the data that i described earlier. that's identifying which of the routes are most used by people with disabilities and some of the routes -- i looked at those routes are high ridership routes. other factors that we take into account are major corridors. we also monitor ridership. we have ways to detect loads, how many people are on a bus at a certain hour. we also do in-person texts and we heard back from customers to let us know when buss are getting crowded. when we have more resources we make a decision about crowds

that we need to address and adding more service. or whether we can bring back a new route. those are the things that we have. two other factors are geographic distribution. from the beginning we only had 17 routes. we made sure that every single neighborhood was within a mile of a transit. we are now getting closer to half a mile i. in normal times we have a standard of quarter mile. the last factor is essential destination. making sure each neighborhood, especially neighborhoods where people are less likely to have other options are connected to hospitals, grocery stores and other essential business. thank you, i will open up now for questions. >> just to remind participants

who are listening, the council has chance to ask questions. we will open it up to people who are in this meeting. i will start off. sandra, when you were talking about how you approached your decision-making for where the routes are going, was that a decision-making base on traffic prior to covid or during covid? i would imagine change in transit activity would be very different. i wanted to know if how you're monitoring the change in transit patterns post-covid, not prior. >> yes. even before we went into the shelter-in-place, we have

available the data. our express routes dropped. this is an example of us monitoring in realtime to have sense what's crowded and what's not. because our title vi process, we have ridership demographics for each line. using common sense knowing what was going on, that many of the people work in offices got to stay home and many other people work in hospitals, that also

helped us prioritize which routes we thought were going to be critical. that was the first time we went down to 17 routes. we made sure there was a grid, we made sure key connections stay well connect. because we have pretty good way of checking ridership and feedback from customers, that's how we shaped that on. what happened last week, which routes were crowded, we know every time you ride 311 and talk to your district supervisor, that feedback comes to me and my team. we take into account not just how many pieces of feedback we

get. >> how many are participating or or are you involved in hat decision-making? >> for the most part, this decision-making has been operational. we haven't reported to our board. we don't have a body to which we are running these things through. they are temporary. in the spring, we will be doing

an assessment and that will include a significant outreach component. at that stage, we will be engaging with many different communities including the community of disabilities. >> i wanted to follow-up. is there a way in which the participants here today can contribute to your decision-making in realtime and have their experiences be folded into how you're doing your programming? if not, how can we make that happen? >> absolutely. as i mentioned before, every time -- [indiscernible] [background noise]

>> would you repeat how to get in touch with you, the name and your contact information and also provide it to the m.d.c. so we can post it. i would encourage you, just as a follow-up, to consider having some kind of established level of engagement with the disabled community about transit, especially during covid. i will open up questions for the rest of the councilmembers. >> i have a question.

[indiscernible]

>> i want to make sure i understood all the components. you want to know what our protocol is for line boarding people with disability who use wheelchairs. >> yes. >> our protocol right now is that anybody who request to board -- we have backdoor boarding, the policy states that anybody who request to board

through the front door should be allowed. in terms of assisting patrons with wheelchair procurement, we have enhanced ppe so they resume the duty. in term of training, the accessible services team has a person who train them on these duties parts of their job. >> i want to follow-up with that. i'm sure lot of people have an

experience. from my particular experience -- [indiscernible]

>> understood. i fail to answer your question about what to do. best way to report these things is to 311 to make sure it's documented properly. that gets flagged as an issue if you note that, it gets flagged not just my team and the division where the operator works etcetera. that is the best way to do it. i would encourage you to do that. only way we're going to get better in eliminate this -- [indiscernible]

>> with paratransit, i know some of the people are now taking paratransit before covid-1 covif you're not using a paratransit, three times a month, it will be terminated. did you guys review that or is that a plus for covid-19? >> thank you for your question alex. that's never been a policy where if you don't use paratransit that you lose it.

we understand that riders are not using to use paratransit now because of the covid-19 situation. we are still doing recertifications as normal. no one is being -- paratransit is not being terminated because they're not using. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. >> co-chair pelzman: other councilmembers, do you have questions. yes tiffany. >> councilmember yu: thank you for your brief remarks. i had a question about the underground muni. i was curious if you were able to provide additional information as to the holdup of why it's probably not going to be until 2021 until the underground muni opens?

>> yes. the short and brief explanation is that when we brought that rail on august 22nd, we had to -- we were running slow on the subways and we had service interruptions. that's because we discovered that when running normal service, we were having issues with overhead wire. there's been very detailed information on our website. basically it's part of the overhead wire, kind of splicer. ones we purchased are defective. we purchased and replaced them all over our system. we had to wait for shipments, we had to special order them and wait for them to get

manufactured to our specification that we shipped from europe. we had to install them. all of those are the thing that add up to us not being able to bring back rail service for you until early next year or end of this year. >> councilmember yu: thank you. next question is about the taxi thing. i'm just curious, it sounds like going through reassessment now, figuring out if they can be extended. i wanted to better understand what the time line is on that? >> sure. the program will stay in place for now. we are hoping -- as long as paratransit demand is down, we're able to pay for the e.t.c. program. hopefully by end of 2020, we're hear about the lifeline funding. that will help us assess whether

we'll extend it further or if we can use that funding to extend the program with the existing allotment. >> co-chair pelzman: if people are holding up their hands to be recognizes, if you're on the phone, you can't, you can send me a message and i will then call on you and hopefully you can pose your questions via audio. please go ahead. >> i think that some of the

comments for sandra -- [indiscernible] i'm signing slowly because i just hurt my shoulder . a week ago, maybe two weeks ago, i finally was riding public transit for the first time. there was some issues, for example, i depend on an app for time schedule to note when muni will be arriving. that's what i depend on to be able to tell when muni will be there and when a muni comes by that says in service, it's challenging again that's happened a few times. i had to wait a couple of lines past me by before i was able to figure out.

there was a notification on the application and so, it resulted in me having to walk quite a distance. i don't know it there's way to have information about if this job is not available, perhaps we can go to another stop. what the structure is for this. there doesn't seem to be any clear communication for that. i also are -- i also have a ca. it is hard for me to know what's dependable public transit system and which one i can get on and ride. it's quite confusing. a bit of positive feedback, i can't say this for others, for myself, very impressed with the use of the yellow jacket.

it helps me with knowing there was support on the bus. i think there was a few stops that had folks in the yellow jacket mostly in the busy area of transit. they're in the back of the bus. i think they are available for someone to get on and off. i think that there's an issue with the red zone. there's a lot of issue with people crawling over and blocking the access in the red zone for the transit system. people can't actually -- the bus can actually create an accessible platform for people to board who need it. that something that causes undue stress on the bus drivers and creates layered frustration for those of us with disabilities. i think that should be something

that can be shifted. i think lack of communication not able to get off and board a bus easily, i think some of those are compounded issues that require attention and perhaps muni can have flexibility to notify the public about what the transportation options are so we can board safely. >> so, predictions. i will be the first to admit that our predictions are not to the standard that we usually keep. especially with the buses that providing rail service. normally, we only choose service about three times a year. we have changed service simple times since march.

that takes us at least two weeks. it's been challenging for us to keep up. it's something that we are always working very hard on overtime, not overtime, -- it's something that we're starting to keep accurate as possible but something that also has been harder to keep up during this emergency. the tradeoff that we made, we believe that it's better to put in more service sooner than wait for everything to be perfect before adding the service. those are trade-offs that we've had. but especially with the buses providing rail service now, we do not have as accurate

predictions as we should. we're organiz -- we're working . in terms of stop changes. if we change a stop -- for stop changes, any time we have a planned stop change, we do go into the next bus and we enter a message that says, use this other stop instead. they're making some changes related to construction. that onerous is put on the contractor. i'm not sure that they always do the best job. something that we can be working on to regulate better. in term of red curves, that has been another tradeoff. from mid-march, we went to shelter-in-place, we suspended

tracking enforcement. one of the reasons was that we were in an emergency situation, we did not want to be penalizing people with transit tickets at a time when people were suffering economically. we were also having a great deal of anxiety. in addition we had also a lot of officers that either ill or happen to be home with their family. ewe have returned to enforcing curb parking policy. >> thank you for following up with the contractors. >> co-chair pelzman: , are you done? >> that's all i had to say. there's quite a few issues that create barriers.

