mayor's disability council this friday, march 15th, 2019 in room 400 of san francisco city hall. city hall is accessible to persons using wheelchairs and other assistive mobility devices. wheelchair access is provided at the grove, van ness and mcallister streets via ramps. wheelchair access at the polk street, carlton b. goodlett entrance is provided via wheelchair lift. assistive listening devices are available and our meeting is open captioned in sign language

interpreted. our agendas are also available in large print and braille. please ask staff for any additional assistance. to prevent electronic interference with this room sound system, and to respect everyone's ability to focus on the presentation, please silence all mobile phones and pdas. your cooperation is appreciated. we welcome the public's participation during public comment periods. there will be opportunity for public comment at the beginning and end of the meeting as well as after every item on today's agenda. each comment is limited to three minutes. and a council will respond to your comments following the meeting if you provide your

contact information. you may complete a speaker's card, available in the front of the room, approach the microphone during public comment, or call our bridge line at 1-415-554-9632. where a staff person will handle requests to speak at the most appropriate time. the mayor's disability council meetings are generally held on the 3rd friday of the month. our next regular meeting will be held on friday, may 17, 2019, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. right here at san francisco city hall in room 400. please call the mayor's office on disability for further information or to request

accommodations at 1-415-554-6789 voice, or e-mail them at mod@sfgov.org. a reminder to all of our guests today to speak slowly into the microphone. i had to learn that myself. to assist our captioners and interpreters, we thank you. -- for joining us. so what i'd like to do is ask roll call of the council members here today. >> co-chair denise senhaux? >> present. jim blacksten? present. alex madrid, here.

council member sally coghlan mcdonald. present. council member orkid. >> co-chair blacksten: i believe we have a quorum. only missing one person. let's move to item number 2, action item, it's the reading of the agenda by staff. >> item 1, welcome, introduction and roll call. item 2 action item, reading and approval of the agenda. item 3, public comment. items not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. we welcome the public's participation during public comment periods. there will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and end of the meeting as well

as after every item on today's agenda. each comment is limited to three minutes and the council will respond to your comments following the meeting if you provide your contact information. you may complete a speaker's card available in the front of the room, approach the microphone during public comment or call our bridge line at 1-415-554-9632. where a staff person will handle requests to speak at the appropriate time. item 4. information item. co-chair report. item 5. information item. report from the mayor's office on disability. please neat that the director's report can be found on the what's new section of mod's website. item 6, information item. better market street project updates. this presentation will provide an update on the better market street project including status, schedule and conceptual design.

the design will include the proposed loading zones and kent and curbside boarding islands. presentation by cristina calderon olea, better market street project manager, san francisco doesn't of public works. break. the council will take a 15-minute break. item 7, information item. san francisco's housing strategic plan. this presentation will include san francisco's five-year planning process for the consolidated housing plan, analysis of impediments to fair housing choice and specific h.i.v. housing plan. presentation by teresa yanga. item 8, ceremonial item, honoring donna adkins, former programmatic access specialist and council clerk who left her

position in january. item 9, public comment. items not on today's agenda but within the jurisdiction of the mdc. each speaker is limited to three minutes. please approach the microphone or give your comment card to the mod staff. item 10, information item. correspondence. item 11, discussion item, council member comments and announcements. item 12, adjourned. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you, heather, appreciate it very much. so let's see, now that we've done that. let's move on to number 3, which is -- do we have any speaker's card for public comment? >> yeah, we do. the first is bob. >> excuse me, is this where you wanted to speak?

