is, as already discussed, the critical need for housing, especially affordable housing. and every time a developer wants to demolish a building to be replaced by needed housing, they, too, run into this problem, but it's on a much grander scale. what we're asking is for the survey, the timeline for the survey, to be compressed. it would be a two-and-a-half to three-year time frame in lieu of 6-7 years. it will involve three ftes and one additional intern. these can be temporary term positions. the historic -- in closing, the historic preservation commission wants to urge the mayor and the rest of the supervisors to fund and support this effort, shift the resources, whatever we can do to accomplish this, and we

would have the additional benefit that the post entitlement backlog that the mayor is trying to expedite would be significantly alleviated. again, by identifying properties that are not resources, developers can target those properties and build much needed housing on them. thank you. >> thank you, supervisors. i have a presentation, although i believe many of the points in it have been covered ably by commissioner black and supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: but you have to the power point. >> [laughter], yes, and additional copies here. anyone? so good afternoon, supervisors. planning department staff. i'm here to present an overview

of the cultural survey including background of the survey, history of survey and data collection, and proposed survey phasing staffing and budget. so surveys are an integral part of any preservation program as they provide critical tools for understanding, identifying, evaluating and protecting those resources that give each community its individual character and sense of place. among other things, surveys provide information needed to make informed planning decisions, develop and implement land use policies, perform environmental reviews pursuant to ceqa. although there have been many surveys conducted in san francisco since 1967, none have approached surveys of a

city-wide scale. previous surveys were property-based or community sponsored, focussing on a single neighborhood or property type. in the 2013 report on historic preservation in san francisco, they stressed the need for a city-wide survey and there has been growing support for this effort. city-wide cultural resources surveys is intended to be a multiyear effort to document property and places that reflect important themes in the social and cultural history. it will strengthen community identity, aid disaster planning and recovery and support housing development. historic resource surveys ace is a process of maintaining inventory of the data gathered. the primary components of the survey are historic context statements which provide the foundation for preservation planning. property documentation, which is

where we identify and record potential resources within a community and neighborhood and inventory or database, which is the publicly accessible forum where we maintain the survey and information, and outreach. communication and information-sharing with stakeholders. given the number of previous surveys and the variety of forms that constitute our legacy data, we have spent time reviewing this past documentation in an effort to understand how many properties have been surveyed previously and where the properties are located throughout the city to identify historic context and themes and to determine the age of building stock and how the stock is disbursed across the city. this map on the slide -- the shaded areas represent the parts of the city that have been surveyed to date. as commissioner black noted, only approximately 20% of the city parcels have been surveyed. and so those parcels are generally located within the shaded areas.

that have been surveyed. we estimate is that based on the areas that aren't shaded and the number of known properties that we have, remaining 80-100,000 parcels are left to survey. this map shows the number of designated properties that are designated either locally or in the california or national registers. and this is included to show how little of the city is actually designated and the geographic distribution of the designated properties. it's important to note while survey information can provide background for a property or district designation and note eligibility for the designation, the surveys does not equate to designation. that's a separate process that will rely upon data collected in the survey, but is not the direct result of a property being surveyed. one of the primary goals of the

survey is to move properties from that category b, where they are age-eligible, but their historic status is unknown, into either category a, or category c. this survey, a proactive data collection by the city will improve response and recovery time following emergencies, reduce application costs around streamline review periods and make everyone more aware, and have provided knowns of what they're getting into with the property. the planning department preservation staff have been developing a city-wide survey that reflects best practices in the preservation field, meets standards for survey and can be completed in a timely manner. this survey methodology indicates we will record individual resources as well as

district and cultural landscapes, will create individual records in a database. arches is an open source platform for cultural heritage inventory and management. and it was used by the city of los angeles for their survey program. each record will include a photograph, a physical description, identify historic theme or context, assess the physical integrity of the property, evaluate the property. and provide links to any related records. we'll be evaluating buildings, structured objects, districts, constructed. and we'll be evaluating for the national register and california register eligibility. the survey team -- the work itself will be conducted primarily by planning staff and

