vaccines yesterday, which is pretty remarkable. it gives me hope we're getting there, and we're moving as fastly as we can. the next slide, vaccinating health care workers and people over 65 has really been our focus, making good on progress. so what we see here is more than 30% of s.f. residents 65 and older have received their first dose. and we still, of course, have more to do because about 2.5% have received their second dose. and others are scheduled. city-wide, 13% of san francisco residents have received their first dose, and 3% have received their second dose. this includes health care workers. and to be clear, this is based on data that we have in san francisco. we know that there are a lot of san franciscan

residents, as well as san francisco essential workers and health care workers that are most likely getting the vaccines in other counties. we are still struggling to get that data, so these numbers could potentially be hiring than what we're seeing. and once we have that data, we will share it with the public. the next slide. to be clear who is eligible now: health care workers, long-term care residents, people 65 and older. i have some good news: starting february 26th, san francisco will move to phase 1b, tier 1, and eligible people in that next phase include education and child care workers, our emergency services workers, including our police officers, our food and agricultural employees, and those -- that's a really exciting thing, that we're going to be able to expand the number

of people who are eligible in the next two weeks, but to also reiterate that the vaccine supply is still limited. so for resources, on the next slide, you can sign up at s f.gov/notify, and you can make an appointment at s f.gov/get vaccinated, or call 3-1-1. some of the systems, they don't have a cell phone to

place a number. we ask that you call 3-1-1, and we will provide you assistance to get you through the process. if anyone has a neighbor that is a senior, or any one of our programs where we serve seniors, we're doing everything we can to get people vaccinated and signed up. but let's take some responsibility here and try to help our seniors through this process. we're going to be doing a lot more outreach to get to many of those seniors who may not have access to the appropriate language that they need, as well as a cell phone and e-mail, which i know can be a barrier to getting our elderly population. so i just want to talk a little bit about the schools. i want to have what has, you know, been a hard conversation. i know that it has been hard not just for the children and the parents,

it has been hard for many of our educators as well. the distance learning, we all know, has been challenging, especially kids who are younger. but we know that every day those teachers still show up, they set up their class lessons, and they do everything they can to hold the attention span of sometimes five, six, and seven-year-olds through a computer. i know they miss the kids just as much as the kids miss them. and i know that this has been a bit of a challenging subject to talk about. and, sadly, very hurtful and emotional. i just want to be clear that i know this isn't easy for any of us. it isn't easy for us to go back and forth and to be at odds with one another during such a critical time. when we first made the

decision last year to shut the city down, that wasn't easy for me. i did it because i knew that it would save lives. it was based on the information from the department of public health. i didn't understand completely how long we would be shut down or what it specifically meant. many of us were just finding out more and more information about covid, but we knew that we had to act fast. so we shut the city down. schools were shut down. a number of things had to occur, and none of us thought we would be adjusting our lives for the past year because of this pandemic. but i must say that what i appreciate about the department of public health is that they have been leaders, they have made hard decisions. i've had to support many of those hard decisions. they've made decisions

based on science and based on data, and they have been probably one of of the most conservative around our policies to reopen our city, probably more than any other public health department in the country. so i don't take lightly the ability to begin a process of reopening with the schools. the fact is, our department of public health has put our public schools first. so when requested, because an application has to be submitted, we made analyzing the public schools our priority. in fact, in san francisco, we know that there are about 113 private and parochial schools that are currently open. our same department of

public health had to go in and analyze those schools for safety measures. and when provided the opportunity to do that for the public schools, we did that. we have cleared at least, based on the application process, six schools that can open. six schools, including alvarado, glen park, john mere, sunset, and cobb. and we're prepared to do whatever it takes to support our school district, to support our school district with experts from the department of public health, who can help provide us with not only what we need to do for the actual physical buildings, but how we need to protect the students and the educators and the staff and the administrators. that has always been our goal. i think we share that same goal. we all want to be safe. and we all understand that

there are some teachers who are concerned about -- they may have an underlying health condition, they may have an elderly parent or grandparent that they take care of, and there are concerns there. we have a responsibility to listen and to address that. and what we try to do, as a partner for the school district, at the very beginning of this pandemic we were told that in addition to the money that we already give them in our budget, that they were still short. and so the city stepped up. we stepped up and gave them an additional $15 million. i stepped up and put a ballot measure, proposition "j," that the voters, you all, supported, raises for teachers, proposition "j". we support our teachers. we support our educators. we want them to be safe, but we also know our

children are broken. last week when i went to support a group of parents and students and teachers who were there as well, at a press conference, not one kid smiled. not one kid laughed. yesterday i met with the little high school students from the black student union who, sadly, faced racial discrimination in their school, and they're not the first black students to experience this at lowell. it is something that we need to address, but they, too, are kids who wanted to go back to school. sadness in their eyes. i'm here to work to do everything possible to support the science and the data, to ask that we

respect our public health department and the hard decisions they've had to make. there is no way that they would have cleared our ability to open public or private schools if it were not for the need to keep our students and our parents and our teachers and everyone safe. so i trust them. and i'm asking the school district to trust them. and i'm asking us to make some hard decisions. i'm worried that the tentative agreement proposed by the union will not get us to a place in this city where we will even open schools this year. i want us to be honest. honest about what we will and will not do, or what we can and cannot do. our children are

suffering. there is no way i would have ever supported using the legal system to try and get our schools open. if we were on a path of moving it forward, and if it weren't for the department of public health telling us that it is safe to do so. we have to do better. we have to think about these children. and if nothing else, our elementary schools, kids who are in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade -- and i just also want to say that i appreciate the fact that there are so many people who are reaching out, especially a lot of

teachers, who are saying, i want to go back to school. i want to take care of my students. i'm worried about them. they're not showing up on the screen; i'm checking in with their parents. they're struggling; they're hurting. they want to be there for them. and this city is prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure that they can safely do that. we know this is hard. this is not about being divisive and choosing a side. this is about the leaders of this city choosing to work together, to put aside our differences, and do what is in the best interests of these children. i would not be pushing it if i were not advised by our department of public health that it is safe. and not to mention our

community learning hubs, with staff from rec and park, with help from the department of children, youth, and family programs. they've been open for months now. no major outbreaks. 15,000 kids in our private schools are back in school. we have examples. we have data. we have information. and what we need to do is leave the excuses out of the way. we have the ability to do this and do this now. but what we don't have right now is a clear plan and a clear timeline and assurance to parents that these kids are returning to school on a date certain. we can do better than this. so i'm continuing to make my appeal to the school district that this is

exactly what i'm here to do, to help, to support, to uplift, to bring together, and to stop -- let's stop pointing the fingers. let's just be better by doing better. these kids are counting on us. you know, this pandemic -- this pandemic has tested us like never before. we have tried to protect people's physical health, but it has tried to tear us apart because of our mental and emotional health. and we can't let it do that. so many of us are struggling. we have a real opportunity to make sure that our kids, who look sad, who miss their friends, who

miss their teachers, who are ready to return to school -- we have an opportunity to at least make some of that possible before the end of this school year. i am hopeful that we can get to a better place. and i am grateful to the people of san francisco who continue to follow the health orders and to do your part in helping to make sure that people in this city are safe. with the vaccines, with our reopening efforts, with all that we're doing, the city is going to come alive again. let's continue to do our very best to make sure that we don't lose something precious in the process. process, the heart and the soul of our children. with that, for more information, please visit our website or call 3-1-1.

and at this time, i'd ask dr. grant cofax to come forward and provide specific information from the department of public health. thank you so much. >> good morning. thank you for joining us today. and thank you, mayor breed, for your leadership and commitment to our city-wide covid-19 response. as you all know, as a city

we've been responding to this virus for over a year now. and, mayor, your steadfast leadership and support continue to be invaluable. san francisco, we have made significant headway in containing the virus during this recent surge. but, as we are seeing nationally, there are still many unknowns, including new variants. we must continue to practice the safety precautions: mask-wearing, physical distancing, and limiting interactions with multiple households. please protect yourselves and those closest to you by following all of the precautions. together we can continue to move forward and make progress. the vaccines represent the

light at the end of the tunnel. while sufficient supplies are preventing us from vaccinating as many people as possible as quickly as possible, we all have reasons to be hopeful. as the mayor just said, we have made great progress in vaccinating health care workers and those 65 years of age and older. and we continue to partner with health care systems across the city, to build a vaccine eco-system, vaccine sites, focused on equity, speed, and access to meet the needs of san francisco's diverse communities. today, right now, this city has the capacity to administer over 10,000 vaccines a day.

we could get 10,000 vaccines into arms a day. right now we are averaging just 4,000 due to a lack of vaccine supply. we just need supply to meet the demands and the capability of our vaccine infrastructure. and now i'd like to bring you some data on where we stand with the virus. first slide, please. as you can see from this slide, the number of new covid cases in our city fell rapidly after the peak of our most recent third surge. however, what concerns me is that new cases of covid-19 have stopped

declining, and there has been a trending up in the last several days. now we are averaging 135 new cases a day. now, that is certainly much better than than when we were at our peak surge, and averaging 373 new cases per day. and that was just one month ago. but our case rate still remains higher than any other previous surge. our current rate is 15.5 per 100,000 people is roughly the same as our peak summer surge. and, remember, our goal is for an average of new cases to decline to less than 1.8 per 100,000. next slide, please. as you can see in this

slide, our hospitalizations continue to decrease from their peak just a few weeks ago. and this is certainly good news. as our ability to properly treat those affected with covid-19 is a top priority. additionally, our hospital rate is a key indicator of both the state and local health indicators for reopening decisions. right now, with regard to intensive unit care beds, our capacity is good. with 28% i.c.u. capacity, which represents over 90 i.c.u. beds available across our health care systems in the city. next slide, please. the mayor provided a significant update on the vaccines, but i wanted to share this map on the work of the department of

public health, and what we're doing to vaccinate populations in our most impacted communities. through the san francisco health network, the health department's health care delivery system, we served more than 100,000 people each year, who are largely uninsured, underinsured, have medicaid, medi-cal, or are served by healthy san francisco, or other such programs. many of the people in our system are in the southeast sector of the city, which, as you know, has had a disproportionate number of covid-19 cases. this map shows where d.p.h., the department of public health, vaccines are being administered, and it shows that the majority of the approximately 1300 daily doses that we are

administering is in the southeast sector of the city. next slide -- oh, sorry. that's it for slides. before closing, i want to say a few words about variants. now, variants are a natural part of how all viruses evolve. some of the covid-19 variants that have emerged worldwide, and some that have been detected in the bay area, have the potential to spread faster. now, across the nation, we have little laboratory capacity to detect variants. but studies do show that certain ones are spreading quickly in the united states and are likely to become common, if not the dominant strain. now, i know that this can be a scary idea. and there is reason for

concern. but we know what to do to slow the spread of these variants. it's even more important to wear those masks, socially distance, and avoid gatherings outside of your household. and it's so important to emphasize that vaccines remain our ticket out, including with variants. and i can't emphasize enough, if and when you're eligible and offered a vaccine, take it. the variants add uncertainty to this ever-evolving situation. but i can't stress it enough: slow the spread of the virus. take those prevention activities seriously. and i know it has been a year now.