you'll go next. >> do we need to approve the agenda? >> yeah, we need to do a motion. >> co-chair blacksten: i'm sorry. do i have a motion to approve the agenda? >> motion to approve. >> co-chair blacksten: do i hear a second? it's been moved and seconded. all those in favor? abstentions? motion carries. all right. so i missed that one. >> as to public comment my name is bob plant hold. i've come to talk about what is called the eir, the environmental impact report and its lack of accessibility. in the 1970s when air pollution was considered obviously a new but dangerous aspect of construction and development, there were both state and federal laws passed that said

when you're going through a major construction, whether it's rehab or new, you've got to consider these type of impacts. they specified the type of impacts, but this was in the 1970s so there was nothing about accessibility. there still isn't anything about accessibility. there is some people who treasure buildings or structures in such a way that they will ignore accessibility and say, that's another law, that's another group of people, that's not my concern. my concern is the historic character of "x". some people would say, well, sure we're concerned, but we look at the material that is planned and it's all safe. well, there again is a problem with the safety of materials that we walk on. the standards developed for testing whether material is slippery, whether it's unsafe, it has to be cleaned and dry.

so there is some materials, like brick, that when wet can be slippery. that doesn't count in terms of the determination or the statement that this material meets code and is safe to walk on. so those of us who may use crutches or who may drag, slide our feet, who have any number of variable mobility patterns that does not make us fully stable, we could slip and fall on material that is wet, though it's considered safe. i want you to keep that in mind when you start to hear about eirs. there is nothing about accessibility. and that always has to be added in by the advocates to make sure they are paid attention to. i've been a part of various rehab and building projects where the history has preempted

access in such a way that the access is cumbersome, costly and seldom used. i can give you information about that. i'm done for now. start asking lots of questions about eir and accessibility whenever it comes in front of you. thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you, bob. >> we have two more. edward mason. >> thank you. my name is edward mason and i would like to speak generally about the light rail vehicles that are coming into service now. i would like to share with you a sad observation i had recently that was an individual in a wheelchair, and that had adaptive devices to have their leg extended out wards as opposed to being perpendicular. as a consequence, when the individual attempted to board

through the front door, behind the operator's circular cab, he was unable to navigate is that way and was then forced to remove the adaptive devices, put them on his lap, and then, you know, try to go to a place. and then also, he had to exit that way also impeding his mobility and also delaying the operation. so i thought that this was -- i was just totally mortified when i saw this, that had not been considered in the design of the equipment. the second topic relates to the bench seating. there has been so much outcry on that, that, yes, muni is initiating the process to come up with a new seating arrangement. one of the things that i would recommend is there be more blue seats, rather than just the two on each side that are there now. and whatever configuration for

the transfer seating, the front and back type seating, be included for more. and lastly, i'd like to advise everyone here that on wednesday, march 20 at 3:30 p.m., the citizens advisory council for muni will have a finance and administration committee meeting. and the topic, one of the topics on there, is the procurement of the light rail vehicles and modifications that would be coming forward. that would be an opportunity to make your comments regarding the configuration, especially of the seating, and any other modifications that may be necessary. so again, that's wednesday, march 20 at 3:30 p.m. at 1 south van ness avenue on the 7th floor

in the conference room. and the agenda is on the website for muni, but you have to go to the citizens committee and then go to the finance and administration to locate that agenda item. thank you very much for your time. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you. >> we have one more, robin crop. >> hello, everyone. i'm robin. i'm going to speak on the -- oh [laughter]. sorry, not done yet. i want to speak on the muni situation as well. i want to add there is a meeting next thursday of the council for multi-accessible, that is also another disability group meeting -- not sure what time it is on thursday. hi, i think you have a

connection with the mayor's office on disability, at least that's what i was told when i visited there recently. i looked at the mission statement it says any entity funded by the city must be accessible and usable to people with disabilities and muni is funded by by the city and i got hurt on the new trains. i got hurt riding sideways last summer, my pelvis, neck and back went out. i cannot ride the new trains. i have to wait for the current train to come. i'm very concerned about what is going on because they're going to be ordering more trains. i then did a survey of around 100 people, muni riders, and found out it was 50-50. 50 could stand fine, the other 50% had a problem with the trains. in that 50% that had problems, there was a lot of interest for forward-backwards seat support. so we just saw an mta