just trying to figure out how to navigate the system. this isn't an untenable situations. there are areas for improvement. i want to make that note. >> co-chair pelzman: any other councilmembers interested in posing questions? i'm waiting to see if you are sending me any messages. jim, are you hearing anything from anybody? >> we have two callers. >> co-chair pelzman: no other councilmembers reaching out? >> i'm not seeing anyone with their hands raised. >> co-chair pelzman: let's open up to public comment please.

first caller? >> i want to address accessibility issue at this meeting. looking at the sfgov tv website, the mayor's disability council thing at the bottom of the screen is cutting off all the images in the bottom row. the names of the images. i can't tell who's speaking if their video happens to be in the bottom row. also the names are like in a really tiny font. i want to add, thank you stuff to some of the things people are saying. if i can't see their names, it's really hard. also the scrolling star 3 call-in number is really hard. it will be much better if that

was stationary. i'm still receiving an e-mail from somebody who's trying to get through this meeting and has not been able to. that's all i want to say for that. can i lead with my public comment now? >> co-chair pelzman: sure. >> thank you so much. i appreciate that. i don't know where to begin on -- i believe it was sandra padilla's presentation here. first, i want to comment on this problem of m.d.c. in general with this horse and pony show as i see. where departments come give their presentations, they say how great everything is. there's no problems, you don't hear from advocates in the community. you don't hear from senior disability action and other important voices that are very critical of what's happening right now. first of all, i like to point out when sandra said, they encountered operational difficulty with opening the light rail. that is the most ridiculous

summarization what happened. the news reported from the sf chronical, muni closes light rail following coronavirus case and equipment failure. drivers are not being kept safe and the equipment is not operated correctly. that is why they closed the light rail. it's because they screwed up and they don't to say that. there are meetings where disabled people can give their feedback to sfmta. it's disgusting that i'm having to use my public comment time to inform this body of those meetings when that is exactly what sfmta staff should be doing. those meetings happen monthly or bimonthly. they are useful. additionally, i would love to connect with anyone that is reporting problems and access

with sfmta. i have filed a lawsuit because of how difficult it has been for me and my wheelchair to board buses and how broken the a.d.a. grievous procedure is with sfmta. it's really sad that i'm actually being able to address this issue better with a lawsuit than with this body, which i would protect the right of disabled people. you're having hard time getting on a bus, please ask this councilmember, mayor's office on disability, i give you information to pass my contact information along. you can find me on youtube. additionally, i would like to point out that the grievance a.d.a. process stands now, it focuses only on driver discipline. punishing drivers. that is not the solution.

we need to educate people, create positive reward system, additional testing, additional driver training as of now, drivers do not get adequate training for disability access. we need to support them in this hard time where they are being exposed to a virus that's deadly and trying to serve our city. thank you. >> co-chair pelzman: sandra can you share with this council contact information for that group of disabled representatives that zach mentioned and be sure that we have that information available on our website. >> yes. i can. i will add it to the text and i wanted to say erin --

[indiscernible] >> co-chair pelzman: we need the name again and also how to get in touch. >> you can e-mail matthew west. >> co-chair pelzman: lot of participants may have difficulty writing down things quickly. if you can do it slowly right now, you' i'd appreciate it. >> matthew and his last name is west. his e-mail contact is

matthew.west@sfmta.com. the name of the advisory committee is multimodal accessibility advisory committee. maac. we call it maac for short. if you e-mail him, he will send you the information for the regular meeting. >> co-chair pelzman: is he the program director for the maac? yes,

>> co-chair pelzman: thank you very much i appreciate you providing that information. may we hear from the second caller? >> thank you, this is bob. i'm also paratransit user. comments both about the planning for muni shutdown redoing as well as paratransit. when muni really shortened its roots it canceled such lines as the 5, 21, 33, 43 and the 45. i quickly pointed out what that meant was there was absolutely zero muni access to st. mary's hospital. difficult access to the former children's hospital out on call street and the 28 line was shut down. to get that to that california street address, you have to go downtown and come back out on the one. i pointed out an e-mail to upper muni management and the board.

no response. all when i contacted senior and disability advocacy group and they've raised thee questions then suddenly muni changed its tune and started to have service. as far as paratransit, there's something even worse. last year, cabs and paratransit were relegated forced to use only the curb lane. the curb lane of market would have skateboarders, bicyclists, segway users, people riding scooters, escooters, all in that curb lane. muni buses in te center lane. last night, i asked staff if i get on a paratransit ride at market and second to go out to church and market, the paratransit vehicle would have to travel the entire distance in that curb lane with bicyclists and skateboarders and segway

users, i was told yes. we're going to be forced to ride with various other slower hard to see motor users and that's going to work -- paratransit is a slow ride and subject to all sorts of possible minor collisions as those vehicles bump into the paratransit van, the or the cab. somehow, the m.t.a. people who thought of this, didn't think it through thoroughly. i'm giving you few examples how inadequate the awareness what are key destinations, such as st. mary hospital. it was a numbers game. how many ride and what's the revenue. not who needs to get to st. mary's or children's hospital. it's number and numbers, not people right to travel. that's been the predominant.

same with paratransit vehicle. if i'm at the lgbtq offices, i want to go downtown in paratransit, that paratransit vehicle would have to go in the curb lane all the way from octavia market down to second and market. which again, it seems like we're being forced to go the slowest and have the most likelihood of a minor collision, somebody bumping into us from the skateboard segway, bicycle, whatever. there's got to be thought force on to m.t.a. to think about the rights of people with disabilities, not their dollar number ridership. thank you. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you bob. do we have another caller? >> yes, we have three more.

>> hello. i'm calling from the outer area. from 30 years we had the problems of the streetcars stopping at sunset boulevard some at 19th avenue forcing everybody to get off the streetcar and wait for another streetcar and then the streetcar turns -- they call it switchback. they turn the streetcar around to make it easier for the planners to get people more from downtown out. people pay their fare to go to the entire route even to way out to the end into ocean beach. it's an extreme hardship for person with disability to be forced out of a streetcar and have to wait unknown amount of

time for another streetcar to come along. one time, long time ago, i was driving on a saturday night, it was very foggy, i was on judah avenue. there were two streetcars attach to one another at judah and 19th avenue. it was after a baseball game. it was really foggy. i saw all these people in the middle of the street. i saw what was happening. they were forcing all these elders who attended the ball game via muni, they were forced to get off the streetcar 10:30 at night in the cold fog and send those two streetcars back downtown and then have each elders wait for the next streetcar. at the time, i made a big fuss about it. we were between supervisors, our current supervisor was deposed.