interns. at least that's how we're currently budgeting for the approach. we'll have a survey advisory group that will be two tiered group, one that will be a core advisory group, made up of preservation consultants, commissioners, preservation groups and city family and then a rotating group of advisors that we envision as neighborhood groups. and that will change the -- the membership will change as we move through the phases. i'm talk about the phases in a later slide. the historic preservation commission and the rest of the city family and the public, which we obviously need to be quite involved in terms of information as well as participation in the survey effort. and then for phasing, we have been looking at a number of variables and considering how we would go about phasing this approach. so the variables we've been considering are physical hazards

and disaster preparedness. and the two maps on this slide show two of the physical hazard variables, sea level rise, flooding and soil liquefaction zones. neighborhoods and communities that are underrepresented in preservation programs. using the survey as a development tool, so focusing on areas with high development pressures. and then also age of building stock. this map here is a map showing the different ages of the building stock. and sort of what -- while this is not the primary variable we're considering right now for the phasing plan, it is an important variable to consider. and what this shows is that what you would expect, the oldest buildings, pre-1906 are located near the center of the city, but also scattered throughout.

post earthquake and fire is concentrated in the northeast and neighborhoods south and east of downtown, with subsequent development periods to the south and west with infill development from later periods. this map shows -- has the breakdown right now of the current phasing as we're proposing it, although i want to stress this is still in draft form and we're expecting as we go through kind of all of the outreach and informational presentations and briefing processes, that this map, these phases will shift as we identify additional priorities. but right now, the phase one would be the area in pink -- or what we're thinking is phase one is the area in pink and each phase would span out to the south and west similar to the development patterns. the dark purple is where there are surveys that are ongoing and we would anticipate that those

would remain ongoing and that we would add other community-sponsored or area plan related surveys as those occurred. and then this is the budget and the schedule and related costs that we're using. so right now in our fiscal year 19-20 budget proposal, we have 3.15fte and we're estimating with that, with those ftes, this process would take roughly six years. and then we have the two options with each increasing the number of ftes and decreasing significantly the amount of time that the process, the survey process would be expected to take. and then just where we are right now. so obviously, we're here today

presenting to this committee. we are -- we have been doing various briefings to board members, supervisors, over the past month and will continue do so. we've also met -- presented to the planning commission as well as the historic preservation commission. we expect to go back to the historic preservation commission in june. we'll be meeting in the spring with survey advisory group and we're also bringing in a consultant to help us put together a cultural heritage assets methodology, that we'll wrap into the overall survey methodology. and we hope to be out in the fall with our phase one survey. that completes my presentation. i'm here for any questions. thank you. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. i know that supervisor safai has questions. i just want to, first of all, thank the commission and staff. i mean, this is a conversation that i took a run at over a

decade ago with a little bit of result, but not the comprehensive result that we really need. and commissioner black is absolutely right, which is a quarter of a century ago, san francisco was at the forefront and we've fallen way behind. whether you love historic preservation or want development, this is the tool. i think it would be great to get this done in two-and-a-half years and given the development pressures we're under, that is probably the right thing to do. i have had a conversation with the representative of the historic preservation fund committee, which many, many years ago was the recipient of money from the settlement of litigation and i was actually able to get an appropriation for that committee in last year's budget, which remains unspent. so i have broached and will continue to broach with the fund

committee whether or not some of that money -- or all of that money which was appropriated, a small drop in the bucket for what we need if we're doing this at the clip of $845,000 for two and a half years, but it makes a little bit of a dent. there may be other things, including fee money, because this is something that, like i said, gives the development community some stability. and reduces their costs, because they know what can be demolishnded and know what can't be. but i'd like to make a plug to my now three colleagues on this panel, because we've been joined by supervisor mandelman, that this is something we should take seriously in the upcoming budget deliberations. with that, i turn it over to supervisor safai, followed by supervisor mandelman. >> supervisor safai: thank you,

supervisor -- chair peskin, for pushing this forward. i think it's extremely important to understand the historic resources and the current makeup of our city in terms of the historic nature of a lot of the properties and we often have -- we are often able to identify the historical significance of projects on an individual basis as they come forward, but in terms of looking at overall scope of what it means to have these historic resources, i think this is an important survey. i have a general question on slide number, page number 3. you said 20% of the city had been surveyed. [please stand by]