presentation last tuesday of three options for forward-backwards seats. there are only three options. one is put in four seats. one put in eight seats. i said how is anybody going to say whether they're going to get a seat if they need it? so then i got busy again and talked to muni riders about this and it's coming in 50-50. 50% can ride fine, the other 50% really wants seats and they want comfortable seats including forward-backwards seats. i admit that people like me who cannot ride sideways. there is going to be a lot of people who can't ride muni. anything funded by the city must be usable by disabled. if they put in any of those option, we, the disabled is not going to be able to ride. and those who like a comfortable ride are not comfortable. there is a solution car already.

it's one in use by muni, it's got two seats -- half a minute? two seats on one side, one seat on the other. and it already exists in bart, by taking out a seat row, that gives more room for the stand and we know they want to get a standing rush hour crowd in. i think they have a solution. the stand and then two seats plus one going forward. they have to give an equal weight to both parties. right now, they're just getting a rush hour group in, sitting sideways and ignoring the 50% that need and want a better ride. so it's very important. i also want to know if i can talk with anybody here afterwards because we're concerned about the situation. thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you for your comment. >> talk to any of us at the break or afterwards. >> co-chair blacksten: please feel free to do that. it would be wonderful if you would.

anymore speaker's cards? >> that's it, sorry. >> appreciate all those comments. take special note. let's go forward now to item number 4, information item, which is the co-chair report. and my report is fairly brief. i just first and foremost want to thank everyone who is here today, even though i can't see any of you out there, it sounded at the very beginning of the meeting that there were more voices in the room than i've heard in quite a while. i think that's great. so i just want to encourage you to invite any of your family and friends and colleagues to come to future meetings. we're here for you. it's not just about us setting up here and asking questions of

presenters and dealing with certain issues, but we want to hear from you, listen to what you have to say, hear what you have to say, because that's really what makes these meetings go, is having a full room, people to participate. so i encourage you to do that. you're always welcome. two things, i want to draw to your attention, there is committee that meets, think i it's -- i think it's every two months or so, the disabled access and functional needs committee. this is a very interesting -- i should say they do really good work. last november they were -- it's chaired by lisa. they deal with issues of emergency preparedness. as you know, there were horrific fires, the paradise fire and of course we were smelling smoke and it was causing bad air

pollution all the way to san francisco. so they were talking about how to best deal with situations like that, of fires. how do you let people know? what do they do during fires? how do they protect themselves? in the last meeting we had in february -- no, it was this month -- we talked about tsunamis. now tsunamis are something, fortunately, we haven't had to deal with here in san francisco. nevertheless, if they were -- we had a report about tsunamis could happen as far away as japan. if there was a major earthquake and that's what causes tsunamis, it could cause a tremendous swelling of the ocean waves and it could come all the way to the west coast of the u.s. so that would be a long-term

effect. tsunamis can come in from south america, from north, all the way from the north pole. so how do we protect against the oceans flooding? so this committee deals with floods, fires, earthquakes, how to deal with emergency preparedness like that. i just want to draw that to your attention. there is something else that is of interest. i think it's called the age and disability friendly working group. it meets four times a year. and i don't think they were meeting when i first came on board two years ago. it's fairly new in san francisco. but they deal with major issues like legislation, both local, state and federal legislation that would affect seniors and

people with disabilities. the new project to have a coach -- a disability cultural center. this group deals with that and will continue to do so. and seniors re-entering the workforce and much more. those are two committees i pay attention to. i wanted to draw your attention in my report. and i think that will conclude what i have to say today on that. and let us move forward to information item number 5. which is a report from the mayor's office on disability from the executive director. nicole, are you here? >> nicole: i am, thank you, jim, for the introduction. good afternoon, everyone. i'm going to start by announcing