he was able to get a community meeting with the head of muni at the time. he promised that these switchbacks would stop. they did not stop. they have been continuing up until the present, nobody has any respect for the people of ththe elder. maybe because we're not well organized but it's unconsciencable. i'm trying to put this to those of the m.t.a. so when the streetcars come back, do not continue this practice of the switchbacks. we pay our share, full fare to go all the way to the destination. they should not be kicked off at 19th avenue or sunset boulevard. the streetcar should go to the

end. please do something about that. furthermore, i like to draw your attention, that all of this bus rapid transit that's implemented for who knows who's making decisions to give these multibillion dollar contracts, busy work to contractors we don't know who they are friends of. this is putting people with disabilities lives in extreme danger when you take the muni and you put it in the middle of a busy road that is a highway leading to goldengate bridge, for example. you think that people who are hurrying home are going to want to stop for a person who fallen out of their wheelchair in the middle of the street? i have three times in my life picked up a person who has fallen into the gutter at an intersection and all three times that i did, i'm disabled, i can still drive and walk a limited amount, each of the three times that i got out my car to lift the person who fallen from their

wheelchair into the gutter. the other drivers honked instead of getting out their cars to help me lift the person out of the wheelchair. this is so crazy that this is going on, if they wanted people to get downtown faster from the richmond, they can add a few buses from the line. when a streetcar or bus or the bus is right along the curb, a person gets from the curb, they step into the bus. if you put the bus in the middle of gary boulevard or middle of van ness a avenue the person has to get to and from this busy road and risk their life to fall of of the we'l wheelchair. we wish you stop promoting this

bus traffic transit. thank you. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you. next caller please. >> this is roger. president of the transport workers union local 258. i want to highlight what the riders, passengers have been stating. one of the ways in which we can provide better more accessible service for the wheelchair community, for the at-risk community, for the community that are special needs community, by bringing back the light rail vehicles back on the surface. we have been pushing and pressing the agency to bring back the light rail vehicle service. from what i understand, sfmta is

the only public transportation system in the united states of america that has completely shut down its light rail vehicle service. why? we have no idea. when i say we, i mean local 258, light rail vehicle systems are bigger. they are stronger. they have more space for passengers. they are safer for the operators. by bringing back the light rail vehicle system, and the service back on the surface, we'll create more social distancing, more public vehicles out on the streets and less crowding on the buses. let's take pressure off the buses. one of the ways we can assist the elderly community, the wheelchair community is by bringing back more service. we have plenty of vehicleses that are sitting around in the

parking lot. that is dangerous because the longer a vehicle sits, it creates more rust on the parts. aside from that, vehicles sitting down for years and years, which is where we're going when this -- at this rate, is dangerous not just for the vehicles themselves but for the general public. we have vehicles that are going to be out of service for way too long. we are highly encouraging anybody and everybody to please reach out to the sfmta to the board of directors, to the director of transportation, director of transit, to bring back more these vehicles in order to provide more service. if you don't believe me that there isover crowding on the buses, hop on the 38 gary and

you will see the amount of overcrowding that is occurring. in regards to one of the speakers that spoke earlier, i believe it was zach in terms of disciplining the operator for lack of education when it comes to the elderly community or special services needs community, he's right. we don't need to continue punishing and punishing the operators because punishing isn't going to get to the root of the problem without educating our fleet, without educating our drivers and operators. please push forward the idea the notion and the belief of educating and retraining the operators so they can understand what the special needs are of the special communities that we are talking about. whether it's the elderly community, the sick community, the community dealing with

wheelchairs, etcetera. i'm in full support of what the general riding public is stating here on this call. thank you. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you. i think it may be we can find an opportunity here to bring some of the people who are participating in this meeting to possibly engage and educate your colleagues and fellow drivers about some of the needs disable community has in transit. is that something you will be willing to consider? >> yes. >> co-chair pelzman: please make sure you leave your contact

information. that will be outstanding. thank you very much. alex? >> co-chair madrid: i'm not sure if -- the message in the chat. >> co-chair pelzman: do we have another speaker? >> we have two more. >> can you hear me? >> yes. >> couple of things. first about the paratransit

thing. we really appreciate it that the sfmta, implemented severe cuts in service, accessible trip card which for seniors and people with disabilities. because of the cuts we're unable to use the muni servic muni. muni is free for people with disabilities and seniors. you have people qualified for it, because of the service level was cut, -- [indiscernible] -- paratransit for the certified

users, charges $2.50 for one way trip. >> co-chair pelzman: somebody please mute yourself. thank you. please go on. >> about driver training. i highly recommend and encourage for this committee and other stakeholders to work with the operators, to work on the training program and ensure proper service and face proper service.

i haven't heard any training that have addressed this issue during our pandemic. i agree, punishing the operator than working with the operators. they're in a bad situation where they trying to make it safe for everybody. then whole issue about masks and not masking and etcetera. i have not seen training for it or clear plan how to keep both the operators and the riders safe. i think that's also very important. i think that's it for right now. we do have public comment again at the end of the agenda right >> co-chair pelzman: right p.p.p.our next caller please.

>> i live in district 7 i have two topics. i have an adaptive bicycle that is two wheels in the front and it's white wide. the south side of twin peaks, there's no accessible way to access twin peaks on that side. i seen people struggle with children on the back of an upright bike. you have to go curb around the end of the gate on a slope dirt path and over another curb. i have tipped my bike over at least one time attempting to do this. i would just advise, we can open one of the gates, put in in one of those big orange things to let people ride through without having to go over this awkward

side path. my other question is about disabled cycling access to the alameda parking lot. because there are no bike racks in alameda parking area, i can't access the market because i can't bring my bike into the area. i like it in between the rings of stall. it will be very easy to take out a few parking spaces and install accessible widely spaced bike racks so disable people who can access cycling. those are my main points. >> co-chair pelzman: i appreciate that. we will provide the contact

information to all of you from everybody. that's going to be the simplest way to do it. >> if i can interject, if you want your contact information given to the m.d.c. members, presenters or m.d.c. staff, please send us an e-mail to mod @sfgovtv.org with your contact info. that's the electronic way to fill in the card. >> co-chair pelzman: i will repeat that again. for all of the people who have called in today and would like to have their questions responded to or to continue this dialogue, i really need you to send your contact information to

mmod@sfgovtv.org. >> -- our next caller. >> that was our last caller. >> co-chair pelzman: okay, we're ready for a break for 15 minutes. following that 15 minutes, we'll have our second presentation or we will have a presentation from the mayor's office of disability director, depending on what her availability is. then we can get to the j.f.k. drive closures. i no that's an issue lot of people very concerned about. take a break for 15 minutes and hopefully we'll able to

reconnect virtually. thanks to everybody for your presentations and your >> jim, who am i supposed to -- >> that will be sufficient. they are listening and watching, so that will be sufficient. >> okay, thank you. okay, thank you to our participants and audience. i hope you had a good 15-minute break, and we are back going back to our former agenda item which was a presentation by nicole bond, the mayor's -- the director of the mayor's office on disabilities on what mod has been doing for the past few months. thank you, nicole. >> hi. hi, everybody. so this is my direct report to the mayor's disability council, and i -- it's written and will

be posted on monday, and for the sake of time i'm not going to read the full report, but for the sake of the council i wanted to highlight a couple of things specifically related to covid response and recovery and voting. i'll start with voting and then go to covid response. i just wanted to make sure that everybody knows that the voting accessibility advisory committee met on friday and focused on accessible voting options for all of those who are registered to vote in san francisco. the supplemental documents for that meeting will be posted to the website and will be linked to this report, but i wanted to make sure people know that there are a variety of accessible voting options that are available for residents with disabilities. the voting center is now located rather than inside city hall

outside, just outside bill graham auditorium at 99 grove. there's also options for remote accessible vote by mail, curbside voting. there will be voting still at your polling place with accessible machines at your polling places on election day itself, and there's also an emergency delivery services program for those who are hospitalized or skilled nursing facilities. so again, we'll send that out so you can take a look at that. please do take advantage of all the different kinds of accessible ways that are available to vote in this voting cycle. the second thing that i wanted to highlight and bring specifically to the attention of the council is a couple of things relating to covid response and recovery where mod has been very deeply engaged since the beginning of the