i know we're tired. we need to dig a little deeper to get closer to our ticket out, to get the vaccines into arms, to get to those 10,000 vaccines a day so we can really turn this thing around. and our acting health officer, dr. susan phyllis, is here to answer specific questions about the variants. look, we are all in this together, and together we will get through this. the vaccines are affective; they are safe. and i am hopeful, and even optimistic, that our supply will increase in the coming months. there is truly reason for hope and optimism on the horizon. we will bring back our community and our economy the same way we continue to fight covid-19, by

working together. thank you. >> thank you, mayor breed, and dr. cofax, for your remarks. before we begin the question and answer portion, we're going to take a moment to allow reporters to submit any final questions into webex chat. cameras off or on? >> we can begin. mayor breed, your first question comes from daniel terman. do you support the city attorney's lawsuit against the school district in terms of: is this the best course of action to get schools to reopen? >> mayor: i want to be clear that, yes, i support the lawsuit. and if the possibility of getting schools open sooner, without this lawsuit, were in sight, if we thought that that was possible, there is no way we would have pursued legal action.

unfortunately, this is where we are, and that's where we're headed. >> thank you. and the follow-up question: even if san francisco moves to the red tier, schools cannot reopen until those teachers are vaccinated. is there a plan to prioritize teachers alongside those aged 65 and older? >> mayor: to be clear, schools are open. there are 113 schools in san francisco that are currently open, with over 15,000 kids, and they've been open for months. as it relates to the clarity on the plan and the vaccinations, on february 26th, we will move to tier 1b, and that will provide an opportunity for both educators, teachers, child care workers to be vaccinated at that time. >> thank you, mayor breed. your next question comes from joe fittipaldi. mayor breed, you spoke of the black student union, not to take away from the

vaccine discussion, but can you talk about what support you've offered the black student union and what you think lowell high school should do to support them going forward? >> mayor: out of respect for the students, we had a lengthy conversation, and i want to make sure that they are comfortable with me sharing information from that conversation. but i did offer to help support them through this process, to help facilitate conversations with administrators and others. sadly, what they're enduring is something they should not be experiencing. and, unfortunately, this is not a new challenge at lowell. several years back, other african-american students had faced similar issues around race and discrimination. and it is definitely important that we respond to it. and, to be clear, respond to it in a way that provides an opportunity

for these young people to have an environment where they can learn and thrive, just like any other student at lowell. >> thank you, mayor breed. your next question comes from trisha sadani, the san francisco chronicle. now that the federal government said it would reimburse san francisco for much of its homeless program, would you support s.f. h., bringing more people off of the streets, who may not be eligible for fema reembawrmts, and if not, how do you propose the city deal with the many people still out on the streets who may not qualify for fema reimbursement. >> mayor: just to be clear, they are already moving people who are not necessarily qualified for fema reimbursement. hopefully we'll get to a point where we're able to repopulate our shelter

system. so this is not, like, frozen in time here. if you look around san francisco, even with the challenges we have around homelessness, h.s.h. has been doing an incredible job with helping to transition people off the streets and into either hotel rooms, if they're eligible, but some of the other options that we have. do we have enough to support everyone who is on the streets? no, sadly we don't. but we're moving forward with a strategy around homelessness, to try to transition people not just into hotel rooms, not just into our shelter system, but transition them into permanent, supportive housing units. and that's a part of our long-term homeless strategy in general. >> thank you, mayor breed. your next question comes from dan curman, cron 4 news. you said that you do not support the current agreement -- >> mayor: i did not say i do not support the current agreement.

i want to be clear about that. >> how can you get a reopening date when the teachers have trouble getting a vaccination? >> mayor: well, again, i want to be clear. i never said that i don't support the current agreement. the current agreement is just not clear. it doesn't provide any timelines, and exactly what we're going to do. i have a lot of questions, just like a lot of parents have a lot of questions about the current proposed agreement. we have over 15,000 students in school, and have been for months, with the 113 schools that are currently open. and these are people who have not received the vaccine. and our department of public health says that without the vaccine, it is still safe to return to schools. but we do realize there are people who want that assurance. and so fortunately we're in a position where in the

next few weeks, on february 26th, we will be able to move to the next tier 1b, so educators, teachers, and child care workers can actually get vaccinated, and i'm truly looking forward to that day. >> thank you, mayor breed. your next question comes from leslie mcclerick. given the tentative deal with labor unions, when do you foresee schools reopening? >> definitely not this school year. when you incorporate the vaccine into the requirement -- i understand this is something that is important to the union, but at the same time, we are doing everything we can, based on supplies, to get the vaccines to people in san francisco. and the fact is, based on the limited information that i have about the tentative proposal, i don't think it is realistic that we can

expect schools to open this school year. >> thank you, mayor breed. the next question comes from christian captan, ktbu. san francisco city attorney has expanded the lawsuit to get kids back into school. one moment, please. we'll come back for that question. christian captan. the san francisco city attorney has expanded the lawsuit to get kids back into school. school board and union

agree that the lawsuit is counterproductive. is this the right tool to incentivize both sides to reach an agreement? and what would constitute concrete details for reopening? >> mayor: if i didn't think that it was the right thing to do, i wouldn't be very supportive of doing it. the fact is that we have tried to be supportive. and you can look back in a number of press conferences that i've had to specifically talk about the support that we provided the school district, how we put aside, in many cases, many of the things that we were focused on in order to provide that support, in order to make our public schools a priority. we will continue to do that. but the fact is, it hasn't worked. and that's why i support our city attorney using the legal process to get to a place where, hopefully, it will make a

difference. not necessarily, you know, if it makes a -- if it makes a difference with negotiations, great, but, more importantly, i just care about getting our kids back in school. so whatever that takes, whether it is the legal system or negotiation, that's fine. but i want to make sure at the end of the day, we're being honest with the public about what will happen. and, ultimately, all of the details don't matter if kids aren't back in school. i think that is the most important part. what is the first day we can expect to see a kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade kids return to school. that's the most important piece of what is missing here. >> thank you, mayor breed. next question comes from liz hillaman, bay area reporter. what will be the vaccine prioritization after phase 1? one moment.

the next question is from abc news. in light of the recent crimes in san francisco, do you think prop 47 should be revisited? do you believe that it has played a role in crime in san francisco? >> mayor: i think, unfortunately, being in the midst of this pandemic, seeing, sadly, a lot of people lose their jobs has probably played a role in what we're seeing as it relates to crime. i do think when we talk about crime and accountability, i think the that there is -- you know, it is not an easy solution because specifically when you talk about someone who has committed a violent crime against another human being, you know, that's a different punishment versus someone who it may have been their first

offense, they stole something, and they need to be held accountable, but at the same time jail may not be the best solution because ultimately we want rehabilitation or we want support or we want an option to try to get that person on the right path. so i think there are various layers of accountability that need to be implemented in our criminal justice system here in san francisco, regardless of a proposition. it is what we're working with, and it's what we are in a position to try and work within. and, mostly, the goal is to make sure that people understand that they will be held accountable when they commit crimes in san francisco. and i want to take this opportunity to just talk about some of the recent violent crimes. sadly, where people have been murdered in our city. elderly people have been murdered. and in those last three cases, our officers acted

quickly and apprehended the suspects in those cases. and they are being prosecuted. we understand that after the fact doesn't matter. those people are no longer with us, but at the end of the day, here in san francisco we are going to take an aggressive stand to protect the citizens of this city against crime, and we'll continue to do everything we can to do that. not just with law enforcement, but with our criminal justice system as a whole. >> thank you, mayor breed. we will now continue with questions for dr. colfax. >> mayor: thank you.

>> this is from a bay area reporter. what will be the vaccine prioritization after phase 1b. will the age group step down in 10-year increments? >> doctor: right now we are focused on vaccinating people -- health care workers and people over 65, and then on the 26th, as the mayor announced, we will move into phase 1b, which includes emergency service workers, food and agricultural workers, and educators. now we're still waiting for the state to finalize the next tiers of the vaccination priority. we're following the state guidelines. the bottom line is we need more vaccine to get it into arms as quickly as possible. our goal is to vaccinate everyone in san francisco as quickly as possible. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next set of questions

come from joshua sabitini. are the vaccines being equitably administered? or do you notice any disparities? and when will you release the race -- >> doctor: it will be updated regularly with regard to the race and ethnicity of people who received vaccinations. as i mentioned earlier, equity is a core value of our vaccine rollout. we want to ensure that people in those neighborhoods who are eligible for vaccine have ready access. we're building -- we have built a vaccine eco-system where every door is a right door to receive the vaccine. whether it is a mass site, whether it is one of your neighborhood clinics,

whether it is a pharmacy, whether it is a mobile site team that we'll be launching to reach people who need to remain at home. so we're working on all of the above, and every door is the right door approach, to ensure there is equitable access to vaccine. we're very concerned about it. it needs to be a focus. and we're working to get it right as quickly as possible. >> thank you, dr. colfax. you're next question comes from multiple media outlets. on the question of equity, can you provide an update on how many residents within is zip codes 92134 and 92034 have been vaccinate? have there plans to make more appointments available for hard-hit zip codes. >> the doctor: as vaccine becomes more available, we will expand vaccines in those areas. the in other words and zip

codes where covid-19 is most concentrated. right now at the southeast health center, we're able to do over 200 vaccines a day. we're also planning to launch, in collaboration with better health, a mass vaccine site at the produce market off of bay shore boulevard. so we hope to have that scaled up and ready to go within the next two weeks, so that people have access to vaccine there as well. we're also establishing the neighborhood access sites. last week at 24th and mission, in collaboration with the latino task force and ucsf, and we established a site there. and we're looking at establishing sites in the bay view so people have access there. and i want to emphasize these are not mutually exclusive sites. where people are lining up to get vaccine, thanks to the mayor's office, we

arranged transportation for people to go to our vaccine clinic at san francisco general hospital, so people were able to access vaccine there, and not have to wait in line at 24th and cap. and at the mobile sites, these mobile teams are going to have capacity each to do 150 vaccines a day. we'll be launching these mobile teams very soon. so they can focus in neighborhoods where people have the greatest amount of disease, and don't necessarily have the capacity to get to other vaccine options. so really every door is the right door, with a focus very specifically in the health department on meeting the needs of people in the zip codes where covid-19 is most prevalent, where the rates are highest and people are most at risk. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next question comes from michael barba. when should the san

francisco police department officers expect to get vaccinated? >> doctor: emergency responders, emergency workers, service workers, including the police officers, are eligible in phase 1b, and that will be february 26th. >> thank you. your next set of questions comes from various media outlets. is the city now receiving a stable amount of vaccine from the state, or is it still unpredictable? >> doctor: let me emphasize that we are directly receiving -- the health department is directly receiving only somewhere between 10,000 and 1 1,000 vaccines a week -- a week. so, as i said, we can do over 10,000in' vaccines,000 vaco arms a day. we hope the supply increases dramatically in the next couple of weeks, especially so we can vaccine night the 1b

essential workers, along with the people 65 and older who continue to need to get vaccinated. so we just need more right now as quickly as possible. i'm hopeful there is more on the horizon, but we're ready to go. if i can get 10,000 vaccines after this press conference, we will get it into arms in 24 hours. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next question comes from mora dolan, l.a. times. any thoughts on why virus cases have stopped decreasing, and even rising, in recent days? >> doctor: so i think it is important to emphasize it is sort of a balance here. we are way below our peak during the holiday surge, where we went over 140p 140 per 100,000. i think we don't have exactly one reason as to why this has leveled off. i think we know as we gradually increase activity in the city,