first staff minutes that occurred since the last public meeting. we have had join us two senior building inspectors, joseph and john. they're joining us in three-year appointments as senior building inspectors who are assisting with plan review and accessibility inspection on affordable housing initiative projects and continues to prioritize housing accessibility review as part of the current plan. and also in response to current mayoral directives. the second thing i wanted to announce, that you may have seen, that the support at home program pilot has been extended. it is now extended through june 2020, which is really good news. you may recall that this program is specifically in place to help

anyone over the age of 18 who has a disability either temporary or permanent, who wouldn't otherwise qualify for in-home supportive services but still needs some financial support for additional help at home. i really want to encourage anyone who is interested in finding more out about this program to follow up. this program is cosponsored by the department of aging and adult services and san francisco's institute on aging. for more information i'm going to read a telephone number. you can also contact mod for information. it's also on the website. the telephone number though that you can call, is (415) 750-4111. okay. so next i'd like to mention just

a few things that you'll hear in greater detail. we're about to have a presentation on better market street in response to some of the things that have been going on since the last council meeting. i wanted to highlight again that project team is going to be looking for people with visual and mobility disabilities to participate in some research that we're doing around delineation. so our presenters will talk about that in a minute, but i just wanted to flag that, that there will be more information coming forward from mod about that. since the last meeting, the project team, along the mayor's office of disability presented to the architectural review committee of the historic preservation community on impacts of better market street, especially pertaining to the historical elements, there is current opportunity for engagement on this matter.

i want to emphasize and reinforce as the project is currently going through this environmental impact review, now is the time to comment on this issue. so you learn a little bit more about that in a few minutes. in the transportation arena, i wanted to highlight a few things. first, the mayor's disability council is invited to attend the next meeting of the macwhich is thursday. it's thursday, march 21 at 1 p.m. and they're going to be meeting at 1455 market. and they're going to be talking and looking at the light rail control center and also more discussion on the light rail vehicles that we learned about in public comment today as well. also, as follow-up to bill 1736,

that is the transportation network companies' accessibility for all act. that has been signed into law. per the direction of you, the council members, mayor's office on disability is working with mta to provide comment to the california public utilities commission on their implementation of the legislation and so the implementation is now in full swing, at least in terms of the comment piece. i wanted to update you all on that. in response to where some things are in department of emergency management, jim did a very nice summary of what is happening. the only thing i would like to supplement to that is that we're currently working together on a monthly evacuation strategy, specifically for people with disabilities. i really encourage the mbc to

resolve to support this work as it moves forward. finally, i wanted to draw your attention to a press release that came out last week called the open to all campaign in san francisco. it is a pledge that we're encouraging businesses and residents to oppose discrimination and declare that they are open to all regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and religion or disability. and so as this rolls forward i want to encourage the council to engage with this initiative as well and learn more about how a pledge like this can specifically impact people with disabilities and how we can remain engaged and supportive. that is all that i have for today. for members of the public who want more information or questions or comments or to get

involved or provide feedback in any of these items, please feel free to contact the mayor's office on disability at 1-415-554-6789 or via e-mail, mod@sfgov.org. to stay current on all of our opportunities and events pertaining to folks with disabilities, please subscribe to our news feed. that is all for today. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you for that report, nicole. so i believe it is time for us to move to our item number 6 on the agenda. presentation by cristina calderon olea. better market -- you can tell

where my mind was going -- better market street project manager, san francisco department of public works, welcome. >> thank you. -- manager for san francisco public works. i'm going to pull up my presentation. better market street is a joint project developed by san francisco public works. the mayor's office on disability, the planning department, the san francisco municipal transportation agency, san francisco puc and the transportation authority. it extends from stuart to

octavia boulevard. market street is the busiest corridor for people walking, biking and taking transit. it is our premier cultural boulevard. and mobility is a key objective of the better market street project. by mobility, we mean safety and accessibility. this slide shows why the need to improve safety and accessibility on market street is so important. the collision rate within the project area is over 20 times the state average for similar corridors. the corridor also includes three of the top five intersections for cyclists-involved injuries at octavia, gough and 5th street. and two of the top five intersections for