>> and so, we use that information to inform them about

the status of that property and provide direction as they move forward with alterations to their properties or redeveloping their properties. >> so this doesn't replace a historic analysis property by property. >> well, it could. >> if something came in at level a? >> if something came in at level a, we would still need to do that analysis. if we identified the property was a resource and given a category a and if someone want to defollowish or do something to that property, they would have to go through -- they would still have to go through the california environmental quality act review to ensure they weren't impacting that property or to document how they were impacting that property. if the survey had been done on a proactive basis and we had all

of this map shaded in instead of only 20% of it, and the majority in the properties have been found not to be, that step of analyzing whether or not something is a historic resource is when someone comes in with a building permit or development application, we would not have to -- we i don't no longer have twewe would no longer have todo. we found it not to be a resource, we no longer have to ask that question at the beginning of the process. >> if it came in at a category c? >> correct. >> but there's a lot that come in at category b, which is undetermined. >> ideally, we're not going to find things to be category d. or undetermined. it's to move away from category b and end up with as or cs. >> the only reason i ask is two weeks ago i got a call from a

perspective and they said well, we have category level b and i was like, oh, well how many of the properties that you surveyed fall into that category -- >> nothing that has been surveyed -- it just means unknown. b means unknown and c means we know it's not a historic resource. >> it's in your map area. that's why i'm asking. is the n.c.d.s surveyed? >> the n.c.d.s have been surveyed but the results have not been adopted yet. so those statuses in our parcel information map have not changed. so there still be bs in that. because the survey hasn't been adopted. when the survey is actually adopted and formalized, then we change the status codes. so adoption means that we've taken it, we've done the analysis and we've presented it to the historic preservation commission. >> so your n.c.d.s have not

been adopted yet? >> correct. >> all the other shaded areas have been. >> correct. >> got it. >> so i don't want to over state that there's never going to be a category b b in this shaded are. because it's the case there will be category bs wa because propertying may not be aiming al edge able. we'rageeligible. >> if someone is potentially thinking about buying a property or developing a property or preserving a property, you all, in theory, have done a significant amount of work. it just so happens that this parcel was in an n.c.d. and you haven't adopted it yet. >> got it. >> so then, all my questions are answers. at the end, when you survey the city and adopted them, it will help to inform the process that much better? >> correct. >> because now, as i understand

it, the planning department has a new program where you can come in and submit and do the consultation and within 60 days, they will let you know what category or area that the particular parcel -- >> you are referring to our historic resource assessment process program. which is new. we're piloting it this year. it's an advance of a property owner can voluntarily apply for that process. essentially it is a property-by-property survey and it was infende intended to fillp before the survey can get to these. >> my last question before supervisor mandelman, what willl you adopt the surveys on the n.c.d.s? did you already talk about that too? >> well, i'm not 100% on the

timeline for that. i think we are looking at probably moving forward with those maybe as part of each phase as it sort of -- >> can i make one suggestion. this is an important part, this is just my opinion as it relates to home s.f. we not couraged people to -- and often times a lot of actual opportunities for greater density and development happened to be on the commercial corridors whether they're an exiting property oexisting prop. if someone is interested in taking part in that process, it actually helps them to know what category the properties are under. so, i don't know if that's a planning department or simply your historic preservation commission but it certainly would be helpful because then people go in with the level of certainty to know whether or not they want to potentially participate in this program or not. it can affect the purchase and