viral cases generally do go up somewhat, so it is really a matter of trying to mitigate that, and ensure that people still realize this is a very serious situation, and that we need to socially distance, and wear a mask over your face and nose whenever you are outside of the house, and avoid gatherings -- high-risk gatherings -- whenever possible. i think we also need to also understand that with some of these variants, especially the british variants, the research says that is predicted to become the dominant strain in many parts of the u.s. by march or april. we know that that virus spreads more quickly than what we call the wild site, the original type of the virus. so there are multiple possible reasons. the key thing is we know how to slow the spread. we know that the vaccines

are coming. we can do this. we just have to dig a little deeper so we can all get the vaccine and get through this and reopen our city and have life go back to normal as quickly as possible. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your final question comes from robert rodriguez. will the effort to reopen schools change the prioritization or rollout of vaccines in phase 1b at all considering teachers' desires for vaccination before returning to the classroom? >> doctor: as the mayor said, we have 113 schools open right now. the schools can reopen without educators being vaccin vaccinated. and we share the priority that the kids need to get back into school for the health of the kids, for the health of the parents, and to close out learning gaps. when we reach phase 1b, teachers will be eligible

for vaccine. we want to make sure we vaccinate teachers as quickly as possible. the bottom line is we need more supply of vaccine to make that possible. >> thank you, dr. col colfax. now for questions on coronavirus variants, we invite the acting county health officer for san francisco, dr. susan philips. dr. philips, your first question is: what is the status of the new variants in san francisco? have you identified any of the variants from the u.k., south africa, or brazil? >> doctor: thank you very much for the question. i wanted to take a moment to step back. i know many of us have been hearing about variants, but to give a quick primer, when we're talking about variants, what this really means is

viruses, as dr. colfax said, normally mutate randomly. this happens all of the time. when the mutations sometimes cause them to be less fit, we don't hear about them. occasionally there can be a mutation or a grouping of mutations that causes the virus to become more fit, to be able to transmit more, make people more sick, and that is what we're talking about when we talk about variants. these are random occurrences that then spread in our populations. so in san francisco, we have not identified the variants of interest that have been nationally talked about. so these are the variants that started in the u.k., which is known as b117. it is a variant that began in south africa, which is b13151, and the variant that started in brazil, which is called p1.

this is different than the testing that we all know and think about now for many, many months, where we'll go and get a swab in our nose and get that diagnostic test. that is done in very many labs across the city and the region. the sequencing is actually the test that we need to do to find the variants. what that is is looking at the genetic material of the virus, sequencing the virus genome to be able to see what the mutations are. that only occurs in a few specialized laboratories. and we're very fortunate in san francisco that we have strong collaborations with our colleagues at ucsf and the bio hub, both of whom are experts in doing this type of work. in context as a country, we do not have the robust infrastructure to do this very, very systematically. so we are, by necessity, not able to sequence the 6,000 plus ses men's that specit

we are testing every day, and the 2% to 3% that are positive, not all of those can be sequenced because of the specialty issues. we don't have a complete picture across the world, across the country, in the bay area or in san francisco, but we can get a glimpse of what we think is happening by how frequently we find different variants in these specimens that are tested. so, where what we know, there has been the u.k. variant identified in california and in the bay area. in fact, california has the second highest number of cases in the united states right now. so we have to assume that there could be that virus circulating in the bay area and in san francisco, but we have not identified it. what dr. colfax said is so, so important. we know that the prevention methods that we've been talking about for a year are what will

stop and slow the spread of these variants, even before we're able to access vaccine, which is, in fact, our ticket out because the vaccine in studies has still been shown to be affective against these variants, and particularly against preventing against severe disease. while vaccine is the ticket out, we have the ability in our hands right now to stop transmission of any virus, including variants, by masking, by distancing, by washing our happedz. hands. i want to add one additional wrinkle to this: the less virus that is transmitting and replicating, the less chance we have of having new variants emerge. we talked about how it is random mutation, but every time the virus replicates, there another chance for random mutation to end up resulting in a variant that would be a concern, for faster spread, making

people sicker, or a concern with the vaccine. so we have the power in our hand to not only stop the variants that we know now, but also to prevent new ones from emerging. so i would really urge all of us to take the standard prevention methods that we have in public health, as a department, we're working to understand the types of distribution of variants, not only in san francisco, but reachly and regionly.but in the meantime, we asking for everyone's help in slowing the spread. >> the follow-up question is: what happens if the variant from the u.k. continues to spread in california and becomes the dominant variant down there? will that happen here, too? and what is the level of your concern about these west coast variants? >> doctor: so what we know from the models, and what we understand from science nationally, is

that the u.k. variant, because it does spread more quickly, person to person, is likely to become the dominant strain in the united states by march. so we don't have any reason to think that that will be different in san francisco. but, again, we have t-e ability, as we have done time and again, to not necessarily let the models become our destiny, if we are distancing, washing our hands, wearing face coverings all the time, and particularly as we are reopening and coming into contact with each other more, it becomes so important to do those things. there was a second part of the question about the west coast variant. so this is a different strain of virus, which has been identified in california and in other areas on the west coast. and this is called cal.20c, and it has been identified in some outbreaks, not in san francisco, but it has been identified in individuals from san francisco and in the bay area.

our colleagues at c.d.c. are still evaluating all of the data to understand if it is, in fact, more easy to transmit that variant and what all of the implications are. so we don't have a clear understanding yet of the implications. but we do know it is transmitted the same way. we have no reason to think that the vaccine would not be affective against this variant or any others. >> thank you, dr. philip. there are no additional questions. >> doctor: thank you. >> this concludes today's press conference. take mayor breed, dr. colfax, and dr. philip, for your time. for future questions, please e-mail dem press at sfgov.org. thank you, and have a nice day.

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>>. [music] >> i went to welcome you for our public meeting on february 19, 2021. and i'm going to ask the clerk. >> thank you alice, this is deborah kaplan, deputy director of the mayor's office on disability. and senior clerk for this meeting. i will make a clear

announcement, regarding how the meeting is being conducted. for participation the public. and then conduct the rollcall. we welcome the public's participation during public comment , there will be an opportunity for public commentfor items not on the agenda . at the beginning of the meeting and at the end of the meeting. you can watch the cable cast on your television by going to public access channel 26 or live stream on sfgov tv. we will be accepting email comments from individuals, as well as comments on the phone. if you wish to submit an email comments, you can send an email to mod at sf go.org.

and we will read your comments along during the comment section. if you wish to make comments by telephone, and you're watching on your television, when it's your turn to comment pleaseturn your television down . so that we don't get an going. that way you will be able to follow the prompts on your telephone. each comment is limited to threeminutes . and for this meeting we are going to be showing a three-minute timer on the screen so that you know how much time we have. and there will be an electronic prompt at the end of this three minutes. we welcome your feedback about

how the alterations are working for you. in order to make the meeting work for everyone it does want to participate. beyond the council.we also in order for community to be accessible to all, we will be asking everyone to identify their cells before yours you see, before you speak and we will also do our best to identify speakers so that those are on the phone and those who don'tsee the screen will know who is speaking . i will now announce the phone number to call in. the public comment line is 415 655 0001. 415 655 001.

you will be asked to give an i number . that number is 187 745 3940, and then choose #after that so it's 187 745 3940, #, #. when it'syour turn to speak you will be alerted and when you want to make comment , dial á3 to be added to theline of people who are waiting to make a comment . once again, once you are in

line after you've dialed á3, you will bealerted when it's your time to speak . okay, thank you. so rollcall. alex madrid. [rollcall] alex is not able to

be here so that's the rollcall . [inaudible] there are no minutes. there are no minutes. >> the next item on the agenda is public moments. >>deborah kaplan: okay alex, i

think when he said minutes i think you meant tosay approval of the agenda . >>alex madrid: yes, i'm sorry. can i have a motion to approve theagenda ? >> so moved. >>alex madrid: [inaudible] any opposed? >> no. >>alex madrid: okay, it has been approved and we are going to item number three. public comments. [inaudible] ... in the

tradition of ... [inaudible] d we have any comments at this time ? any public waiting on the phones? >> we have one person for public comment. >>alex madrid:go ahead. go ahead, caller . >>caller: is this agenda item 3? >>alex madrid: yes it is. >>caller: thank you. my name is zach carnahan, i'm a disability advocate and one of the only people making public comments at these meetings that are not advertised to market

unity at all. i don't even know what mod does to let our community know about these meetings. at most there's three people leaving a comment usually. i don't know where to begin with all the egregious misconduct in the mayor's office on disability, lack of acceptability and providing a live person that can help with access of a chat function, visual participation of even having mdc members names on the screen, you don't do that either. i've highlighted the access issues for these meetings numerous times and gotten excuses thatwe can't participate visually or in a chat because of the zoom bombing which is ridiculous. three people show up to these meetings anyway because they are not advertised . m ou uses refuses to file complaints but i have numerous complaints i've put forward with the city and done public records requests for those complaints, i had to wait 11 months to get my request filled

which is illegal and i had to wait seven months to get a public records request filled for ppe resources that were donated to the community and the meeting that those resources were discussed was video streamed by the mayor's office on disability or in conjunction with the mayor's officeand disability, itwas hosted by nicole bonds . that meeting was deleted and not released to the public during the height of the pandemic and may . i don't know how the department can operate this way and not filecomplaints orgrievances , to be a follower instead of a leader in disability rights and disability access to public meeting . the human rights commission and board of appeals, office of employment andnumerous other agencies more accessible meetings in this meeting here today . someone explain to me . this is the mayor's office on disability andmayors disability council so i don't understand . additionally what's happening with the disability cultural's answer?

we got funding for that in 2016 and this office has done nothing toinform the public of what's going on with this project, are we still going to get a cultural center ? not filing complaints, almost nothing from what i can see as far as resolving issues during the pandemic, removing public comments at an hour and 14 in the last meeting and say it was anhour, effectively lying and gas lighting and trying to pretend to may 15 meeting didn't happen . just gas lighting, it's totally inappropriate and this mayors office on disability, i don't know what is going on with this department and i hope someone can look into it and you can support people with disabilities, fire filed their complaints instead of ignoring them and saying they are not complaints and not real and that meetings aren't real and didn't happen. when somebody says they have to wait anhour for public comment and you say no they didn't and they have to showyou a video of

the timestamp to prove it . i think you can do better, thank you . >>alex madrid: [inaudible] class we have one more person for public comment. >>alex madrid: all right, go ahead. >>caller: hi, good afternoon. my name is barry toronto. i am a taxi advocate. i'm on the board of the taxi workers alliance and i'mhere today , the instructions on the pdf i got, i got on the agenda were clear . i'm here because the better market plan was, they made some changes due to some financial restraints so as a result of that, taxis were restricted to the access to market street

particularly between fifth and eighth streets . as you are aware you are offices at 1155 market street between seventh and eighth street. taxis bringing somebody to the building once it reopens or taking someone away from the building trying to get there to pick someone up has now been restricted. we have to turn starting in a few weeks, we would have to turn rightonto eighth street . that means we could not access the building. as you know people with disabilities need to be dropped off in front of thebuildings. you have lighthouse of the blind and retirement system on the same block .so there's a problem because the only way to access it would behind street. as you know the heavy traffic on hyde street would make it a 5 to 10 minute extra trip to access the building or also and

maybe 4 to 5 dollars to taxi fare in order to access the building. not only is this an ada issue but it is, it does make you unequal in terms of people being able to access the buildings on the south side of market street so i appreciate that you deal with this issue, you possibly pass a resolution or address theseconcerns with your contacts at the sf mta . bicyclists could not be the only ones able to drive safely on market street, to have access there. taxi drivers do deserve to be paid for their work and as you know most of you are going to be using transit for epc cards and we only get a 10percent tip off of it . with a maximum of two dollars. all i'd also suggest maybe that theincrease to 15 percent with a three dollar . so i urge you to address this issue because the better market

street plan seems to only be conducive to dealing with the able-bodied persons and not with people with disabilities or needing to be to have access to in front of the building or to be able to be dropped off in front of the building. thank you very much for your time area and i hope that you can address this issue.>>. >>alex madrid: do we have any more public comment? >> that was our last public comment. >>alex madrid: thank you. >> at this time do we have any reports to make? do we have any reports that you want to say?