pedestrian-involved injury collisions at 5th and 7th street. there is a high concentration of vulnerable people, including people with disabilities, children and seniors who live and work along the corridor. mid market is a high consumer area for people with disabilities and some of the fatalities in the last slide include -- have included wheelchair users. we also know that as public works, we're stewards of the public right-of-way and responsible for the safety of our residents and visitors. we know that improving accessibility improves safety for everyone. some of the tools that we're using along market street, or that we're adding as part of the project are more detectable warnings, delineations between the different modes of transportation, transit island improvements, curb ramps,

pedestrian signals. pedestrian bike paths and navigation through the corridor. today i'll give you an overview of the project and design details for key elements of the project. just a few other demographic pints i wanted to bring up. over 94,000 san franciscans report a disability. 50% are under the age of 65. nearly 50,000 people have mobility disabilities and 35,000 -- or nearly 35,000 have sensory disabilities. many people reporting multiple disabilities. 27% report daily use of public transit. so the transit improvements along market street are key to improving accessibility along the corridor. as we all know, existing transit stops, curb ramps and the brick paving on market street do not meet current ada standards.

one of our key goals is to improve transit reliability and travel time. there is a discontinuous bike facility that ends at 8th street. there is no dedicated bicycle space east of 8th. and we have aging infrastructure that is reaching the end of its useful life, the traffic signals, the streetlights, the underground utilities and sidewalks. in 2013, the project team recruited 10 individuals with various degrees of mobilities and vision disabilities to participate in the focus group. some of the key findings that are in the report -- and it's available on our website -- were that the bricks have been replaced in various locations. there is differing color, which causes confusion with the visual

cue. certain bricks are less slip resist ant and some of the joints have lost mortar or expanded. the recommendations were to install slip-resistance paving. clear distinction between the pedestrian throughway and ear jones. both a visual cue, such as color and audible cue with textures. so quick overview again. the project area is 2.2 miles of market street from stuart to octavia. the project will enhance roadway safety for everyone. it will improve muni performance and reliability. replace the aging infrastructure. and revitalize the streetscape design for 21st century san francisco. some key dates that i wanted to

bring to everyone's attention. as nicole mentioned earlier, our draft environmental impact report is out for public comment right now. on march 20th, which is next wednesday i believe, there will be a hearing at the historic preservation commission where they will talk about the draft eir and especially the changes to the cultural resources along market street, which do include the bricks and the granite curb. i'm going through the draft eir dates and hit the others one in between. in addition to the hearing at the historic preservation commission, there will be a public hearing on april 4 in the planning commission. that is one way the public can provide comments on the draft eir to the planning department. the other way is writing. but you can come in person to city hall and give your comments to the planning commission directly. at 5:00 p.m. on april 15, that

comment period will close. we expect to have final certification of the draft eir this fall. we're targeting october of this year. in addition, we have other community meets that are coming up. the project has a community working group that will meet on march 25. we also are going to civic design review, a committee of the arts commission, will be presenting the schematic design on monday, march 18. and then we'll be going back in june and in october when we have 65 and 95% design. and then other project approvals will come after final certification in the fall. so we get project approval from our own director as well as from the municipal transportation agency's board, the mta board. our goal is to advertise phase one of the project a year from now in march of 2020. and that first phase will be

between 5th and 8th streets. so in the mid market section of market street. some of you may be familiar with the cycle track project that we have on market street now between gough and franklin on the south side. this raised bikeway was a pilot back in 2015. we were testing a raised bikeway at two inches from the roadway and then at four inches from the roadway. what we found was that people were still -- vehicles were still parking on the bikeway. it wasn't raised enough to prevent cars from doing that or delivery vehicles. so we added the posts in 2016, but this pilot led to the proposed project for better market street. which is to have a sidewalk-level bikeway that is separated from the sidewalk by a clear delineation. and i have another slide on that