sale process, it can affect the whole development. again, we want to preserve and we want to protect the buildings that are historic resources. the ones that are not, we want -- there's an inter play between the home s.f. program and some of these additional density and affordable programs and this particular survey. it absolutely is helpful. i came across this recently in the last month. >> i appreciate that comment. certainly we could consider the n.c.d.s of the separate phase or making that more of a priority to get that one adopt adopted. >> i know this is his baby for lack of a better word. i just think it's important, if we're having the conversation about additional housing and

additional affordable housing and incentivizing if this can help to inform that process as along with preservation at the same time. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you for actually teasing out the n.c.d. question. if the survey has been done, i see know reason they shouldn't be adopted. it's like, you know, any time there's a survey that is been done, it should be adopted. i would get that phase out of the way now. i mean, that need not be a part of this entire process. i know supervisor mandelman wants to speak. >> i'm sorry, one more question. i hope i'm not slowing you down. just to supervisor pose tin's ps point. what about finalizing the adoption of that? >> well, the field work has been done for it so like we've looked at each property.

we haven't -- so it's part of our legacy data that still needs to be sort of looked at and based on our current methodolo methodology, and final evaluations, still need to be made. it's also a staffing issue. how we focus our time. >> i would just end, if you've done the majority of the work and there's additional work and we're going to approve in this process, which i know we are, i think we're all going to be highlighting additional staff and work that you would prioritize that first and that work has been done and get it off of your plate. i'll send with that. >> >> supervisor mandelman: i totally agree and i was happy it was on supervisor's safai. >> >> supervisor mandelman: i wanted to thank kate black for her great work for the city.

and also, to just concur with the supervisors on this committee who see this as an important priority as i think about the increasing -- the up zoning happening in san francisco either as directed by the state or as we decide and look for additional places where we have development capacity, there's development pressure throughout the city and i think it is all the more important that we very quickly identify what is important to us and what we don't want to see lost as the new san francisco gets built. for me, this is also a high priority and i would hope that we can move it along closer to the two and a half-year rather than some of the longer time periods. i wanted to and by and say that and thank you all for your great work. >> very much appreciate you coming, supervisor, mandelman. let's open up this for public comment.

mr. wright. >> top class demonstration. i made it clear what class of people that advocate for the most vulnerable people in the city. s.f. viewers, please, out of all the demonstrations that i've seen, everything is top class. this is the one that strikes me the most pertaining to support, new housing and development. i want to get the future representatives to look at building all these brand new apartments where you keep the amount of money that you spend on these apartment building complex at a minimum and by the same response, get the maximum performance and output of your building. i would like to get the standards set for any apartment building complex that is being built is to use this standard being used in mountain view. this is 144-unit apartment building complex that's being

built for $56 million. that's the best bang that you can get for your buck. i was talking to supervisor walton about this and the projects that he is been working on and they're charging $180,000 per unit. you multiply that by the 144 and subject the difference and you save $66 million. you can confirm that with him when talking to him. this demonstration is just flows. and, san mateo county, there's another public building complex being built for $57 million. by the same response, my idea of the money that's getting of the budget of $8.5 million and the $500 million that was handed down for homeless only, you can build nine of these apartment building complexes and make a 27-storey apartment building complex. here is a 68-unit apartment

building complex. you could stack those up 27-storeys and take a big chunk out of the housing of the homeless. >> thank you, mr. wright. are there any other members of the public here to speak on this item number 5? the historic preservation survey. >> sir, if you speak into the mic. >> the reservations of the complexes, the value in total should be very less than what we are anticipating and purchasing or allowing financial means to utilize. now, again, we are trying to establish a new criteria into destroying the system which we're in the process. the important thing is what i like to initiate is that in this part of neighborhoods, are there

going to be vocational training processing, meaning did you get trained for vocational training? we're going to have a lot of employment to provide these stability of financial interests so they can pay and provide insurance for the room. now, the thing is we have spent much money, billions and trillions of dollars on advancements we should know better. so the cost of the development of $61 billion is unacceptable. it reduces the cost of $66 million. unacceptable. the indication is we must review and allow the inspectors to allow what needs to be renovated and what is going to be the least cost of each property, including the foundation. they look like historic locations and in that sense we must establish the appropriate