>> not really, just hoping that we get additional information on vaccine distribution which i'm looking forwardto hearing from with nicole . but nothing more than that . >>alex madrid: thank you. so we're going to other members which is support from the mayors on disability. . >>. >>caller: hello everyone, hello to everyone participating today. as helen alluded to my report today is focused primarily on the work that's been done around the covid-19 vaccine.

this division at the local level with a few other things in the report today. i'm working off of notes but i will provide a full report that will be posted next week but today it's notes just because of everything going on. new information was released this morning so i'll be happy to share that information. so one of the first things i want to talk about today is that sfpd now has a site that i hope that you all in can bookmark or reference or utilize our colleagues in 3112 some information that meets that. sfpd, get vaccinated against covid-19. there is a lot of information on thissite . primarily first and foremost

the most current information about mask and high-volume vaccination sites are open and have vaccines for the week as you may have heard. we have less vaccine this week because of the weather issues. in other areas of the country. and so this is a good site to have reference to so that you know where the most current information is reared just yesterday, our colleagues in command released information that in san francisco. waiting for the ambulance to pass by. that's our san francisco general, there is it's been dropped in for anyone 65 and older or for vaccinations.

including people with disabilities over the age of 65 who tuesday, february 23. at address that you need is 1001 betrayal avenue at 23rd street. it's the learning center building which is 3030, second floor and this vaccination site is open seven days a week including the weekend from nine until three. so again, the website is and 311 have the most recent and current information about what'savailable . one of the other things that we've been able to do this month is with you is after you go today get vaccinated site you can go to frontline healthcare workers. which is at information/healthcare worker verification area in san francisco and you'll see that we were able to include chair

gamblers family in the process so that it is clearer that these caregivers although they may or may not be care workers are available for vaccine appointments right now and we've had a lot of positive feedback to this and we also know that we need to do some more outreach to our san francisco health network armors to make sure that they are aware of this sad situation people are bringing to them. one of the other things i would like to highlight is the been doing through the mayors office of disability and specifically through the community group outreach by requestin specific unity groups , questions about the vaccination process. we deeply appreciate the advocacy letters that have been

coming from our advocacy partner groups and these letters including the ones of the mayors disability this week through the community alliance of disability advocates and have been extremely helpful in underscoring the importance of providing appropriate ask for people with disabilities and those ever taken their time to do that. and dave, it was enough just a few hours ago the mayor announced that muni and paratransit are free if you're going to a vaccine appointment. and in addition to that, additional money plays into the essential transparent programs that so that you can if you're

using the service, you have another mechanism to go to that vaccine appointment at no charge to you and the only verification that you need to show is your, the verification form that you bring to your appointment and that you have the vaccine appointment today for your vaccination card at the and of the process so that's very good news forus . i want tomake sure if you're aware of that . for the first two weeks in february, through to my appointments in covid command we've been assisting covid command full-time on the vaccine distribution dynamic as we prepare for march 15 which is the time through the state that people with disabilities who are under the age of 65 will be eligible to said

underlying health conditions and i'll tell you more about that but i would like to also bookmark in your eyes and ears that the march 15 will be the first day given we have available vaccines and i'd like to encourage the council to think about potentially inviting some folks to specifically from our vaccination and mobile vaccination teams to get a direct report out to you as i am imagining that in the march meeting there will be interest from our disability community and learning more specifics about how the process works and so i just wanted to encourage the council to considerthat as part of your agenda to next month's meeting . but we've been working on in

addition to helping our vaccination team really prepare and be ready are really trying to augment reaching those individuals with disabilities who are over the age of 65 and eligible now may not have access to the internet and need a way to register and get a vaccine appointment do good work on that. we've done some work indicating are high-volume and neighborhood vaccination sites. on specific accessibility requirements, and in developing implementation checklists for our colleagues so that we can be aware of what needs to happen and these vaccination sites once someone is there and also some work on transportation proxies as well. i spoke a little bit about preparations around mobile

vaccination, and we are as part of that there's some things we can do locally and something that we really waiting on guidance for. so what we been able to do to prepare in advance our to think about identifying and we have identified some community-based organizations that would be willing to mentally serve as neighborhood vaccinations sites, none of this is finalized yet but we are being considered as part of the strategy. many of the organizations are affiliated with have been contacted. we are working on clear communications and specifically for holds with disabilities. we're also working on identifying the housing sites that have a high percentage of seniors and people with

disabilities. and as part of that, we are also working on neighborhood actions in every district. for all people. to have access to vaccine distribution however, as i mentioned there are a couple of things we are awaiting state guidance on . one is specifically the disability verification proces . so right now the march 15 guidance says people with disabilities with underlying health conditions and so there is an implementation state working group, specifically to disability that is working on helping develop some clarity on what this means. hopefully by our next meeting or as soon as we know before that if it happens before that which we are hoping for we will get that information to you . we ask ots, the california office of emergency services for clarification on that just

yesterday. and then we're also finally working with and asking for guidance from the state on the best way to implement the mobile vaccination strategies specifically for people who cannot leave their homes in any way even to go to a local and very local vaccination site. a lot of this again continues on the cause of the nature of thevaccine itself . and so the policing that we're really working to get verification of these things in advance of the next eligibility willlaugh . again contingent on the total availability of vaccines. there are just a few more things that are notdirectly related to vaccines that i wanted to mention .in the past month, or our office has been directly involved in the jfk drive stakeholder

workgroup. the final meeting of this workgroup is to be expected in early march and i wanted to drive the council to consider potentially bringing back our colleagues to talk more about jfk drive potentiallyfor the april meeting , assuming that they, that things do not happen before that time and if they do the mayors office of disability will be sure to let congress know that's the place to engage. we had our first kickoff meeting related to the former supervisor with legislation around a housing needs assessment, acitywide housing needs assessment . you'll learn more about that process next month when our colleagues from.visit this meeting. and finally i want to just announce our staffing news that

in late january the leaders on disability welcome our senior building inspector john finnigan to our team. he's been a building inspector for many years and we are very excited to have him with us working on reviewing a portable housing project and the project funded and facilitated by the city specifically for disability access so please join me in welcoming john and that is my report today. i just wanted to reiterate again that i'll have a formal report posted sometime next week for holds but if you have questions about anything in this report please make sure to feel free to either email us or at mod sfgov.org or give us a call and we can get back to you

at our earliest convenience. our offices are still functioning primarily remotely because of the current state of this hearing and are covid response. that concludes my report for today. >>alex madrid:it's very important. thank you . there are no questions or no public comment at this time but ... [inaudible] >> alex, i have a question for nicole. it's a quick one.

>> excuse me, alex.the protocol is that we call on individual councilmembers one at a time to see whether councilmembers have questions and then we will move on to the nextagenda item . so alex, if it's okay with you i will call on the next councilmember, i'll go through the list. just a second. i'll go through the list and call on people by name. >>alex madrid: go ahead. >>helen pelzman: it's helen pelzman, choke cochair. is there a contact site for

some kind of group that we can monitor to be able to activate calls for requests to the governor's office around issues specific to that same distribution for people with disability. dissipated in the request that we calling the governor's office on a couple of occasions, but the information found that came late in the day and it wasn't well coordinated and i wanted to know if you could share a site or an organization that this community should be aware of in case we need to revisit advocacy for us and vaccines? >>nicole bohn: output in the report is theadditional ... one second . what i'll do is put in additional ways to contact the governor's office and the vaccine advisory committee.

>>helen pelzman: thank you very much. >>nicole bohn: you're welcome. >>alex madrid: denise senhaux? >>denise senhaux: i'm here. >> any questions or comments? >>denise senhaux: not at this time. >> stephanie? >> i don't have any questions or comments. no questions or comments at this time. >> helen smolinski? >> no questions. >> is kate williams on? or neil? so they joined late. oh. alex, did you have any

questions or comments denmark. >>alex madrid: no questions at this point. >> all right, i will then introduce, alex has asked me to introduce the next item on the agenda and that is a presentation from metropolitan transit authority. the presenter is still cranna and the presentation is about stewardship permit requirements. >> thank you for having me. my name is philip cranna, legal

enforcementmanager for taxi accessibility and mobile services . we've recently changed our name. we were formally known as taxis and excessive drivers and i'm here to discuss the scooter share program. a brief background, i just want to make sure i'm sharing my screen, is that okay ? >>alex madrid: yes. >> thank you. forgive me. this is a first-time zoom for me. scooters law in san francisco without a permit and unregulated stream in 2019 and that led to problems. the amount of complaints we received involving parking piles of scooters, improper writing were in the thousands

and that led to the board of supervisors granting the mta the ability to conduct the title program which launched in october of 2019 and out of that process 2 permits were chosen and that was a one-year pilot program. and aspart of that pilot , we established parking guidelines and reporting guidelines. and immediately we saw a marked decrease not only in complaints but also improved parking behavior. that pilot ended in october 2019 and the permit, we got a regular permit and fourwere selected . we further refine the parking rules and did other reporting guidelines. we also incorporated low income

plans and also incorporated a adaptive act which launched in january 2020 following the shutdown , following the pandemic mta staff requested and the mta board approved a six-month extensionin august 2020 . we saw that the companies had not fully recovered. we requested and the board approved anadditional extension to the current program lasting through june 30 of 2021 . and i will describe the photographs included on this slide. there is a photograph of a gentleman who is talking on his cell phone writing and there are some pictures of scooters that were dumped on the sidewalks and one photograph shows maybe 60 8 scooters knocked over along the frontage zone.