pandemic. two things i want to draw to your attention and encourage council members to consider for the public meeting in november or an upcoming thing is to invite the folks from the shared spaces of outdoor dining to speak to the council about the way they are looking at accessibility guidance and enforcement. i believe a member of the public also mentioned this earlier in this meeting. i really want to encourage folks to learn more about what's happening with this program. i also wanted to draw your attention to the final report of the economic recovery task force which is live as of last friday and includes a list of very extensive recommendations in covid recovery that will we anticipate impact folks with

disabilities. so the council is strongly encouraged to consider these information items as part of an upcoming public meeting. one more thing, actually, i'm sorry, that i wanted to also highlight for sure is that in july this past year, 2020, as the police commission adapted the department general order for interacting with deaf and hard of hearing individuals. the sfpd is beginning to engage on the development of a training plan to assist officers to implement this order, and that implementation plan is on a specific timeline, and it's a very important training effort that we want to make sure is done well and to the best of our ability. so again, council members are encouraged to engage on this issue and consider this also for

an upcoming public meeting. the rest of my report i will forego, but i will send it to the m.o.d. distribution and also post it to the website on monday. the m.o.d. website, sfgov.org/mod, so you can look for it there. and if you have any questions or would need to call with questions, the number is 415-554-6789. so either way will work. thank you very much. >> thank you very much, nicole. i actually do have a question, which is: is it possible to link the portion of the economic recovery plan that you think will be impactful to the disabled community to whatever you're posting on the m.o.d.

website? >> what i'll say is i'll link to the report the recommendations of our -- it's not organized in such a way where it is readily apparent which initiatives, but i would be happy to talk with the council to think through which of those initiatives, because you're right, there's 42 recommendations right now, so it's -- >> oh, my goodness. we'll read those and maybe post something prior to our next meeting. >> that sounds fine. >> okay, great. thank you, nicole. okay, we are now ready for our next presentation, our next presenter, who is sarah jones, and sarah macland and lucas koebin. >> excuse me, ellen, i'm sorry, there are a couple of comments that have come in from people by email. >> oh, right. my mistake. i forgot.

yes, please go ahead. participants we receive voice mail comments on the m.o.d. phone recorder, and so debbie caplan, the deputy director, will be reading those right now, and then we'll go on to presentations. thank you. sorry, debbie. >> sorry about the sound quality. i don't know why it is. one comment is from a woman named wendy saying: i'm watching this on sf gov tv and my laptop and listening on my phone. it is really hard to watch this without closed captioning and in such a small window so that the names are not visible. and then one more which says: i agree with alex madrid.

i have also faced driver discrimination and front-door boarding in multiple instances. rather than spending so much driver resources on high occupancy routes, like the 38, i think that nearby routes such as 231 should be reactivated to take the load off the 38. the 2 clement operated on an eight-hour shift without split shift and [indiscernible] cleaning. e.t.c. limits of $60 a month is insufficient for travel means. this needs to be expanded to a higher monthly limit. second issue is that as a free muni cardholder, i now have to pay more than previously. the other issue is there hasn't been any outreach about e.t.c.

to chinese, spanish riders. that is the end of comment that has come in by email. >> okay, thank you, debbie. now our next presenters will be sarah jones, sarah madeline and lucas tobin from rec and park. the topic they'll be addressing is the closure of j.f.k. drive in golden gate park. welcome. >> hello. i think -- i'll start out. my name's -- is that all right, lucas? >> yeah, that sounds [indiscernible]. >> okay, great. i'll start out.

i'll start out. >> most parts of sfmta are

really focused on one kind of transportation mode. it's transit or it's bikes or it's the traffic engineering people. in contrast to that, it's really about holding it all together and working across that big picture and really thinking about it from focus of how well are we as a transportation agency doing, fulfilling our purpose of serving, supporting people in san francisco. that's why i'm here today, talking about this topic because this issue and this question of j.f.k. drive and access to the park is really something that holdings together, not just one piece or one type of travel,

primarily it's really about how well our transportation system, park overall is serving the community. that's why i'm here today. that's why i've been involved in this work and kind of creating an umbrella with m.t.a. to make sure when we're thinking about this issue holistically and topic that we're talking about today is about access, it's that's staying at the front of this issue. j.f.k. drive is under the jurisdiction of recreation and parks department. the issue of -- what kind of travel happens on it and really what kind of travel happens on all the streets in the park doesn't come to the m.t.a. board of trustees board oin the --boa.

that's a distinction that is really one that should be meaningful to the people who are affected and it is also -- we should be seemless across the issue. with that in mind, sfmta and my team has been collaborating with this rec park and with m.o.d. we've been working with the fine arts museum of san francisco to talk about really our focus at this point in time, has been about how to make the current situation work. by the current situation, i mean j.f.k. drive closed under the emergency order and now museum is reopening. all of this knowing and

acknowledging that there's going to be a decision before us about what happens with j.f.k. drive and what access on it looks like, we need to be both think being how to make the current system work and what kinds of information and understanding we need as to what might work for the future. i will give a general overview of where things stand in our approach and some of the staff will talk about the specific steps that they're taking right now. we all know the broad situation, just in case people are not aware with j.f.k. drive closed. some of the specific access changes are that -- sorry, yes?

>> co-chair pelzman: i didn't say anything. >> i thought somebody wanted me to stop and had a question. there are 23 a.d.a. parking spaces on j.f.k. drive affected by the car street condition. 18 in the area are close to the museums. we are near the area of flowers and two of them are near the rose garden. the situation that has been established by rec parks for accessing the museum is that you can drive on music concourse, getting to it from mlk. from the south, you can drive that loop.

from the north side of the park, you can enter the garage and use the garage. it's that 15 free dropoff time in the garage. that's the situation we have. one thing i think we're all aware of is those j.f.k. drives a.d.a. spots are incredibly important for access. it did have disadvantages related to the configuration with the parking bike lanes and things like that. at this point in time, beyond the j.f.k., there's also a route traversing the lane using j.f.k. overlook middle drive and m.l.k. which has been set up general as

a temporary emergency period situation. i do want to it' reiterate no decisions have been made. we at sfmta do think there's lot of benefits with j.f.k. we also feel strongly it needs to work for everyone. in this period of time, it's giving us the space to work things through and see how it can work to the meet that goal of enhancing usability for people with disability. ultimating it can help lead to better place and better access for all in golden gate park. some of our short-term work for vehicle access for a.d.a., we

are looking to find replacements for all of the 18 spaces lost with j.f.k. we're working to get some quick action on that we want to make sure that they are comparable and convenience to those that are not able to be accessed anymore. also looking to make sure that the museums work with the j.f.k. drive closure. we've manage to find a system for that in addition to really making lot of progress on identifying those replacements. dropoffs, i mentioned this before. we have -- we very much do recognize the importance of dropoff access close by the

museums. that's what concourse configuration and garage configuration -- are all about. also short-term work to help people in getting to the park. really facilitating through better way finding. finds and maps and things that kind of help tell you where you're going. also just directional signage for garage access and also signage at the muni stops. there's a large number of muni routes that are serving the park but it is not as -- [indiscernible] we're looking at doing that. also looking at improving direction via the various

websites. in the medium term, there's also a study that is being led by the san francisco county transportation authority. they are usually referred to as sfmta. i know this is confusing. they are a separate transportation agency serving san francisco. we work with them extremely closely. they are kind of leading -- it's called a study. it's really a convening of conversation around issues of goldengate park and access, what opportunities and challenges j.f.k. might bring. they are going to be coming months, convening that conversation.