coming up. here what i wanted to do was talk about the cross section for the roadway. so we have two center lanes that will be muni only. right now, they're transit and taxi, but they will in the future be muni only. taxis, transit, delivery vehicles, will all continue to drive in the curb lane. so even with better market street we still have two lanes in each direction. then the existing curb line will be moved out two feet into the roadway to help make space for the new sidewalk-level bikeway. so the standard cross section is to have a 4-foot buffer between the vehicle lane and the bikeway. and then our separation between the bikeway and the sidewalk and the remainder of the sidewalk is for people that are walking. so in most place it's around 25

feet from the property line to the building face. this particular cross section of market street is also showing a curbside boarding island, which is 9 feet wide. you can see that on the right side of the slide. this is a rendering of our proposed project. you can see the two lanes, two vehicle lanes in the roadway. the sidewalk-level bikeway. the separation and then a clear furnishing zone where we are trying to move all of our existing street furniture into one area, including the path of gold, which are both streetlights and muni poles for their contact system. all the street furniture will run there, the trees and other street furniture. then the clear walkway for pedestrians. and then allowing 5-6 feet for table and chairs at restaurants. some of the key considerations

is we evaluate different paving materials is the surface roughness, so consistency and slip-resistance. looking at texture and color and the joints. the frequency of the joints, the spacing and the delineation of the pavers. so we have been gathering -- not quite monthly, sometimes every other month -- with an accessibility working group which nicole sits on. we have the access coordinator and the disability access coordinator for mta. we meet with the design team to go over accessibility considerations in all of our designs. so nicole mentioned the study of the sidewalk separation. it's being led by bc benson, a researcher out of massachusetts,

who has study separations and bikeways, kind of like sidewalk-lel bikeways, in the just throughout -- not just through the united states, but around the world. she'll help us select up to six alternatives to test in our pilot area on market street, so we'll be converting the old pilot to a new sidewalk-level bikeway and testing these different separation materials. and the study participants will be of differing levels of vision and mobility -- different abilities. the human factor testing will happen this summer in june and july. you'll see instruction of -- construction of that bikeway happening in april and may. 4-6 weeks from now, breaking ground, raising the bikeway up, and then installing the different bikeway separation materials and then b.z. will fly

out in june and july to do the testing. so now i'll go through the key design features that we have worked with closely as part of the accessibility working group. that is one of the proposed zones. not only will the bikeway be at sidewalk level, but loading zones will also be at sidewalk level. those loading zones will be separated from the sidewalk by truncated domes because it is a vehicle area and we'll continue to use truncated domes there. we'll have ballards to ensure that vehicles stay within the zone. we're making sure it's wide enough so that para transit vehicles can deploy their ramps and help people get on and off the para transit vehicles. loading will be restricted to off-peak hours. so during peak hours when we

have a lot of people using our sidewalks, we'll restrict the loading from happening at those times. and the bikes will be on the outside of the loading zone. so the vehicles will actually roll up onto the loading zone and bikes will pass them on the left. this is an image of a curbside boarding island. bicycles will ride behind the boarding island. the islands will be much longer than they are today. allowing for multiple shelters. it will also, the first shelter will be just ahead of where the muni buses are expected to stop. and so someone can be waiting in the shelter and easily exit the shelter and enter the first bus. we also are channelling people that get off the buses, or that are getting onto the boarding islands on these crosswalks that will have truncated domes and

crosswalk striping. at the front end and the back end we're hoping to add greening and landscaping to help improve the area as a whole. this image is of a center boarding island with a new mini high platform. i think i mentioned earlier, the actual boarding islands will be wider, a little over nine feet. right now they're 5-6 feet. very narrow. we'll be widening them by three feet. the mini highs will be at the center boarding islands. they'll be at each of the muni and bart stations. this also presents an opportunity to add some lighting, or to provide additional lighting on the center boarding islands as well. moving to community engagement. the project actually started in