and as i mentioned there are currently four permittees or there were four permittees starting in october 2019 and that was just blind astute and skin and around march 2020 line acquired jump and currently there only 3 permittees. this slide shows photographs of all 4 company scooters.so the key requirements of the permit program include the parking guidelines. they are available on sf mta.com. we have refined them as the pilot started and the permit program. we have continued to refinance. generally speaking aloud scooters and actually share bikes as well i should mention to park in the furnishing zone

so there is an image of the sidewalk. you could say it's a side view. we prohibit parking along the edge because that blocks assess two cars that maybe loading or unloading. there's a shadow in the zone which is usually between street furniture such as trees or mailboxes or even garbage cans or other similar things on the sidewalk. targeted parking is prohibited in the roadway where pedestrians walk and also on the frontage zone like a building or people who may be used thefrontage, the end of the building as a guide . and as ialso mentioned , in january 2020 we launched the active scooter pilot, an example of a photograph of the

adaptive bike pilot which is similar but different. and as a condition of the permit, the operators are required to provide compliance and we require them weekly, monthly and quarterly and the operators are also required to maintain a database, they need to log all complaints they received from members of the public and report that to mta. as i mentioned the parking guidelines, investigators are on the street and authorized to issue citations to the company for improperly parked devices. and company also requires to move those devices within 2 hours upon notification by the city . as far as monthly reporting those are longer-term recording

goals such as trips in the adaptive pilot program. the low income customer plan and also reporting onzero waste . there is an image on this slide as well and it is a map of san francisco. it is lots of 311 complaints throughout. i guess the best way to describe is there are in pretty much every neighborhood in the city, they are clustered heavily along and in the fisherman's wharf area. and with all ofthis data that mta is receiving , we've created dashboards that are available to the public and they review this dataand analyze it if they wish . we have scooter enforcement in these networks as well as trip statistics and there are four images in slide 1 is a screen capture of the webpage where

the networks are. one is a scooter and bike trip comparison which tracks the amount of trips over time versus the amount of complaints and this is also a screen capture from the dashboard. there is also an image of our screen capture, a citation issued by the investigator to attend to prefer the 311 complaints, they are heavily clustered along market street and on the fisherman's wharf area. finally, there is a table showing the amount of citations issued over time from october 19 or october 2019 through december 2020. i'll note that there is a gap between april 2020 and june 2020. as the investigators staff were

starting to disaster service work as part of the pandemic . during this timeframe, the owneroperators continued operating through the pandemic . just to give a snapshot of the industry . currently as i mentioned these are from to operate, rides are authorized to have up to 2000 scooters maximum. school is authorized to have up to 1000 scooters maximum and spin is allowed to have up to 2000 maximum. each operator as part of a condition to increase their fleet, let me back up abit. each property was initially given 1000 scooters . line as i mentionedacquired jump so that's why they have to thousand . spin completed substantial compliance and requested

increases and they were also granted for anincrease to 1500 and and increase to 2000 . and as a condition of leaving these scooters, eachpermit he has paid $75 per device and that , those feesare used to install bicycle racks . those bicycle racks are available to members of the public including users of these devices. and state mta has installed 1225 racks using these systems. i should add there are additional racks out there that were installed prior to the start of this program. that is not the number in the entire city. as far as ridership what we saw leading up to the pandemic was an increase in november 2019 or i should say november, december

2019 and january and february we saw about 200,000 computer chips for month and that's someone who rented it, used it and ended it so that reflects the individual use that ships rentals.then in march 2020 we had at home of the children in place. again i believe march 15 or thereabouts so there were only one in 10,000 that must read as i mentioned, during the shutdown the only operator continuing on her and uninterrupted was in. we seen a gradual increase. however only about 50 percent pre-pandemic numbers. so august 2020, september and august 2020 we saw 100,000 and we decreased them to about 69,000 over 2020.

the timeline is backwards from what we've seen specifically in december with the decrease due toweather , specifically rain or weather. and we mentioned during the pandemic staff requested the board extend the permit each month which was approved and it extended through mid-april 2021. these were part of the transportation recovery plan has service was reduced in proportion to the pandemic. commuters and bike share were allowed to continue operating as a gap where available. we also updated extension requirements as imentioned , spin was insubstantial require compliance and they requested to complete increases and they received those. and in january, this year we or

staff went to the mta board and improved transportation code amendments. as the operators have not fully recovered from the pandemic the permit was extended to through june 30 to be in line with the coincidentally in line with the fiscal year. we switched the adaptive program from the pilot to requirement so it is not a requirement going forward. and the doctor transportation which also allowed to have the option of the permits for one year to 2 years. and there's an image on this slide and it shows two people riding scooters and a biplane. and we are currently in the process of drafting from applications from for the coming permits. we will begin onjuly 1, 2021 . we are working to further

refine the permit requirements such as community outreach and distribution. of the adaptive program as we mentioned is made permanent and we are proposing or looking at device requirements. we are also proposing to keep these devices as part of the overall sweet . so the feedback that we've heard are present for a basket or perhaps a wider board or perhaps aseat . but also possibly we have not settledon the particular guidelines as of yet . and as i mentioned, party. haven't covered that. there is an imageof a gentleman riding a scooter also in the biplane . and as i mentioned we are

making the adaptive program permanent. additional requirements the scooters are able to incorporategps devices on them . the goal being these devices could be available to a wide array of people with different needs and have them available on the street. there's another image of scooters and bicycles writing in a biplane. currently we are still taking feedback from key stakeholders. we've had a survey open online throughfebruary 1 . we also worked through various committees as well and you we also reached out to organizations such as indy quattro and the key and he sees and currently we are also

taking back through c11 and we also. for the use and transportation committee which is a committee of the order andthere is a picture on this slide showing the gentleman wearing helmet . provided a scooter in a biplane. that concludes my presentation. there is an image on the slide showing a woman writing what appears to be a very old scooter.most likely turn of the century. with that, thank you. >>alex madrid: verygood . i have one question for mister cranna. [inaudible] >> excuse me alex, the usually the first item after a

presenter presentation is also up for comment and we stopped and then we will go into questions from the councilmembers. >> it's actually the other way around. >> my apology then, sorry. >> so what question did you have? i'm not sure if i heard you correctly but are there any. [inaudible] >>alex madrid: do scooters live in the sidewalk or anything that is at issue? there was a discussion on bike

disability which is. [inaudible] >>alex madrid: are there any policy changes other than how we must enforce that and is the company funding that or how does that work? >>phil cranna: i want to make sure the question is about improper funding and writing? >>alex madrid: i'm asking about how enforcement is when schools assessed on the sidewalk and

>> thank you very much. >>helen pelzman: next is denise and you have any questions? >>denise senhaux: not at this time, thank you. >>helen pelzman: let's see ...

any questions from tiffany? >>tiffany yu: this is tiffany. thisis more of a comment. i remember a couple years , i want to say two years ago when the unregulated tutors came to town and we ended up having a mayors disability council public meeting with scooter and line to talk about their plans so i just want to acknowledge and appreciate how swiftly, i noticed just as a resident of the city moved in terms of getting those out and enforcing sidewalk safety and putting in these new plans because i have also traveled to other cities where i don't eat it as regulated. i will also add i wanted to say thank you and also thank you for the amount of data

collection that seems to be happening and how that is shared with the public. i appreciate that and i am excited. i think one of the questions that was brought up when the scooter companies presented at the meeting a couple years ago was really around thinking through how can we figure out a scooter alternative for people who with disabilities who want to travel in that way so i'm excited to see what developments come there and maybe we will invite you back when that part of the program and not getting launched a little bit more but i want to thank youand the people who work there . >>. >>helen pelzman: next is helen wilensky, do you have any questions western mark. >> thank you for your presentation, much appreciated

and i want to echo tiffany's comments about the fact that you all are moving forward with a plan to make the scooters more accessible for all. so i'm equally excited tosee where that goes . thank you. >>helen pelzman: and orkid? >>orkid: this is orkid, let's see. i am a deaf individual and able-bodied and i also use my bike in san francisco. i've actually never tried to use thescooters because of balance issues that i have so that's been challenging for me as an individual . and although i did attempt at once, the rhythm and the way the scooter kind of felt in motion didn't lend towards

stability when i would hit bumps in the road so i didn't really think it was wise to continue. i would like to comment about the sidewalks. deaf people when we are walking are making eye contact with each other, it's part of our visual language to include eye contact so having obstacles in the path of travel can be challenging . and often times theyare not physical until we're on top of it or they become a real hazard . so setting things as far as an alarm system or some type of system that will indicate when scooters are not in a station, in a secure area doesn't seem like it's good enough. i think putting scooters in specific designated areas on the sidewalk, having sort of a track for them to be locked up

to would be the best solution. and they will be identified in a specific area.it would be visual or physical off for deaf individuals in conversations. i think we need more improvement on how we station part scooters. and i like to see about that continuing and i think it would be great if people wore helmets when they wereusing that. i noticed some people are not wearing helmets. that's been a safety concern or people on bikes . i also think that thinking about how the scooters could be station, it would be good to have those scooterracks next to bike racks and they would be easily identifiable . that's all i have to say, thank you for the comment. >> i'll take that back, i believe the term is a landing zone andour other jurisdictions

thathave done that . i can again , raise that as a proposal with the group. in regards to helmets, helmets wererequired . they were required by the california vehicle code or the california legislature amended that so commencing on july 1, i'm sorry, january 1, 2019 that was removed sothey are not optional . >>orkid: okay. >>phil cranna: we propose that however, the legislature from the governor's mandate . >>orkid: ic. alright, well thank you for that information. thank you very much.

>> that's all the comments from councilmembers. >>alex madrid: any other comments at this time? >> you are muted in the call. >>nicole bohn: nichols speaking, i like to see if that's all right. thank you for being here. i'm really excited to see the progression of the program. it's really do want to commend the mta staff. they proactively thought through and adapted through our pilot program. so that's very exciting. i have two questions that we need to one is if you can speak a little bit to the confusion around how the program intersects with the shared spaces program. i know that they've heard about

the shared spaces program in public meetings several months ago and because it's another element on the sidewalk, if you could talk a little bit about the strategy in thinking around how these programs could work together and then also, i'm curious if you could let them know the best way. what specific feedback you would like from this counsel and how can they just provide that related to the scooter program, theadaptive program, any of the elements you talked about . >>phil cranna: the first question, shared spaces we incorporated your feedback into the guidelines . there are unfortunately because the geographic, the geography of the rack placement in front of cafis would be shared spaces

superimposed upon that. obviously there's some perspective between the racks and theirspaces . we have competed with shared spaces and the restaurant where this is is limited by their space so they have i will say no choice butpotentially the shared spaces , the space in front of them is warranted. the investigators respond to all complaints that we requested them. and as i mentioned before the companies are required to remove those within two hours. that's the code but they have been proactive in responding. and as far as feedback, we're open to any and all. i know there are a wide array of needs in such an adaptive scooter means. we don't want to limit ourselves as the definition of

what an adaptivedevice is . i don't think there's anyone sign, i think there are many ideas out there so if a member of the public, member of this counsel or members of mod have anything to add i will take any and all . i know that and it, i spoke with and williams and the feedback as i mentioned is adaptive which allows if you put your items so your hands are free, wider boards are in some cases the third wheel provides greater stability. we want to make sure these devices are safe for the streets so any devices approved by the mta go forward for deployment. we've been working with on designs so during the pilot we saw a couple different items, spin and a three wheeled device

and whereas line had a seated two wheeled device. and as i also mentioned, looking at including the have been available on the streets. as part of the fleet. through the pilot we allowed the companies to use i want to call it certainly could order ahead of time and have it delivered so that was model and while we won't disallow that, we'd like to encourage operators to incorporate these into the overall fleet. so there are more available across the city and to awide array of people . >> and what's the best way to providefeedback ? did you want to provide an email address or phone number? if youcould repeat that. be great . >>phil cranna: erin, are you on? thank you.>> i think people

can email me directly. at sfmta.com. i am mca ul iss at ss and k.com. i think my name is in my sunscreen. so first name, last name at sfmta.com. >> that's all my questions. >>alex madrid: are there any others that have questions? if not, we're going to the public comments.