i made it extremely clear to them that this group is a really important resource to be talking to and a really important space to be working in around that effort. >> co-chair pelzman: can you explain what that means? i think it's clear that transit agencies need to hear more directly or have members of the disabled community who are using public transit really be -- much more directly involved in whatever decision-making process is going on. i don't think you sit around and try to plan the worst way for disabled people to get from point a to point b. i think what i'm learning through this particular hearing or meeting is that you guys are trying to help the disable community. the disable community want you to help them.

i think we need clarification on where we can weigh in. we need you to create that opportunity for us. you need to make sure that we're engaged. >> i absolutely hear that. this process and this project has really kind of opened up ways of understanding that -- i know there was a discussion about the maac. i think we can bring some of the outreach strategies and start using more broadly with the community as well. i would agree with that and i'm committed to doing that. >> co-chair pelzman: we hear from you with the next couple of weeks. let's say two weeks on how we

can bring these interesting voice into your planning and programming process. is that something you will be agreeable to? >> yes. in the meeting? >> co-chair pelzman: we don't know anything about what you're doing. we would need to be informed and there will be -- we need to know what you're doing and when you're doing and how we can participate. a seat at the table. >> absolutely. i'll work with nicole to set up a follow-up discussion with you. >> co-chair pelzman: you can contact me directly. thank you. >> great, thank you. i'm basically done what i wanted to go over except the final note. lot of our future efforts are going to be discussed within this process that the t.a.s

are organizing. there's couple of areas that are really clear that we need to work on. one of them is around the garage and pricing and management of the garage which i think rec parks is very interested in. another is about taxis and making it a lot easier for people to access taxis within the park. another one longer term or kind of big picture issue of the [indiscernible] there are incredible opportunities to usability at goldengate park for people with disabilities. to make anything work around

j.f.k. drive, even the past condition of it given what i heard about the issues with the usability of the a.d.a. spaces on j.f.k. drive, we need to look at what access and usability to the entirety of this amazing city for people with disabilitieses. >> co-chair pelzman: that's why brings us into that decision-making and planning process is going to be critical. >> i'm totally with you. i will work with you to make that happen. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you very much. councilmembers, do you have questions? >> do we want to go to lucas next? >> this is orchid, i need to pause here. i want to make sure that the

interpreters can see me. this is orchid, i'm a member of the council. i work with sfmta. i have big concerns with the garage, the parking issue and the dropoff space. it's not exactly accessible. there's only one portion that has anything in that area and it's also extremely dark. it's challenging to navigate and find a way there. i'm thinking about parking spaces. i think we need to go back to the original plan. specifically to think about cyclist. i have concerns because of the

closure, the permanent closure and academy of science as well. parking is an issue. we need to think about broader public use of the park and not just focus on -- [indiscernible] needs. there are lots of people who use the parking in a variety of ways. this closure has impacted people. there are some things that we need to consider.

>> co-chair pelzman: thank you orkid. >> councilmember sassouni: i think goldengate park park and opening it, we need to consider parking space. i've been attending a variety of events and going to different locations in the park. that garage is one of the worst places in my opinion. it's extremely dark. the door is not accessible. the one going in the park. i think that we need to kind of go back the original plan of opening the park and what parking space looks like initially -- i use my bike. we need to go back to what the

parking was before having accessible parking places and availability to all of the public. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you. >> i want to remind me who will be needing interpreters that our interpreters will be -- our service will be ending at 4:30. i want to give a heads up to everybody about that. do we have any other questions from the council? >> co-chair madrid: [indiscernib le] >> co-chair pelzman: we're going to go into the next presentation. >> co-chair madrid: i have a question for you.

[indiscernible]

>> the first question was about whether paratransit can access. i'm going to get the specifics about paratransit vehicle access and i will provide that to you. we have provided an access for transit. kind of a special lane has been set up so that the 44 bus can get through on music concourse. that is something that we will clarify the ability for paratransit to use that path of

travel as well. of course they can drop off that has been provided too. , also recognizing opening your car door and stepping out, we want to accommodate all disable people to enter and exit their vehicle. your second question, i believe was the plan for improving accessibility. if i can answer that third question, which was around, what are we looking at and what are we using to understand accessibility and are we looking at a map. i would say, we have -- because of the discussion about j.f.k.

drive, that's opening up a larger discussion about what we can do to make it a accessible place. there's been lot of input overtime. nicole provided it. that's not something that the planners figure out. >> co-chair madrid: [indiscernib le] >> we're not just looking at the

map. we need to be looking at the places with experts about the places and the experts are the people who are on this council call. it's the people who are living it. as we take our steps to improve accessibility, it needs to be in partnership with the disabled community. >> co-chair madrid: [indiscernib le]

>> parking were main issues. they were issues before. they continue to be issues -- lucas from rec park will be able to talk about the specifics moves that they are pursuing around parking in the near term. >> co-chair madrid: thank you. >> co-chair pelzman: any other councilmembers? tiffany? denise? would you like to pose a

question? kate? kate williams? am i forgetting somebody? just so participants understand, i'm asking our other councilmembers who are accessing this meeting via the phone, if they have questions for the presenters. seeing that we don't, i like to move on and before we do, i need to ask the interpreters if they can stay beyond 4:30? it look likes it's going to be a longer meeting than we had scheduled for. i will just let our participants know that if we can't have that

extension, we would have to end the meeting. we can't close the meeting unless we have full accessibility for all of our community. can you stay? >> insist jenny speaking, i believe we have a hard cut off at 5:00. we can stay for extra half hour. >> co-chair pelzman: we appreciate it.

>> thank you sarah jones for dog suc--doing such a great job. i will try to go through what i'm saying quickly. sarah madeleine director of public fairs was not able to be here today. we're joined by beverly eng who is the deputy director. she may chime in. i'm lucas tobin, i'm a.d.a. coordinator. we have heard from the disability community both before and during covid with the concerns with the j.f.k. road closures and the impact it's

having. rec and park providing for everyone. part of that access is also and what sarah alluded to, part of that is also making sure that people have access to the information they need in order to get to the park destination if they are coming by vehicle or need to find parking or need coming out by paratransit. we've heard issues of people couldn't find the right route to the park. as sarah mentioned, we've been working together alongside m.o.d. and m.t.a. to address these concerns that the disability community has been raising. during the covid street closures, there were impacts

before the covid street closure. they impacted j.f.k. obviously and sarah mentioned the accessible parking on j.f.k. and as far as those accessible parking spots go, i think that sarah mentioned this, she was focusing on the concourse there are 18 accessible spaces for conservatory of flowers that are also impacted by the closure. that's 26 spaces all together. while we know all of those parking spaces and we are

addressing making sure people have information to drive to all those spaces. the main focus of what we've been working on recently is the music concourse area. especially because museums reopened and academy of science will be reopening. [please stand by]

>> we're going to add tour bus parking area and six more accessible spaces on martin luther king drive and four more on nancy pelosi so that would

get us to the 18 faces that we're losing with the j.f.k. closure. we're having people with knowing where they can drive and where they can go to drop someone off and park or with their paratransit can drop them off. so the other thing that we're addressing is the communication to ensure that there's clear information available in multiple formats. so, we are going to be providing maps and detailed directions on our website and to the disability community and every way that we can and to make sure that people have access to that information. we're also, and i think that sarah may have mentioned this already but we're working together with mta on ensuring

that google happens and other mapping and navigating tools reflect the current information because we found that some of those tools are giving old information saying some things are closed that are not and not telling people exactly where they can drop someone off or where they can have their car shared driver drop them off. and improving signage throughout the park so people can be districted where they need to get to when they're approaching and in the park. and the map and directions that i spoke about, those actually should be posted any time now. they're just being finalized. what we're talking about is an -- i can share that information with the council. the map and the detailed directions are developing. those should be posted on our

website at sfrec.org. >> could you also -- you have about a minute left. >> you will be able to find the map and detailed directions and on our website and and the last thing i want today say that if there's the public can e-mail us directions at rpdinform and at sfgov.org and they can call (145)831-2700 if they have any feedback or questions or comments. they can also contact me directly. that's all i had to go over. >> excuse me, how did they contact you directly? >> i'm at lucas.tobin@sfgov.org.

