in engineering, so i don't work with them all day on an every day basis. so when i do, they've included me in their team and treated me

as part of the family. it's pretty amazing. >> this team really understanding the mission of the organization and our responsibilities to deliver water and power, and the team also understands that in order to do that, we have a commitment to each other, so we're all committed to the success of the organization, and that means providing excellent customer service to each other so that we can succeed

>> good afternoon and welcome to the march 19th, 2019 regular meeting of the san francisco board of supervisors. please have a seat. madame clerk, please call the roll. >> thank you, mr. president. [roll call]