>>deborah kaplan: we got a couplethat came into the email address so i'll get those now . they are both from thai run, senior disability action and one i think philip you addressed this but to see if there's anything more youmight have to say about that . and that is the, since the shooters are also using bike racks and the scooternumbers are increasing , isthere a plan to increase the number of cracks ? and then the second is these are comments and we generally don't respond to comments, does the sfmta published a summary report of the scooter complaints and actions taken and if so, how often and where

are these reports available? and i think if you can provide that information to us, we will make it available along with the ancillary materials that are on our website. related to this meeting. >>phil cranna: i can do that. >>deborah kaplan: so we can now take any other comments. from the public on the phone. >> we have 2 people

>>caller: if mister cranna can send those to carly or email the examiner, send those to her so there can be afollow-up that the reading public can see what these look like . all the variousscooter adaptations. i think that's appropriate . iwanted to comment , the stated instructions on the bottom of the screen say to dial á9. only when i complained my email did somebody say dial á3 so you're going to have to watch your written communication to modify that because i didn't hearanything about á3 until i complained . even if it's stated at the beginning of the meeting, that's not throughout the

meeting so if i tune in after waiting for minutes and other minutia and standard stuff to be done with, if i tune in and miss an old correction, you've got to make sure everybody throughout the meeting here's to dial á3, not á9 but read the examiner and send the drawings, the pictures of adaptive scooters to carly graph please read thankyou . >>alex madrid: thank you for your comment. other any more comments? >> we have one more. >>caller: i just wanted to echo what everyone's beensaying . i think that's really important and to making this meeting accessible.the scooters, i think that those things you are bringing arereally bad . i think this these companies

are not being held accountable for blocking access to people who really need it area i think i've done the whole pandemic and seen issues exacerbated by the pandemic in regards to who has access to street space and i think taking into consideration and listening to this program what whether it's going to be creating a disability proposal into san francisco i think it's important to look at. i just wanted to speak up and say that i think these things that are being spoken about our valid and this issue should be sidelined and i feel like they are being right now. i justwanted to say that and just let that be known . >>alex madrid: thank you for your comment. are there any more from the public ?

>> we have onemore. >>alex madrid: go ahead . >>caller: good afternoon again, this is barry toronto. what a great presentationby philip . i learned a lot that i have known before and there was a lot of detail that was extremely informative and helpful. however, somebody mentioned that it would be great if we had some access to the type of complaints being launched and howthey are being dealt with . so it would be great to have some type of access to that information. because the complaints that i would have is the ignoring of the traffic laws. i believe that the scooters have to obey the traffic laws like a bicycle or any other motorized type of vehicle. even though it's electric, it still has to obey traffic laws. considering the fact that they're not wearing a helmet

and as philip was correct in saying they don't have twear a helmet . thanks to our state legislature . but the other point to make is in terms of at night, how can you tell which company the scooter belongs to. so in order to lodge a complaint regarding a violation of traffic laws, or writing on the sidewalk illegally, how do you are you able to identify the scooters is my concern. there has to be some more markings or maybe at night there has to be some type of covered light with the company that belongs to so we can identify the location and the type of complaint or violation we can't always identify what company this scooter belongs to. it would be great if somehow there was a requirement when you renew the permits they require some type of light designation to allow , to make the complaint accurately.

thank you. >>alex madrid: thank you for yourcomments, are there any more comments ?>> there are no more public comments in queue. >>alex madrid: thank you so much. this is so wonderful. i'm sure were going to ask you. [inaudible] accessibility quota is ready and again, thank you very much. >>phil cranna: if i may just wanted to take onemore moment to answer a couple of questions . i think the first comment about the response to the citations and it may havebeen mister toronto's question as well. they are available on the dashboard . >>alex madrid: the incoming

budget commissioner needs to do that. >> also the rack is a separate thing so the fines, the $100 fines go into their old bond, that is correct. each company paid the mta $75 for devices or the rack. just to certify that. thank you very much. >> at this time we will take 15 minutes break and we will come back in 15 minutes. thank you all. >>. [music]

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>>alex madrid: that are break, again we are going to be on item number seven which is accessibility issues in ... [inaudible] and presenting.

[inaudible] lending access and major religions. go ahead. >> good afternoon. i am our policy manager and she will be sharing her slide. can we put the slides now? okay. thank you. today i'll be talking about autonomous vehicles and

disability access . autonomous vehicles they also know them as driverless cars. so my name is erin mcauliffe and i'm in mobility services division focused on access and emerging mobility so like driverless cars or rideshare and transportation companies like uber and lyft. >> i'm the autonomous vehicle policy manager . local state and federal policy issues related to automated driving. >>erin mcauliffe: we have thre things on the agenda to talk about . the first is we want to give a little overview about right companies uber and lyft,

they're known as transportation network companies because they provide on-demand service similar to what autonomous vehicles do so i'll give an overview of what we know and disability access and how that frames the thinking about autonomous vehicles. then katie will take over and she'll talk specifically about autonomous vehicles with a lens on accessibility. both generally and. [inaudible] so tmc's have been around for almost a decade now. yet we're still learning about and identifying the impacts they have on san francisco. mta along with the san francisco transportation authority we have been creating a seriesof reports that help answer key questions about ourselves . the first report today was a

profile of san francisco transportation network effort opportunities released in june 2017 and provided our first estimate of what the activity was like. the key findings of the report are totally on trips made within san francisco included that on our principal weekday we may not more than 170,000 vehicles and 12 times the number of taxi trips representing 15 percent of all san francisco owners. and in october 2018, we released new statistics we provided the first comprehensive analysis of how tnt's uber and lyft have effective roadways.that report found that the accounted for approximately 50 percent of the rides in san francisco

between 2010 and 2016 and that wasindicated by three different suggestions here , vehicle hours ofdelay, vehicle miles traveled . they also cause the greatest increases in congestion. especially for a lot of disabilities, up to 70 percent of the downtown financial district. this is three covid but these give us a glimpse of the impacts of ride hailing services . with this information we also had understanding about specifically disability needs. in 2019, let's go to the next slide now. you saw 2019 as the mta published their report . this report found that while

there was access for some population such as writers who are blind or lowvision , many groups were also accessible to wheelchairs. the keys provide limited assistance to these communities and verizon tnt services had a big impact on other forms of transportation and i provided a lot of accessible services like taxisand medical transportation . i also have other impacts. finally the report looked at case studies examining how others are working with tnc to encourage. [inaudible]. they provided a number of recommendations, many focused on a utilities commission at the agency responsible for regulating tnc's all around the same time as the report was

published the tnc began implementation the and this is legislation that would not have been possible without really amazing advocacy from the mayor's office on disability and many advocates in san francisco especially join us leads and this is what you see on all tnc trips statewide as well as other companies. went into effect and here we are in 2021. still working with the tnc is to implement the legislation and work for there rest access and progress has been made but it's highlighted how difficult it is to address inequitable access to a decade into the program. though while we remain hopeful the center for accessibility, it really informs the way we think about autonomous vehicles

and passenger service especially disability access and our belief is that rather than fixing something we can improve it. >> transferring over to autonomous vehicles, erin just discussed a little bit of an overview of the regulations for tnc's and it's important to keep in mind that regulations were not automatically applied to autonomous vehicles as the regulations for tnc's will be, will look to be quite differen . and so as erin mentioned, they've been working, she's been working hard with all of you over the past few years to its dick, to try to put a band-aid on the ruling that that cpc made around the regulations for tnc is like the

access for all legislation so we're trying to get the cpc regulation right from the start with babies instead of having to come back with legislation in 4 years or so so before diving in, i wanted to provide background on who has authority to regulate autonomousvehicle passenger services . i use the term autonomous vehicles and a lot of people call them driverless cars, automated vehicles or host of other names but i'm justgoing to use av's for short . so similar to tnc's, like uber and lyft av service isregulated by the public utilities commission, the cpc offers three different permits for its developers. the cpc , they develop pilot

permit first and pilot program. that allowed developers to test their technology with passengers in the vehicle. so they created two public programs in order to test this. one for vehicles with the driver, one for vehicles without the driver and a recently authorized a program that kind of moving on from the initial pilot phase 2 actual regulations for deployment to provide commercial service so that means if a developer has a cpc permit they also provide service to members of the public who would be able to charter a pilot program before this came out. before this recess you're not able to charge a fee so it's

important to know why cpc regulates transportation services that carry passengers, the california dmz permits tnc is to operate on public roads with and without asafety driver . so in order to get one of these cpc permits you would need to get dmz permits. that's kind of the regulatory foundation that california city programs are built on. so the next 2 slides i'm going to talk about some of the issues that have emerged like tvs and disability access. there are 3 sort of issue area . the first is machine, human machine nursing so this is how users interact with the ride hail at and the vehicle

equipment. so how we view it is the application that people use to summon an av must be accessible to people with alldisability types . the application, the app needs to let people know when their vehicle has arrived. where the car is located when it has arrived in an accessible manner. once one is inside the vehicle how willthe vehicle inform you when it's going to park, or when here it is on the route and you can make sure that you're heading the right direction . how would you indicate riders in an emergency. all of these indications was serve people with a range of disabilities and finally for people who are blind or have low vision once we reach your

destination how will the vehicle alert you to where to stop. to stop in front of the building that you're trying to access or cross thestreet or around the corner? so we believe that av developers should be considering all these items, all these issues . we have reason to believe that av companies and universities are looking into these issues and conducting research and development but there is currently no requirement for these. the next kind of shoe category is the hardware. so vehicle hardware. how the design of the car must be accessible in order for people of all abilities to use this future service. so tv manufacturers ensure the handles on their vehiclesare accessible . they are, that their vehicles can accommodate folding and non-holding wheelchairs as well as other mobility devices and that they can incorporate ramps

and procurement systems once people are in the vehicle.av companies appear to be devoting efforts to understanding the needs of blind and low vision passengers it's not clear that there devoting similar efforts to people with other disabilities including those that use wheelchairs. the final issue i want to raise is really related to av passenger service. we believe that av ride hail service should provide the same level of servicefor people with disabilities asthey do for everyone else . which includes availability , the same hours as the service, same wait times so the same time requesting or getting a ride as someone without disabilities and there should also be protections about what information people have to disclose in order to request a ride. so this slide there are five photos. the being displayed.

of different types of autonomous vehicles that wehave seen in the city or that are prototypes . so the vehicle pictured on the top row are vehicles that have been tested that are being tested or have beenpassed tested in san francisco . the first one on the left is a chrysler pacificaminivan . that's a passenger vehicle. the top rail on the right is a chevy volt. and the vehicles on, both of these vehicles have been retrofitted with autonomous vehicle technology so there are sensors and hardware on the top of the vehicle as well ason the sides of the vehicle . the vehicles on the bottom are the next, what you could consider the nextgeneration vehicles for several companies that are testing in the city .