>> it welcome back great if we can figure out a way to have frank to your information about accessibility within rec and park on our site. it's just, you know, it will just make life a little bit easier, hopefully for folks. it gets a little crazy trying to track down where everything is located. there's a theme with my questions and observations and i'm only going to make one. first of all, thank you for your presentation. again, do you have or would you consider having members of the disabled community participating in whatever your outreach planning, where the decision-making planning occurs

within your organization? within your particular program areas? i think it would just make a lot more sense for us to be able to communicate with you directly and as a follow-up, you were mentioning all of these things that you are planning on doing. are they done? when will they be done? what is the timeline for having them completed? >> so, i'll answer the second part of the timeline. we are -- some things will happen more quickly so like i said the information on the website it will up as soon as today and as soon as that is finalized. we're converting the parking spaces in the tour bus parking lot that are, as we speak, being converted to seven days a week and those are only accessible on saturday. there's a decision made a while ago to do that so those are

being changed. as far as redesigning that parking lot and designing accessible park north some of pf the areas will take longer but we hope in 30 days we'll have that. >> within what you would say by mid-november? >> yes. >> and then as far as the way finding signage in the park we're hoping that that can be completed within 30 days as well. and those are most of the initiatives. the map and the directions will be updated as things are add or if anything has changed but those should be really quickly. if people want to take advantage of weather and get out there. >> i don't want to promise our westbound guy was able to get them posted today but there was a possibility of that. i would say for sure by early

next week. the infor information should bee website. absolutely, we definitely want to find a way to make sure we're engaging and to be more efficient. it's sort of been mdc talks to nicole and we talk to nicole and it sort of is not as efficient as it could be. i think we're coming at good ideas and we're getting the information that we need from the community but, it could be a lot more efficient. >> i would love you to contact me directly and maybe some things out or i would share that information with alex and other council members who want to participate in this. thank you, lucas. council members, do you have questions or comments? >> i do.

you can go first. do you want me to go first? or do you want to go? >> i can go. >> all right, go ahead. >> the interpreters are figuring it out. one moment. >> go ahead. >> so just really briefly just a quick comment. i just wanted to issue between

the bicycles and the walking at the same time needing muff for parking spaces for people who need parking as well. who need parking close to the museums in terms of access. people like, you know, the under served community is not very well organized often times. i'm just curious how you will address that with all the different people using the park. it's important we bring everybody into the conversation and make sure that everybody's concerns are addressed. i will say that one potential opportunity that we have here is that with jfk, with the vehicles and the bicycles and people walking and pushing strollers and things, it's a lot going on

in one place. we may actually find that things are a little bit safer if we make accessible parking close to commerce street. that is just me kind >> how did we have the question that do you guys have a disabled working group besides talking to

mdc and mod and mta regarding the high dense ability and how contacting and people that are reaching and the city portion is that they mention to say that this is more of an issue regarding accessibility and paratransit and it's a little bit concerning and confusing

>> it is true that things happen a lot more slowly than we'd like them to. i do feel like we're in a great place now where this topic specifically and like you are saying, other topics as well are being addressed and i like the idea. my other role at rec and park is all of our programs for people with disabilities and we just started parents' groups for our programs for kids and it's something we haven't had for a long time and that has been great. so i really like your idea of

starting a group with disability communities and looking at these kinds of issues. mostly, what we've done before is look at program issues of programs that we're providing. and is there another part to your question? >> yeah. i would like to go back to the issue that working group. have you considered talking to a chance to be involved in that usage because they're the ones that provided the service, not the other agencies, right? >> yes, yeah. so that's actually an excellent discussion. i mean, we are relying on mta right now and i think you are

right that it makes sense if that can work to bring in their director to these discussions because they are on the front, you know, right there driving people and taking them and i've worked with people and programs for 30 years who are coming on paratransit and it's the worst feeling in the world to have to cancel a program because the paratransit, you know, gets messed up and they go to the wrong place. for kids on a saturday or for someone to miss a program because paratransit, there was some kind of confusion where they had to drop off. and so, maybe sarah had the comment about this as well how we can really make sure they're still in the discussions until the they're clear on the information and they can provide input directly. do you have something to add? >> yeah, basically i what you just said lucas but i just

wanted to affirm that this is important to be in these conversations and to talk directly to people and so i will work with my colleagues at m.t.a. and paratransit to bring paratransit explicit tetity of s issue of accessibility of golden gate park. >> thank you. >> i would just want to add emphasize, sarah and lucas, you need to representatives from the disabled community when you are doing that, not just discussion the fact that this is an issue. all of our experience is trying to get from point a to point b and there's nothing i find more impactful than first person experience. especially when we're having to

navigate so many hoops to try to just go and spend a day with our family and friends. i know we're hitting you over the head with it but i want to make sure that it doesn't end up being some agency and discussion that we are met with this community and it doesn't have to be mdc people. clearly we have a lot of people who want to say something and we need to move along and i should probably stop talking. before i do that, i wanted to check in with my fellow members see if they can any questions for the panel. it feels like the community and

left behind and our access to nature and for our mental health is to be swept under the rug any time there needs to be any type of changes or cuts so i just want to reiterate the more disability-centered we can be, the more we actually access for everybody. >> and, i would like to also point out that it is incumbent on members of the disabled community to commit to participating in these efforts as well. so in the opportunity presents itself, i hope that we have some people who are interested in a contribution and a substantive contribution and we will -- if you are interested to the mdc website.

someone could they mute themselves, please. thank you. i'm going to go through the list of council members. do you have a question? >> kate williams? helen s. it kind of sounds like the bachelor, doesn't it. i'm going to take your rose. i just needed a little levity here. debbie kaplan, is going to read a summary of the (inaudible) message that i believe the mod received during this meeting. so, you are up. >> yeah, thank you.

so, in the last couple of weeks, m.o.d. and m.d. c. have received 23 messages concerns about the j.f.k. and rather than reading all of them, which i don't think my voice is up for it and why want to cut into people on the phone, i'll summarize. the issues they've raised are, the importance of parka men tee and facilities such as the academy of science and the museum. all the different reasons why they're important. the reduction in parking that is close to these facilities and many people have talked about their difficulties in walking

very far. two or three blocks may seem like not very much to someone who doesn't have a mobility disability, but for some people it means impossible. parking in the garage is not affordable for many. one person said quote, with the impending close your of jfk after everything else -- one of the interpreters froze. can someone else pick that up, please.

thank you. so what we heard is quote, this is a quote from one person. would the impending close your of j.f.k., after everything else, i'm hearing quote, our fun is more important than your access. i'm also hearing that healthy san francisco is for healthy people and that obviously doesn't include you. other issues people have raised is, that they ned to be able to use taxis and lyft inside the park and others have talked about safety with respect to bicyclists. and have described situations where they have been rolling our walking and have had either almost or have had accidents with bicyclists.