means to secure and stabilize our financial institutions and you are essentially using your negligence to provide proposals where there's no better investment. there's developments going on in san francisco and we're working on it because something happened. you need to get the right inspectors inside. if you failed to do so, there's no need to have you in government business. >> thank you, sir. seeing no other members of the public for public comment, public comment is closed. i think everything that has been said should be said has been said. again, i want to thank the commission for having the fortitude to come and say what should have been said years ago and thank staff for preparing that at the commission's request. and i was really happy to hear from my colleagues of their interest. hopefully we can get this right in the 19-20 budget, which will

be before us in the months ahead. with that, i will ask that the item be filed and this meeting is adjourned.

>> good morning, everyone. >> good morning. >> all right. let me thank everyone for coming up today -- coming out today. it is a wonderful day for our city. okay. and we are all here because we are going to celebrate the project. [applause] and for many of you, the project -- there is a little bit about the project itself, it is 1.8 miles long, and it started from peach street all the way to mcalester and some people say, from the day to civic centre. so it is a long stretch and we are very excited that this project is complete and as many of you know, this particular street before this project

happened, this corridor was one of the high injury network corridors here in city, and through the work of many of the commissions and many people, we have been able to improve the streetscape. today, that path is behind us. how about a clap for that. [applause] >> the streetscape is a makeover that offers several pedestrian crossings, bike lanes, and more importantly, it helps the businesses along the corridor be more vibrant. we are excited about that. the project has improved lighting and has improved landscaping, it has many new pedestrian bulb outs, a lot of work to the infrastructure, new

paving, and of course, underground and sewer lines that also crossed many of the upgrades here. this is a complete streetscape. the project has happened with a lot of strong partnerships, with many community groups that help us to transform the street itself. but as we can see some of the alleys got transformed, so for an alley that we are standing in here today, they have this beautiful new look with enhanced safety elements, and raised crosswalks, and a nice pedestrian scale. that is how many of the streets are supposed to look. they all make up the project of this streetscape. we all know it also takes whole community, it takes a lot of political leadership to make progress here, and on many of our projects, and leading that charge will make san francisco a much safer and more vibrant and welcoming city, is our mayor,

london breed. let us welcome her with a big round of applause for her leadership. [applause] >> thank you, everyone for being here. the rain couldn't stop us from celebrating 18 years of construction to get this project done for the residents, for the businesses, for the people of this community, and i want to thank each and every one of you because i know it has been painful. i know it has been challenging, because of your support, we have been able to get it done. and what we have, as you can see , even in the alley, this beautiful streetscape. this community will be more vibrant, it will be more resilient because of this work, and also, it will be safer for the kids that are joining us here today from reading elementary school. we have to make sure that they can walk the communities and feel safe. we have to make sure that as people use different modes of

transportation like bicycles and scooters, that there are dedicated bike lanes so people are safe. we have to make sure that we change our streetscapes in general and we repair our infrastructure. this project started i think when supervisor peskin was supervisor of the first time, and now we get to finish when he is supervisor the second time around, and it is absolutely amazing. san francisco, as we know, many, many years ago, the infrastructure was developed to support mostly cars getting around. now we have so many more people living in san francisco. our population has grown. more people who are riding and using alternative modes of transportation. so as that changes. our city has to change. we have to adjust with the ultimate goal of not only moving people around, but moving them around safely. that is what these improvement

projects are about, and on top of that, the ability to repair our infrastructure, the pipes and all the things undergrounds that make our cities and our businesses work. that is so important. so critical to the sustainability of our city for generations to come. so i am so excited about the completion of this project, and i'm so excited about what it is going to do to improve public safety for each and every one of us. we know that there are a number of investments the city is making all over all the neighborhoods around the city. we have a lot of work to do, and i want to thank san franciscans for their support of these projects, for their patients as we move these projects through because we will be a better city once we complete and make san francisco safer for all of us and improve it, especially for the next generation of residents right here to my right who walks through this area and we are so