some of them are still prototypes so you can the two vehicles on the bottom right, so the bottom left and the middle are prototypes that companies are have marked up and that are planning to build. some of them there's a few tha have already been together . you will see that there really at least the two on the bottom and in the middle and the left are really new shapes vehicles. they removed the drivers seat. creating more space for passengers but there are still only loading for passengers. andwhile these are being assembled today they have more space because by taking out the driver seat , none of these can accommodate a wheelchair. we see that as a problem. and then the next generation from one of thecompanies testing the city is on the

bottom left , on the bottom right. and that's a regular jaguar, it's a passenger vehicle and there has been no changing of the interior. so i'm going to spend a little of time on this because this is where we've been spending a lot of time. as erin noted with pnc's when the cd is regulating passenger service in california that in order for us to shape how service will rule out we have to do our best to influence the regulations being drafted by the state. so here i am showing a chart of some of the key points of what success mta has done with and what our advocacy has provided what the results have been with respect to that cpc like, how

did they take our input and what decision did they make and i also note that mod, they provided a lot of support with the on the cdc decisions. over the past three years, the cdc has been working on regulation for us on this vehicle passenger service. starting with the pilot program to collect data. we learned about the service and the technology and working towards final regulation to authorized service where we can pick up members of the public and charge payers. the sf mta has participated in several of these activities to ensure they have disability access and so we participated in the cpc accessibility working group which unfortunately only met twice and the last meeting was early 2019 and when we were there we

did convey the needs of the disability community and several of us participated and gave remarks but one workshop that was posted together had input on the highest programmer we provided feedback on how they should update their message, the data collection related to the provisions of both side. i think where we have spent a lot of our time is developing official comments in response to draft regulations of the passenger service. the cpc's first version of regulations included goals related to reducing risk to passenger safety, a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air-quality hazards and four goals to improve transportation or disadvantaged communities to expand benefits of av technologies of everyone but it did not include all bull

related to ensuring people with disabilities also benefit from the service. we strongly advocated that they must include adisability accessible shortequivalent service . people with disabilities , especially including those that use wheelchairs. we asked for this goal to address the issue at the beginning of the regulatory process instead of later which is what happened with tnc's so we learn from the experience and were trying to make sure this is incorporated in the beginning and end the division which was approved by the commission but currently is under appeal adopted goal that states specifically calls out expanding the benefits of the technology to all californians including people with disabilities so we don't think this goes far enough. because it doesn't use our language which we specifically

requested to ensure equivalent access and we plan to continue to advocate for the service. we also requested that the permit process the opened up for public review and comment. finally the pnc application process is conducted largely behind closed doors at the staff level and no one really knows what applicationsare being evaluated . allowing for public comment would bring more people to the table, more experts in different areas to provide feedback, suggestions for how an application can be put through.we were pleased that cpc incorporated this request into their division and they required applications to be reviewed and approved during mission meetings which are public so that as the public review. the requested that applicants submit a disability access press. that's subject to public review describing the av companies approach to meeting the needs of people with disabilities. the cpc does not adopt this

exact request but they did require that applicants as part of what they're referring to as the passenger safety plan to explain how they will reduce safety risks of passengers and then they, specifically people with disabilities so they have to include masks in their application. and the passenger safety plan isavailable , will be available for public comment for the application. permittees must also submit quarterly data which include a narrative description of how they've engaged with disability ordisability advocates and action painting and to provide assessment . so now i'm going to talk a little bit about our work related to federal . the federalpolicy . we've been advocating for both

cds and av service to be accessible and when av companies are designing and reimagining a new vehicle and deciding branding built from the ground up, we think that they should be incorporating universal designand . we think that washington should be prioritizing policies that remove obstacles to av transportation forpeople with disabilities and make sure those ride portable . not a luxury service. the public often likes to create working groups towork on challenging topics including how to regulate av's . we advocated that people with disabilities should be represented including organizations thatrepresent wheelchair equivalency . locally, where are, we have a number of av developers that

are either headquartered in san francisco or are located in the bay area, the southern tier so we work closelywith local av developers that are testing . and we provide feedback on the disability work. remind them of everything iwent over , how important it is to make sure that thehardware , human machines we are facing, and we encourage developers to incorporate design standards in the prototype, always open to new resources we will make sure we include any issues that you foresee with these conversations. so finally, this is just to

leave everyone with a list of resources including areas of the pnc accessibilityreport . and then a number of resources on av and different advocacy groups and white papers, recommendations that they developed for disability rights education and funds created at av accessibleeach accessibility checklist . that's really targeted to av developers who want to be included and what av developers need to think about as they told this new technology. and also included are contacts. and i just want to plug to opportunities incase people are interested in participating or learning more . so the national highway transportationsafety administration , and the us

access board this spring we will be hosting a four-part series of virtual meetings on making av accessible to passengers with disabilities . the first one will be on march 10. and you can find and sign up for the session at access flash forward . av. and these sessions are free and opento the public . and they will be covering accessibility for passengers with sensory or cognitive disabilities. there's also opportunities to engage in the cpc process , the cpc has public meetings so when

they do we hear av deployment regulations and you are all welcome to participate in those meetings. we are happy to let you know when they are. i believe that is the end so i stopped sharing myscreen . >>alex madrid: erin, that's very interesting and. [inaudible] i have a lot of questions but in the interest of time i have just two questions area one west

question is that when some of these really counts as being. [inaudible] >>katie angotti: they are not being deployed, they're not available ... sport. >>alexmadrid: testing, that's what i'm asking . so did their testing them out. then what's the procedure and what are they testings, things that they do? that's one question and the second question was as regards to disabilities that are not

included, i think the people the full list is part of. [inaudible] and i know that some of them are going to. [inaudible] how do they respond to if someone has limited movement and. [inaudible] i have no questions. >>katie angotti: with respect to what are the testing procedures for av's? they have to get a permit in order to operate on public roads, in order to test on

public roads and have a cpc permit if they want to take passengers. so with respect to testing procedures, that's notsomething that companies share with us . because they are not required to. they do need ... we see them driving so we know they're drivingaround the city, their collecting data . there mapping the streets . we are not privy to the details of their testing programs but they do they have a collision, they have to report the collision to the dmv. very quickly after they have to fill out a report that gets published on the dmv website and we look at those. they also have to providewhat are called disengagement

reports . and disengagement are when the car, so there's usually a safety driver behind thewheel. right now , for most companies. so disengagement is when the car goes from autonomous mode to manual load. and it's usually because the safety driver either disengages the vehicle or the card doesn't itself cause it saw an issue. and so they have to report every time that there is a disengagement and those are annual reports that are also submitted to the dmv that they published once a year area so those are the requirements to test . there's also a risk of other requirements including insurance. >>alex madrid: i just want to clarify that question, are

there any type of inclusive, helping like that. [inaudible] >>katie angotti: so the question is, i'm sorry. >>alex madrid: like when it's time to test and if i found one and i had a power chair, and they say we want to test this

tesla for your own needs. is that clear? >>katie angotti: the question is if a company like tesla one day wakes up and says or moves ahead, so i want on san francisco street, what are the procedures to do that ? >>alex madrid: i guess my question is if someone has thinks testing the vehicle with devices for people with disabilities or just testing it the building is working. >>katie angotti: right now it's kind of a combination. right now they're just testing tomake sure that the technology works and can drive .

can drive safely and can navigate city streets that's really what the focus is , kindof right now , but there are other companies that are doing research and are testing out some disability access features. but it's not a requirement. some companies art, some companies are just testing driving to make sure they get that down before they expand what theyare testing . >>alex madrid: okay. so my next question is this one last question is people with disabilities have different needs and i didn't see anything about deaf or hard of hearing and people will have an

impairment, how does we know if there is some information in that? >>katie angotti: why i didn't call it out specifically, that is certainly included in the issues that i raised. so like human machine interface, the application was being used as someone needs to consider a range of disabilities so like low vision, hard of hearing or death, people with cognitive issues, people with ambulatory issues. the application needs to address the range of disabilities. as well as thein vehicle communication . so if you know, it needs to be, the information in the vehicle needs to be provided and a

number of ways to satisfy people with different disabilities. >>alex madrid: thank you and i'll pass it to others. >> you have any questions? >> i do but i will try to keep my questions limited. my first is actually a request and also just an acknowledgment . tank you both forthis presentation .it's probably been one of the most informative and interesting ones we've had i really appreciate the work that you were doing today and your advocacyon our behalf . my first question is are there any members with mobility

disabilities or people with disabilities areactually serving on any of these advisory groups ? >>katie angotti: i can the cdc advisory group that met twice. there were organizations that i don't know if erin attended th two meetings so she might be able to it . and with respect tolike the comments , we provided written comments and i believe there were several organizations that submitted comments. >> may i interrupt for a second? not organizations, i'm asking actual people who are a part of these various committees.

>>erin mcauliffe: i can say on the accessibility groups there were individuals with disabilities who represented organizations, who represent people with disabilities so from that perspective yes but on the actual california public utilitiescommission , i couldn't tell you any people with disabilities. >>helen pelzman: i use to be a senior policy analyst at the cpc, i worked on climate but i'm familiar with the process so that's why i was asking. i wanted to request that you ... wait, you're going to put that information about the coming meetings or hearings, that you referenced, can you make sure we have on their websitebecause that was a

little difficult . >> i'm sorry about that. >> i think it's great and a number of us would like to participate. the next question is pretty broad in scope. how can the mdc advocate on behalf of the interests of the disabled community in this i guess policy development process? it seems dynamic and it seems like we should be exercising our voice maybe a little bit more. more forcefully than we have been given what you reported on where you've been in the negotiations representing our interests i mean, i'll unmute or mute wait to hear back from you.

>>katie angotti: so with the federal government i think as workshops and i will provide thatinformation , i think that posting those workshops to learn more and i think that's if you'd like to participate in those i think that would help on the federal level and we can keep an eye out for if there's additional workshops and to let you know with respect to the commission i think that there's a greater opportunity there to make it past and i think that submitting public and i know how the cdc process works. you have to become a party and be kind of a complex process

but we encourage people to become party to the comments process so that their voice can be heard because if you're not a party and you can submit official comments so we encourage whether you are an individual or a group to become a party so you can submit official comments, otherwise you can show up to the meetings when they're making the decisions, when the item is on the agenda. call in and i think members in this did just that and call in and really really impressed the issue on making sure there is a disability goal that's how it came to be like if those folks call and idon't think , i'm not sure if we would have had disability goal so i think that

it is fitting in the public meeting no matter how longthey are to wait on call is important ., becoming a party so that you can submit official comments and then also like there may be workshops like cpc workshops in the future so participating in those but it's really, we can continue to let us know what you can also kind of keep an eye. >>helen pelzman: i think it would be great if you can share the in which we can. i also know even know that there are informal opportunities to dialogue around the policy development and i was wondering ifthere's an opportunity for us to do that as well . >>katie angotti: i think given your knowledge of theprocess , i think that there's those

opportunities for dialogue. and you can speak directly with the commissioners or public speakers and the staff you can always talk to make sure your concerns are addressed and i think they want to hear from you. i don't think they hear enough in the disability community so there's no reason why you can't engage with them directly. >>katie angotti: thank you again, i will follow up with both of you and mod to oversight, maybe we can figure something out about those kind ofinformal conversations . >>

>> that's a really good question. i think that there's been a lot of speculation in the past about avs and how quickly they're going to be on our streets and actually be fully driverless. i don't want to add to that speculation because i don't work for an av company and i don't know what their timeline is. i know that we have people -- we have a lot of vehicles testing on our streets. there's one company that is already testing in san francisco without a driver. with really limited testing. i don't know if, you know, if they need to be testing for five

years or 10 years because they feel comfortable. taking members of the public. i think that we've seen a pretty incremental approach by the companies testing in san francisco that they're not -- they're testing for -- they've been testing for a while and it's hard. it's like, people haven't -- especially in the city like san francisco that is so dense and that has so many bicyclists and pedestrians. i don't want to speculate on the timeline of when they will come, except for that i know that testing is increasing. i know that -- >> so that means that there's still time, in this process, i mean, hopefully there's still enough time. >> oh, yeah, certainly. >> to participate in the process and then make sure that the vehicles are, you know, ready and accessible.