so, that is the summary of all those messages. this is nicole through the chair. i have to clarify that we will, because we going to make sure that they have a digest of all the comments that you can read and respond to on your own time. >> thank you, nicole. i was just going to ask what it was going to be. now we're going to go on to participants and ask them -- jim

or sean, are we ready with callers? >> yes, we have about five callers right now. >> ok, great. let's get started. >> caller: hello, again this is cairo with disability action. based on how not well the designated bike lines was implemented and being used at jfk, we really emphasize that before you do any closure, the remaining part and the part that does get closed, is totally accessible. and i hear in a lot of comments how we need to get the community involved and everything but first of all, we node to get all the government stakeholders on the same table and the same room and discussing this and going

through the alphabet it's not only park and rec but the c.t.a., which handles the funding, the sfmta because it's all fulton street and the great highway and involves getting there and it's not just accessible in size, accessibility means outside too. getting the m.o.d. involved, getting the mack involved, getting the tcc involved, do i have enough alpha bets here. basically, and then, ilrc, rich land senior center, for instance and also get the supervisors involved. supervisor fewer, she still is going to be until january. get her involved with it. get a whole group together instead of we the community have

to go first through the mta and then wove got to go through m.o.d. and then to the packs and rec. get them all together. do it as a town hall or whatever, a task force or something, really get it together. because it's all bits and pieces and we do not want to end up with another designated bike lane problem. which evolves, which the mod was involved, the senior and people with disabilities workgroup has come up with a guideline how bike lanes should look like. and i think the park and rec should go back to that and treat some of the problems we are having with that. so p. basically, get everybody involved at once and set up separate meetings here and there while we got communications between the m.o.d. and park and rec but where there's the communication with the department of rec or community with the m.t.a.

so, i'm for closing the street. i've been there as a bicyclist and disabled bicyclist. accessibility should be for everybody. i hate to harp on this but the bicycle line there, even, as a psyche list, doesn't feel safe. so i will not ride in it. i will ride out in the street. i'm sorry. that is very badly designed and why want to see that for the rest of j.f.k. thank you. >> thank you. our next caller, please. > >> caller: hello, my name is richard rothman and i have to grow with kai about the bicycle lanes. we were on the mayor's pedestrian safety advisory committee and we went out there and we chose or we suggested to

mta how to fix the bicycle lanes and to change it to make it safer for people with disabilities and you think mta looks into it, hell know. they just do what they want to do and to the gentleman who said about that e-mail address, i e-mailed the address, you didn't answer my questions, you just send me back a form about kova and i didn't ask about that so did will you please answer my e-mails and not send me back form letters and one thing they didn't talk about is the ferris wheel is coming. where are people going to park for the ferris wheel. how are disabled people going to get parking for the ferris wheel and also, they didn't talk about the concourse authority who controls the garage underneath. they set the rates not rec and park, not the city, and why think that they'll be rolling the rates because they have to pay the bond off by 2038.

they've been losing money because no one has been in the park. so there's always these issues and then also about fulton street. people want to park on fulton street and walk into the park. how does it impact the neighborhood if you keep jfk closed in the parking so the way you are saying it, the disabled people can't get into the concourse. >> you've got about 20 more seconds left. i just wanted to give you time. >> i know supervisor fewer is going to have, you know, a meeting, you can reach ut to her and talk to her office about it. this needs a lot more planning. thank you for your time.

skbl. >> hello. i'm shawnna loghorn with the league of women voters. along with the league and sfgovtv, i'm here to discuss proposition b, a proposition that will be on the ballot and before the voters on november 3. the city has three departments tasked with cleaning tasks. the city administrator oversees the department of public works and appoints the director with the mayor's director. proposition b is a charter amendment that would create a department of sanitation and streets which would take over some of the duties of the department of public works. this new department of sanitation and streets would be responsible for sweeping

streets and cleaning sidewalks, providing and maintaining sidewalk trash cans, removing graffiti and illegally dumped waste and maintaining city buildings, public rest rooms, and street trees. the department of public works would continue to provide all other services required by law. proposition b would create a five-member sanitation and streets commission to oversee the department of sanitation and streets as well as a five-member public works commission to oversee the department of public works. the mayor would select the directors of both departments. if you vote yes, you want to create a department of sanitation and streets with oversight from a sanitation and streets commission, and you want to establish a public works commission to oversee the department of public works. if you vote no, you do not want to make these changes. .

>> i'm here with honey mahogany, a legislative aide with supervisor haney's office. we're also joined by lari m -- larry marso, an opponent of the measure. we're going to start with some opening statements, and we'll begin with honey. >> thank you so much for having us today. i think that as a native san franciscan, someone who grew up here, and a small business owner, it's become very clear to me that san francisco has really failed at keep our city clean the clean. there is trash all over the streets, some streets are covered with feces, and

sometimes you can't find a bathroom when you need one. we've been working on how the city can better address this issu issue. what we found is the system that we have in place is broken. no matter how hard the workers at d.p.w. work, they're unable to get the streets clean because the system is ineffective. d.p.w. is too big, there isn't enough focus on the streets, and especially during the time of covid-19, sanitation's now more important than ever, so we are putting forward a new department of sanitation to effectively keep our streets clean, wash our sidewalks in our most busy corridors and also to establish commissions overboth d.p.w. and the department to ensure that both departments are accountable to the public. the commission will also set

baseline standards for cleaning, something that really doesn't exist now under the current system. >> thank you, honey. now, larry? >> hi. please vote no on proposition b, which takes a $400 million san francisco agency and needlessly cuts it in half and politicizes what remains. it's the case chaos and paralysis that will worsen the squalor on our streets. san francisco has the political will to clean the streets. the board of supervisors does not. proposition b creates two new bureaucracies and injects politics into the department of public works. this is a failed model of

oversight. we have over 100 boards and commissions in san francisco already. proposition b sets no clean streets standards. there's nothing in here that says we are going to deal with the needles, the syringes, the feces on the streets. it's not there. matt haney writes in his argument that they're in proposition b. there's nothing in proposition b that sets baseline standards. we need -- we need -- we need to address the fraud and waste in the department of public works. >> thank you, larry. that's 1.5 minutes, so we're going to go into questions now, and the first question will go to you, larry, and then honey, you'll have a chance to answer it. the question is the amendment

would create a new department of sanitation and streets to perform duties that's currently performed by the department of public works. if that's the proposition, what's the argument for creating a new department? >> the city controller says it's going to cost upwards of $6 million a year. that's over 50 million in ten years. that's a lot of money. but if you look at the paid arguments for proposition b, you see a long list of public sector labor unions. the seiu and the san francisco labor locals representing the trades that engage in cleaning our streets and maintaining some of our parks. they're talking about we need more resources, we need more

resources. they believe that this new structure, which is going to put the board of supervisors in the position of straiting political appointee -- placing political appointees into governing these agencies, they believe it will mean significantly higher spending. and nowhere do the proponents of proposition b stay straight to the san francisco people that this is a major spending increase. will it address any of the core issues of cleaning san francisco streets? not if it atdss drug addiction, homeless, and mental illness on our streets, the root of so much of our problem. >> thank you. the same question to you, honey. why create a new department? >> well, i would like to first address some factual

inaccuracies in some of those statements. one, the measure does require the department to set public standards for cleaning. we want to hold community outreach to set those standards. there is a metric to address that. also, i do want to correct that the controller report says -- the updated controller report says this will be closer to $2.6 milli 2.6 million in costs to create this new department. the reason we have to create this new department is the current department is broken. there is not enough oversight over cleaning and sanitation in the current system. it is less than a quarter of what d.p.w. does. d.p.w. is a department with 1600 employees, and like you said, a $400 million budget. less than a quarter is dedicated to cleaning.