glad to have you, and we are looking forward to more projects like this for future generations thank you all so much for being here today. with that, i would like to invite supervisor at district three, who complains about everything that doesn't get done in a timely matter in his district, he is here today to be happy and excited about this amazing project, supervisor erin peskin. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. i take absolutely no credit for this because all of it happened when i was out of office. all of the controversy happened under my predecessor, but i really want to shout out the community first and foremost. the lower polk area of district three was historically neglected

by city hall, and it didn't really have a voice until john and shirley malone came along and started what became a real community force for the neighbors. i really want to shout out to the polk neighbors. [applause] this 1.8 miles actually stands three supervisorial districts. does represented by supervisor matt haney in the north, district two represented by supervisor, and stefani, and in between in district three, and along that corridor, there were many voices. the middle polk neighbors, the russian hill and neighbors, the distant -- district merchants, all of him collaborated to make that such an excellent project. i would be neglectful if i did not shout out one name, and that is the name here on this sidewalk that these wonderful students from reading elementary are looking at, and that is an

incredible force knelt -- named schulte thomas. still ahead a vision for polk street that we are realizing today. he passed away untimely in 2014 and this sidewalk is in memory. i just wanted to shout him out and say this would not have happened without his vision and his tenacity and having a vibrant polk street. thank you to shall thomas. [applause] and i know that mayor breed said it was an eight-year project. it might have felt like eight years, but it was actually three , and i want to shout out to public works and sfmta who actually implemented this in the smoothest way possible. i know there were concerns, and they made raj -- representations to the businesses and the residence, and i think all of those representations came true. i think mitchell berg did exactly what he said he was going to do in those first

controversial community meetings that we had three years ago, so thank you to public works. thank you to the staff of the sfmta and two others who had to listen to everybody screaming at him about parking spaces being taken away and all the rest of it. this is a transformative streetscape project that i think is going to be something that we are proud of for generations to come. with that, it is my honor and pleasure to introduce the supervisor from district six, supervisor matt haney. [applause]. >> well, let's see if i can get this up here. is everybody excited about polk street? okay great. this is an impressive turnout, especially in the rain. i want to thank the community. this is a multiyear effort that has been a really alleged by the neighbors and push for by the neighbors. we are tremendous partners in

the city. the polk street is one of the premier commercial and residential corridors in our city. finally you will have a streetscape that matches the dynamic nature of this corridor, the people who work here. the many uses that we know. i want to give a huge shout out to the kids from reading elementary. thank you for hosting us and having us here in your hood. they are what this is all about. seniors being able to walk down and use this street in a safe way, in a way that really activates. i tell everybody about the alley right now. what people say we have challenges with the alley, they look over here. this is the model for what we can do for all of our cities. we have also learned from what we did in polk street so that we can do this quicker, so we can do it stronger protecting the bike less onerous street and we know that when we don't do this,

it can be deadly. over the last two weeks we have seen people on our streets and high injury corridors, pedestrians and cyclists who have lost their lives, and this is a solution to that if we do it right. we need to do it quicker and we need to do it with stronger protections, but we have learned from this process, and we know we can build on it and continue the great work. last thing i want to say, thank you to the business community who have stuck with us through this process and i looked down polk street and icy parking and vacant storefronts, it is a challenge that i hope we are able to change now this project is completed and we can really support the residents here and the business community. thank you to the sfmta, the department of public works, mayor breed, supervisor peskin, and most importantly, to all of you. this is a fantastic day despite the weather, and more to come. [applause]