2010 and since 2011, we've had four rounds of community meetings. we also have a community working group that is meeting every other month. and includes a good cross section, a representation, not just of market street or people with an interest in market street, but city-wide advocacy groups and advocacy groups. for the month of february, we had a pop-up at the act theater at the strand. we were -- the project team stayed -- or had a pop-up -- staffed a pop-up twice a week on tuesdays and thursdays and it was pretty successful. we hope to do that again later this year. it provides an opportunity for people who are walking by to stop in and learn more about the project. you might have heard we did a prototyping festival to look at

the activation opportunities along market street. we've talked a little bit about the draft environmental import, i wanted to show the link to where you can find the documents. it's better market street sf.org/eir. and better market street sf.org is the project website. there are frequently asked questions. public comment will be accepted by the planning department until 5:00 p.m. on april 15th. and all questions and comments should be sent to christopher thomas at the planning department. that concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions that you have. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you. that was a great presentation. a lot of information. are there any council members

who have comments and questions? >> through the chair? >> co-chair blacksten: yes. >> orkid would like to speak. >> co-chair senhaux: why weren't you including deaf people in the groups? i'm thinking about the impact on the deaf community. it's a concern really, about -- and based on my own personal experience of having been hit by vehicles, i'm wondering how you chose the individuals that you focused on and the groups you were discussing these plans with? and just seeing what the results of these focus groups are. i'm wondering if you're going to include lights as warnings, or is that a separate part of the process? that's some of my questions. >> thank you, those are good questions. i took over the project last

may. so i'm not sure how people were selected prior to that. i think we've worked quite a bit with the mayor's office on disability and i think it's a good idea to include people who are deaf. we can definitely do that moving forward. as far as lights, the accessible pedestrian signals do have vibration as well sound. and a light that shows that you have pushed the button. those will be installed in all of the intersections. did i catch all the questions? >> co-chair senhaux: that was some of it. i'm wondering about the deaf people and you're receiving feedback? my reasoning for that, often at intersections, people will blow red lights. some of them have been killed. and, unfortunately, people in the deaf community have been killed by people running red lights or not seeing things. or they're walking in a place

they feel is safe and cars have come, maybe they've done a quick look around, a visual sweep, and then someone comes out of nowhere. just thinking about what driver's behavior is. maybe it's an issue of teaching drivers at that point. but i'm just wondering about some of that. it's great you're involving the public in the focus groups, but how do we change information about how to be more observant as a driver? and deaf people specifically. i'm thinking about how we raise awareness and how there is a lack of information and understanding out there in general. >> so we often work with the municipal transportation agency to add enforcement and education to our projects. not just the engineering changes. and so that is something we'll continue to do as we implement better market street. i think working through the

mayor's office on disability and the mayor's disability council we can pull in more representation from the deaf community. >> co-chair senhaux: that would be great, thank you. >> council member mcdonald: hi. question came to mind. you mentioned the working group. can you talk about what diversity are those? are there any differences of people? and second, you mentioned about

92, or 17,000 people with disability, i'm wondering how did you get that number? >> for your first question, do you mean for the pedestrian focus group or the separation study? >> council member madrid: both. >> for the focus group in 2013, that one, i think we worked closely with the mayor's office on disability at the time. and lrc, bob was on that focus group. ilrc facilitated that meeting. for the separation study, we'll continue to work with the mayor's office on disability and we also hired a consultant team. benson is part of the consultant team that includes civic edge that will be helping us reach out through the community to find representation. but again, working with mod, working with lighthouse, working

with ilrc and the key advocacy groups in the city. >> council member madrid: i'm wondering how maem people in the group? >> for the separation study -- >> i think, alex, are you asking about the community working group? >> council member mcdonald: yeah. >> so you're asking if there is a presentation of people with disabilities on the working group? >> yes, there is. we have bob planthold and representatives from lirc -- just lighthouse. okay. so we have a member of our community working group from lighthouse for the blind. >> nicole: i think one of the things we would be happy to do is gather all the opportunities, put them in one place and send them back out to the distribution and to you, so that you can have all the different