we feel like a metro city in san francisco where tourism is its number one industry, we need to have a focus on cleaning with metrics that are created in a very transparent manner, a method for us to have feedback, and for the public to have feedback, and again, really providing some very close oversight and accountability for a department that, up until now, really hasn't had any. >> thank you, honey. our second question, and it'll start with you, honey, is again, about the cost. the office of the controller states that this amendment, in the report that i read, ranged from 2$2.5 to $6 million annually. honey corrected that it will be just over $2 million. do we think this is the right way to spend the extra money on sanitation or is there another way that is perhaps more

beneficial? >> you know, $2.6 million is a very small -- it's less than a percent -- or a fraction of a percent of the city's current budget. it's a small amount of revenue that the city would generate through improvement to its business districts. it has been very public how we've been criticized by -- all over the world, really, for our filthy streets. the travel industry has been impacted, our hotel industry has been impacted, so those are our biggest industries for our city. so for the city to spend $2 million on an issue that we haven't been able to fix in decades is nothing. i will note that the legislation actually also

reduces duplication in terms of staffing by putting some of the staffing as shared with d.p.w. for the back end, which larry referred to earlier, and it also required city administrator to also provide that support. so the additional hiring is really minimal. there is some costs for the commissions, but again, the controller actually -- the f.b.i. and the scandal recommended that supervision be placed over d.p.w., so it is good governance. it'll put a commission over d.p.w., and it'll also put a commission over the department of sanitation and streets to oversee them. >> okay. larry, same question to you. >> since 2014, the portion of department of public works spending on cleaning our streets has doubled. if you look around you, do you see that our streets are

cleaner? spending money is not the solution to cleaning our streets when we have significant significant endemic root causes of drug abuse and mental illness on our streets. the department of public works, if it's split in half, it's going to generate more costs than simply what the controller has documented. there are duplications of band-end services -- back-end services. okay. but why are the biggest unions in san francisco pouring money into this measure? they're doing so because they're looking for higher pay and more hiring. >> sorry. i have to cut you off there as time is up for questions, but we're going to move into

closing statements, and we will start with honey. >> thank you so much. it's funny because i think larry and i agree that we've been pumping money into d.p.w., and things haven't gotten any better. in fact, things have gotten worse, and that is why we're establishing the department of sanitation and streets because the current system is broken. we're going to be providing accountability, setting baseline standards. i have to say the reason why so many labor unions are behind this is we figured out a solution that would work for everybody. it's not about raising salaries for anything like that. these are hard working san franciscans, people who really care about their city and want to be proud of their city and the work they do, and they know best how to address this problem because they're dealing with it every day. so we're proud to have worked with them, to provide this

measure of accountability to provide safer, cleaner streets, trash cans that will work, access to more rest rooms. more green infrastructure which has been sorely lacking. and, again, public accountability and a real focus on street cleaning. so i'm very proud of the measure, and i implore san franciscans, if you want to see our travel industry be reinvigorated, our children and familied supported by the picking up of needles and keeping our streets clean, then please vote yes on proposition b. >> thank you, honey. closing statements from larry, please. >> proposition b will politicize the department of public works. that's why i and a number of centrist politicians and organizations are opposed to

proposition b, on the board of supervisors, supervisor sandra fewer voted no, raff vel mandelman voted now, more man yee, voted no, catherine steph he knee voted no. the ed lee democratic club says no. the sfgop says no. you have people across the political spectrum who recognize that this is going to increase costs significantly while at the same time inducing chaos in public services, paralysis in the cleaning of our streets. uncertainty at a time that san francisco needs to be smart and focused in how it spends its money, how it raises its money, and to address the real causes of what we see going on in our streets.

matt haney does not represent a common sense approach on homelessness, drug abuse, or mental illness. i have tried to bring these solutions myself to a citizen ballot measure on the regulation of navigation centers. the entire ballot you're seeing was put together by the board of supervisors. no one could even collect signatures under shelter in place to propose alternative measures, as i tried to do. >> thank you, larry. thank you very much both for your comments and for your time. we hope that this discussion has been informative. for more information, please visit the san francisco elections website at sfelections.org. this year, every person in california will be mailed a

ballot starting on october 5. you may drop off your vote by mail ballot in person starting on october 5 in the city hall voting center located outside of bill graham city auditorium 8:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. you may drop off your ballot at your voting center for the two weekends before voting day, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. thank you.

>> i'm kevin duffy, and i'm proud to have represented district 9 in san francisco on the b.a.r.t. board of directors, when i first took office, i was really concerned about the filthy conditions at

some of our stations, and you may have read when b.a.r.t. management wouldn't add any custodians, i started sweeping with supervisor hit re-ronen, and we swept the stations for four months -- hillary ronen. we swept the stations for four months. now, there are two cleaning certifications with quadruple the amount of cleaning staff. despite being in this pandemic, i think we can say that the b.a.r.t. trains and stations are much, much cleaner. i've worked to make civic center a better station, and i think you can visit that station and feel safe much more than previously. i'm proud to have stood up for a youth fair. with leticia simon, i pushed to get it through. we have elevators in our system, and we needed to have attendance on there, and the homeless outreach team, so i've

been a very nuts and bolts b.a.r.t. director, with a vision how to bring our facility back, and i'd be grateful to have your support for four more years on the b.a.r.t. board. thank you so much. ok, well, remember last week when you hit vinny in the head with a shovel?

[chuckling] i do not recall that. of course not. well, it was too graphic for the kids, so i'm going to have to block you. you know, i got to make this up to you. this is vinny's watch. >> my name is ahsha safai, and i'm the current district 11 supervisor. we're building housing on a scale we've never done before, almost 600 units, 65% of it being affordable to working families. we've planted over 2,000 trees, and we've investing in our transportation like we've never done before. we've done speed cushions, we're doing transportation improvements on mission and general

geneva, and we're making sure we have affordable and accessible transportation. during this time of crisis, we are -- we've been in constant reaction mode to make sure our citizens have the protection and access to health care that we need. we've opened up ultimate multiple testing sites in our districts. we've distributed thousands of masks to families and individuals to make sure that they're safe. we've been on constant, constant mode of delivering services during this crisis. one of the largest things that's also happened in our city and our nation is black lives matter movement. we've eninsured, working with our mayor and supervisor walton, that we've invested in the community life never been done before. we've directed over $120 million in black led organizations and in the black community. in my district in particular, it's building on the success we

started over three years ago where we've been investing in those communities and those leaders and those businesses consistently. i would appreciate your support. i'm running for reelection to continue to work aggressively for the residents of san francisco and the residents of district 11. thank you. >> hi. my name is carmen chiu, san francisco's elected assessor. when i meet with seniors in the community, they're thinking about the future. some want to down size or move to a new neighborhood that's closer to family, but they also worry that making such a change

will increase their property taxes. that's why i want to share with you a property tax saving program called proposition 60. so how does this work? prop 60 was passed in 1986 to allow seniors who are 55 years and older to keep their prop 13 value, even when they move into a new home. under prop 13 law, property growth is limited to 2% growth a year. but when ownership changes the law requires that we reassess the value to new market value. compared to your existing home, which was benefited from the -- which has benefited from the prop 13 growth limit on taxable value, the new limit on the replacement home would likely be higher. that's where prop 60 comes in. prop 60 recognizes that seniors on fixed income may not be able to afford higher taxes so it allows them to carryover their

existing prop 13 value to their new home which means seniors can continue to pay their prop 13 tax values as if they had never moved. remember, the prop 60 is a one time tax benefit, and the property value must be equal to or below around your replacement home. if you plan to purchase your new home before selling your existing home, please make sure that your new home is at the same price or cheaper than your existing home. this means that if your existing home is worth $1 million in market value, your new home must be $1 million or below. if you're looking to purchase and sell within a year, were you nur home must not be at a value that is worth more than 105% of your exist egging home. which means if you sell your

old home for $1 million, and you buy a home within one year, your new home should not be worth more than $1.15 million. if you sell your existing home at $1 million and buy a replacement between year one and two, it should be no more than $1.1 million. know that your ability to participate in this program expires after two years. you will not be able to receive prop 60 tax benefits if you cannot make the purchase within two years. so benefit from this tax savings program, you have to apply. just download the prop 60 form from our website and submit it to our office. for more, visit our website, sfassessor.org,