>> and there are many lessons that have been learned on a project like this. and when public works implements these projects, we don't do it alone. we do it with a lot of other agencies. it is my pleasure to introduce the director of m.t.a., ed risk in. [applause] >> thank you. supervisors, it is great to see you all. it is great to be here after so many years. we started the conversation with all the community groups and stakeholders the other folks had been talking about. it was many years ago, but we started that conversation because what we identified, and this is before we had even defined the high injury network as we know it today, we started the conversation because we saw too many people being hurt as they were traveling on polk street, particularly people traveling by bicycle, and people who are walking. we decided back then before we we had adopted vision zero that this was unacceptable, and that this was preventable.

so we sat down and we worked with the many community groups involved. we worked with the merchants, we worked with the residence, we worked with the neighborhood association. you heard many of them named before and it was through that collaboration and understanding what the needs of the businesses where, the needs of the residents in understanding the perspective of transit riders. understanding the perspective of people who use this to bike to work or bike to school and particularly, those who are walking and trying to get across the street, trying to get to where they are going. we took all of that and put together a project that was complicated. it was not an easy solution. there are different neighborhoods as the supervisor said that this goes through with different crash profiles, different geometries, and we had to knit it together into a project that would definitely meet the needs of all of the stakeholders while making the street safer and i think that is something we accomplished.

just accomplished. there are trade-offs along the way, but we were able and there's a lot of controversy along the way, but we are able to get to a consensus project that is resulting in a polk street that i think is a quantum step better than what we had before we started this project. a quantum step better in terms of safety, in a quantum step better in terms of fatality and livability, and really supporting and advancing what is great and special and unique about the polk street corridor and the multiple neighborhoods that it runs through. we are just very pleased to be here on this day. as others said, lots of lessons learned. we need to do more of this and we need to do it better and we need to do it faster, but we have a great product here because of the great collaboration among so many different stakeholders throughout this process and also , i want to acknowledge, in addition to the mayor and the supervisors, the great

leadership by the sfmta board of directors that had the tough job way back of approving this project amid all the controversy there is one director who was on the board at that time here. the difficult work of approving the project and getting the funding together so we could move this forward. i want to thank all of our partners and community stakeholders and congratulate all of the neighbors along polk street for this great project. [applause] and one of those stakeholders that has been with us from the start, sometimes working with us , sometimes fighting with us, but always advocating for safer and better streets in san francisco, has it been the san francisco bicycle coalition. i want to invite the executive director of the coalition up. [applause]. >> thank you. thank you to you and your team for putting on this event. special thanks to mayor breed for your remarks and supervisors

peskin and haney for being here. we are here today to celebrate the completion of the polk street improvement project, and there are some wonderful things to celebrate for an alley in front of us, that is a great example of what the city can do to make our streets and alleyways more human scale. we have great new pavements, there are sewer lines, so many wonderful things that are the result of this project. i do want to call out that from a bicycle safety perspective, i'm not sure we are 100% complete and what we need on polk street. with only like a part of the project containing fully protected bike lanes, this project, whether it was three years or eight years to go, when it was approved, it doesn't quite meet the standards that we have established today or protection and safety for people who bike on our vision zero high injury cora doris. the streets where we know people are getting injured and killed. we are at this this point because polk street the project we are celebrating today, is the

result of a process that started years ago. what we have learned since then is that all of the outreach and planning and construction delays , they are not necessary to wait whether it is three years or eight years, to get the safety improvements that we need for people who bike. we have seen with the leadership of mayor breed and members of the board of supervisors that we can get those safety improvements in the ground in a matter of months rather then years. so the lesson in the take away from me here is that there are these important projects where we are transforming our streetscapes and they are important to get right. we need to be speaking out for the voices of young people, for seniors, for people who bike, but they're also things that we can do immediately to make improvements. i'm so happy again, in response to the recent fatality that supervisor haney mentioned on howard street, that the city is stepping up and putting the safety improvements in the ground to help save lives and prevent more people from being injured. we look forward to working with the mayor's office, with the sfmta to evaluating polk street,