ways to be engaged in one spot. >> council member madrid: thank you. and second question. >> nicole: i can answer that, too. cristina got the numbers from me [laughter]. those are from the american community survey. as you might remember, department of aging and adult services and mod worked on an info graphic, so all of the information is from that. >> council member madrid: thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you, alex. any other council members. >> through the chair, i'm taking a quick scan to see. no other council member. >> co-chair blacksten: all right. before we go to staff, i just want to thank you for the work you're doing. we had a presentation by the director of the project before you, i believe it was last year,

and this is a tremendous amount of involvement you're doing to redesign market street and the islands, everything. and i'm glad to see you're covering all aspects. i just want to emphasize that you really need to -- seems like you're doing it, considering pedestrian safety. i'm involved with a group of seniors that are near to where i work, and they're concerned about pedestrian safety. one of the people who volunteer got hit on market street, crossing market street. and it's really almost unbelievable that people who are pedestrians get hit by cars crossing market street. more than you may realize. and i had to point out to them

there certainly are things that pedestrians can do to look both ways, to make sure that no vehicles are coming, paying attention to the audio signals, watching for the curb cuts, all of the coloring and the texture changes that you have to the surface, all that is good, but i think you really need to do education out there in the community. so that pedestrian safety can go down to zero. so if you had any more comment about pedestrian safety, i'd be happy to entertain that. all right, well, anyway. that's all i have to say on that issue. let's open it up to staff. anyone on staff?

>> nicole: this is nicole again. i want to reiterate our thanks for being here today. i do think it would be helpful if we could work together to bring all the dates and opportunities together into one document. and then we'd be happy to distribute that to the mayor's disability council as i said, and also to the general distribution for anyone signed up there. i think, kind of in tandem with what is happening on better market street, much of this pedestrian safety conversation is also happening through vision zero. and i know the council has had interest in giving an update from the colleagues that are working on vision zero initiatives for people with disabilities. so keep that in mind, i encourage to ask for update on that because all of this works together. and then to keep in mind that

the delineation project, the folks have not been selected for that yet, that's coming later this summer, but there are many opportunities to engage and provide comment in the interim through the various -- to these various public meetings. >> co-chair blacksten: any more comments from staff? i want to thank you for making your presentation to us. that was outstanding. and i think that will conclude your part of the presenting. and thank you very much. >> thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: now, let's go to -- we're going to go to public comment. do we have any public comment? >> yes, we do. bob planthold. maybe others, but i don't have slips yet.

>> i'm bob planthold. i'm one of two people with an obvious disability on the community working group. there is one, maybe two that have a hidden disability. i was on the survey walking tour back in 2013 and fortunately, surprisingly, it rained that saturday, so our sidewalks were wet the entire distance we were walking and all sorts of materials. not just brick, but various types of concrete. i want to get to eir and brick. the staffer who wrote up the portion about the sidewalk surface said these bricks have the potential for historic character. now, these brick sidewalks are less than 45 years old. so i'm going to say how many of you who were at or close to or likely beyond 45 think you're historic? i don't get it. i'm sure the staffer had some

reason, but it just doesn't seem realistic or logical that 45-year-old bricks are somehow historic, because that wasn't the character before the bricks. it's not like we had brick sidewalks for 150 years. didn't happen. and i'm bringing that to mind because as we're hearing, there is a multiple of agencies, the arts commission, the historic preservation commission, the planning commission, the multimodal access, all of them having something to say. so it's hard to keep track of these. but unless the disability council and disability-related groups and advocates weigh in and say, hold it, you've got to think more carefully about the safety of the materials you're using. and especially i'm going to suggest this council consider some simple letter saying we appreciate the efforts, but you really can't think of brick as