thank you so much for the presentation. it was great. that was my question and my concern. thank you. >> just to be clear on that, i think it's an opportunity to advocate with the (inaudible) about what timeline is acceptable to us in san francisco. what do we want to see in terms of accessibility until there's widespread employment of this. >> i will just note that several companies came out with prototypes that are designed for the future and those are not wheelchair accessible and that's a problem. they're big on prototypes -- some of them are being built now, but now is the time and it's been -- it was really disappointing to see that the prototypes for the next generation were wheelchair accessible and we remind the companies every single time, when we see a prototype, it's

not wheel cheer accessible. that it should be. we still have a lot of work to do. >> great. thank you. >> yes, hi. thank you for your presentation. i have a quick question and a comment. does the a.d.a. apply to t.n.c.s and a.v.s? i thought it applies to taxis, i just don't understand why it seems like having these t.n.t.s and a.v.s, wheelchair accessible and disability accessible is seemingly such a fight or is a fight? that is a great question. it's a complicated answer. we do get into a little bit of the t.n.t.s and disable access

report in the resource page. it's an interest of time it making the place to go for that and also, nicole is a great resource on that history. basically there's still court cases with this consumers that have sued uber and lift over whether the a.d.a. applies and they're working through the legal system. >> i would think that -- i'm speaking as a parent of a child in a wheelchair, who lives in the city and is a big public transportation advocate and have taken my child on the bus with her wheelchair and i'm so grateful that i live in a city that the sensitive to the needs of the disability community. still, wring my hands, especially during this time of covid, where i am loathed to get on a public bus, right. and who has a child with a serious medical need where often

times, i will need to get to a hospital quickly and if my partner has our car, you know, i'm kind of left in the lurch. and that goes to a broader point, which is, i found it so telling, katie, that most of ths you showed us of the a.v.s, none of them were wheelchair accessible. the goal says at the end of the goal it says something like, service to -- provide equivalent service to people with disabilities, including people with wheelchairs. i would submit that instead of including, it should be especially people with wheelchairs. like, you know, a person in a wheelchair can't just jump into any car. a maybe would love to do them a favor, they can't just jump into that car whether it's a 10-year-old like my daughter or an adult in a wheelchair.

i feel the emphasis should be on making the t.n.c.s and a.v.s accessible, especially to people with wheelchairs. we've had this discussion a couple of times now at the council meetings and so i have seen this issue come up for the last three or four years. i'm applaud at the lack of practical progress. i just, you know, it was exactly a month ago, because we had one of our meetings, and i had to get to the e.r., my daughter's doctor called me and said you have to bring her to the e.r. we don't like her test results, my partner was not at home with the car. i tried to call an uber with their program wheelchair accessible vehicles, the wave

program, nothing and no one is available and i am galled. i feel like the net is public shaming of these t.n.c.s for not having this very modern and very prevalent service available, to frankly people who most need it. that's my two cents. thank you booth. i appreciate it and i appreciate the good work you are doing on behalf of our community. >> that's it for councilmember comments and questions. >> thank you. comments or questions from staff? >> this is nicole speaking. i'll be very quick. thank you, it's always nice to see you and hear from you and work with you. thank you, very much for everything that you are doing. i think towards the question

about the a.d.a. obligation, the simplest answer it comes down how the companies define themselves and they define themselves differently than we do under title 2 of the a.d.a. and i'm happy to talk more about that. that's the crux of the problem, as to why this isn't automatic. which it should be. the other thing i'll say is, as the mayor's office of disability has been publicly shaming the c.n.c. process, through written comments for the last two years, and so, we're making incremental progress so the victory that we had here so far, in the a.v. conversation, so far it hasn't been forced through state legislation in order to get people to listen. so, that is something to be very proud of but that means it's especially critical to have

members of the disability community engage on this from the start so in response to helen, maybe karen and helen can put together a one-page fact sheep and that people will start to think through and they have to talk about the best way to engage if they chose to engage in the group or individually. >> thank you, nicole. are the most staff coming? if not, we'll go to public comment and there are two people in the queue. >> we also have one e-mail that

we've received and it's relatively short. this is debbie kaplan. if and when there are suggestions m.t.a. pass on, include mention of the need for snow tires and even snow chains on the tires as well as having ramps that deploy in 0° weather while not a problem here, it is the case of tahoe, shasta and the lake and that is from bob. so, we will now go to the line. >> two people are in the queue. >> i will unmute them. caller, go ahead. >> caller: hi, my name is ed. it took me about half the

presentation to understand what was being talked about because of all the acronyms being used here. i want to encourage future presentations to not rely so heavily on acronyms that the public is not familiar with. we're talking about cars that do not have people driving it or may have a person overseeing it. we're talking about automatic driving vehicles. which has got to be one of the dumbest things i've ever heard of. vehicles of course can and do kill people. we have the vision zero task force trying to prevent that in the city and now of course we have people that want to increase that because covid isn't killing enough disabled people, let's do it with cars. i have one question. what are the acceptable losses? how many disabled people and seniors and non disabled people need to die before this will be abandoned as an idea for the most densely populated city in the country? elaine hertzburg from tempe,

arizona, in 2018 was killed by a self-driving car and i'm sure deaths and injuries will follow from a disabled and a senior community. so, that's just my question. how many deaths? 10, 100? how many of us die before we decide that cars should actually be driven by people? thank you for your time. >> thank you for the comment. the next caller. go ahead, caller. >> caller: hi, this is bob. i appreciate that my e-mail was read. i just want to stress again, m.t.a. and san francisco has often been in the forefront of advocacy and analysis. that's why i suggest we think about ourselves here but people in snow country that they also meet accessibility. that can be applicable to chicago, where my son lives and works or to minnesota, to boston, that, you know, if we start to -- it may help in

future development of alliances that they realize, we're looking out for them also, in case we need them to, at some point, look ut for us. about tncs. so, thank you for the mention. i will just say, i know from having talked to some people on staff at independent living centers, some of them individually personally support the idea of a.v.s because it would allow us to individually get around without needs for advanced scheduling on paratransit, without trying to call and wait for a ramp tech to see if there is one or having to wait several hours. thank you and i hope this moves ahead. >> thank you for the comment. are there any other public comments at this time? >> that was our last public comment.

>> ok. i'm going to close this item. thank you, katie, and for the presentation and for the advocacy and i'm sure we will have some new in the near future. thank you. so, the next item on the agenda is fiona hinze the new appointed member of san francisco mta board and systems change of independent living resource center in san francisco. welcome. >> thank you and council members and members of the public and

mta staff and everybody and mod staff. it's been a long meeting. and, members of the sfgovtv making this meeting happen and the interest of time, i will be very brief. i was asked to introduce myself. sort of go over my personal priorities along the mta board and then sort of talk about some things that are going to be on the m.t.a. board's sort of horizon going forward. and then, i will close briefly by telling the council how they can be engage with the board and board members. i will be extremely brief. so, for those council members

who might not know me, again, my name is fiona hinze, i'm a newly appointed mta board member. i've been on the board officially for about six weeks. in my day job i serve as the director of citizens change at independent living resource center. i oversee our policy work, klein including transit and i the coalition of agencies serving the elderly. so i do things other than transit. i've also been involved with the vision zero workgroup and i used to serve on the paratransit coordinating council. that's me in a nutshell out of the board. so, i want to point to the mta

board obviously i am on the board to help the agency promote access in the work that they do. also, to help ensure that we are transparent or public and and i'm here to engage and hear your concerns and we really want to make sure that all of the operations made here is public as they can be. from an access standpoint, people will think about access on muni but i want to make sure that our streets and shared spaces and as we think of creating uses for the public

right-of-way, i want to make sure those programs are as accessible as possible and it gets into some of the priorities that are on the mta and most of you snow and agency is for the muni service at the time so really think about when we can assuming, at some point, we can ratchet up our service and increase the number of lines and the board is going to have to think about how we, and the agency in general, has to think about how we prioritize that so

being making sure it's done equitably. a couple of factors that will go into other where we can restore lives is when the number of our vehicles capacity can be increased. number of folks on our vehicles can be increased when when there's social distances and also, whether we get additional funding. so, really, thinking about how and how they can be done equitably. another thing we were going to look at is sort of the future of our outdoor open spaces. so for example, in our next meeting coming up, we have twin

peaks as director vaughn mentioned, at the beginning of the meeting, jfk will be on the horizon too and i don't know when that will probably be more on volunteer as well as the great highway. and i would say the other big thing that will be on the horizon is really looking at sort of what i'll call the fate of some of our pandemic emergency order related programs including the future of shared spaces, which i know council had a briefing on. slow streets, which i believe the council also had a briefing on and emergency transit.

these programs right now, are only for the duration of the covid emergency. so looking at what we're going to do with the future past the emergency. those are kind of some things that are on our board's horizon. they're sort of general and over arching and not very specific as we don't know specific items that will be on our calender. we're very interested in hearing from community members.

we get e-mails and public comments all the time. i'll close by telling you that our meetings are the first and third tuesday's of each month. we meet -- in covid you can launch our meetings on sfgovtv and make a public comment and our public comment system works very similar to how it does here or we encourage the public to e-mail any comments for the board that you have. our e-mail address is mtaboardat sfmta.com. i have gill your clerk my personal contact information for

mta business. i encourage you to use the general mta board e-mail account so that all my colleagues receive your correspondence so it can fact or in all of our decisions. know that i am here for you if you want to reach out about anything and at this point, mr. chair, i'll be happy to entertain your questions. >> thank you so much. i just want to ask a question if we have emotion to extend the meeting after 4:30? do we have a motion to do that?

>> was that extend it to 4:30? until 4:30? >> yes. >> ok. just for everybody's information, the interpreters will stay until then. we've contracted with them to go until then and captioner will be available until 4:30 but then the captioning will stop. that will need to be the hard stop. >> thank you. so, do i have a motion to stay until 4:30? any opposed? ok. we will stay until 4:30. thank you, fiona, for coming today and introducing yourself and letting us know what is the

focus of the board of mta. i just have one question for you, i'm sure you will touch on this but how does disability and being in the board, what would you suggest to advocate and want to see san francisco board of mta board needs to be done when it comes to accessibility? >> well, if i'm understanding your question correctly, it's what does the board need to do for accessibility? i think -- >> i'm asking about, your specific accessibility goals.

being on the board. >> oh, ok. i think my specific -- i don't know if i have a specific goal, but my, i guess, goal is to, i think, the mta can do better in -- the mta does great work on accessibility of like their spaces and like muni but like really thinking about how every aspect of the mta can be made more accessible so like, thinking about how their communications can be more accessible. thinking about their signage and beg more accessible.

so things that the general public might not think of >> president darrell honda will be presiding officer and he is joined by eduardo santacana, an lazarus, rick swig and tina chang and also brad russy will provide the board of any needed legal advice. at the controls of the board legal clerk, alex long way and i'm julie rosenburg. we'll also be joined by representatives from the city departments that will present before the board this evening. scott sanchez and joseph, acting deputy director of the san francisco department of building inspection. the board meeting guidelines are as follows. the board requests you turn off our silence all phones so they will not disturbing the proceedings. rules of presentations are, the appellants, each