to seeing how it works, what needs to be fixed and tweaked, especially from a bicycle perspective in the months ahead, and hopefully, making improvements to close those gaps and safety and protection where we know they exist. the memories of the lives we have lost and that the lives changed by people who were seriously injured demands that we continue to make fast and real change. thank you so much. [applause] >> okay. presenting s.f. walk is dodi. please come on up. >> good morning, everybody. thank you, mayor breed, supervisors. i stand here today thinking a lot about a phone call i received recently a couple of weeks ago from a woman who was seriously hurt and hit and a hit

and run just a couple of blocks away from here, and she thankfully survived the crash and that was one of the hardest because i have ever received. the calls never do get easy, it is projects like polk street where we do the necessary work and put in the time and energy and investment into streets like this where we know that they are streets that need our attention because people are going about they're daily lives and still encountering unsafe conditions. i am so happy that one of our city his most dangerous streets has gotten safety improvements. the crosswalks, the bulb outs, divisibility striping, because we know that this is the work that it takes to save lives. the project was designed at a time before we had the city's goal of vision zero. before we had leaders like mayor breed who made it clear that people's safety is the number 1

priority above anything else. that means we have a lot more work to do here on polk street. we have to be more aggressive about the quick changes. yes, we all do stand here today in celebration because this alley is beautiful, we have amazing pavement and so many good things that we know are improving this corridor, but as a city, i think that we are ready to take more than small steps towards people's safety. we really need to be racing towards the future for everyone, of every age, every ability who is on our streets. thank you so much. next, please let me welcome christian martin, the executive director of the lower polk c.b.d., whose organization was definitely a key partner in the development of polk street. [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you all for being here on

this rainy day. we are thrilled to see everybody out here. thank you, mayor agreed and supervisors. i hope direct to -- director numeral, right rough, thank you to the lower polk neighbors for your vision and the clarity and explain to the city what we do want to see more of as opposed to what and who we don't want to see more of. it is critically important. thank you to the d.p.w. workers, the engineers, the architects that had a hand in creating this beautiful space, for your hard work, skill and dedication, it speaks for itself. many of you may notice, but it bears repeating that in the tenderloin and lower polk neighborhood, there is the amount of open space is equivalent to two people sharing a yoga mat. let that sink in.

what we know about open spaces is critically important to the mind, body, in spirit and that is simply not enough. so we are very proud to add an alley to the available open space in the neighborhood, and we hope, for the benefit of the future, that we can continue to keep it clean and safe. i would like to thank the staff of the c.b.d. for doing the hard work day in and day out. johnny, andre, john, ronald, ronald, we appreciate you, we see you. i would like to thank the board of the c.b.d. for giving me the support to do what i do every day. i love my job. thank you to all, thank you to the sponsors for your amazing

investment in this neighborhood for the health and vitality. thank you to the st. francis foundation for all the work that you do and the neighborhood parks, our friends and colleagues at other c.b.d., thank you so much. randall, everybody else who i don't see. and i would like to reiterate what supervisor peskin said about shall thomas, a man who i didn't have the pleasure to meet , but whose legacy and vision you are all standing in. thank you. we are incredibly proud to be the stewards of this amazing, magnificent public space. it is a responsibility that we take seriously, and we hope to infuse our future programming with equity and inclusion so that this alley can fulfil the promise and the pride of this

special day. thank you very much and let's cut this ribbon. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, a christian. christian has been an incredible partner and there's been many, many neighborhood groups, many businesses, a lot of people who have been involved in this. i do want to thank the planning department, i want to thank the public utilities commission. they have also been part of this project. i would also like to thank m. squared and the contractor who worked very closely with all the neighbors to make this project happen. [applause] >> and personally, a voice of appreciation for our project team. without them, this major undertaking, they actually got it done in a very nice day. a big hand for all of them. and now at the moment we have been waiting for is the children from reading elementary school will come over here and cut the

ribbon. i want to thank everyone for coming out. police enjoyed the polk street and any experiences that you have, share them with us so we can do better. thank you. thank you. >> can i get some girls over here? okay, here is the thing, watch your hands, don't put them in there, and don't put them in here. i you guys going to help me count down? >> five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] [applause]