through too our community and it was such of a god-sent help for them to see the families with children coming out to get these grocery bags that we provided. of good, solid food that anybody can eat. the city needs to recognize that bayview hunters point is one of the poorest communities in the city and start putting funding into making sure people can go home and be able to cook a dinner for them and their families. the seniors coming out crying, stating they haven't had food in a week until we showed up in our vans with this food. it was just really ridiculous. san francisco is one of the richest nations and to have this problem is unfortunate and i

would urge the supervisors, all of you, to start investing in this community, who have been here for two and throw generations. it's ridiculous the way i had to go through and make sure seniors were getting food and eating. thank you for having this hearing for us. i hope the people who have spoke up against this injustice, you guys will hear them and start making efforts to fix it life-long problem. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. next caller, please, i believe this is the final caller. >> caller: thank you, supervisors, my name is (inaudible) i'm a community organizer and i really appreciate and up lift all of the supervisors for taking the space to hold this hearing t i would like to thank paula jones for her commitment to coordinating and ago agree

gating the information around food and security during covid. her work has been nothing short of extraordinary and i want to thank director simile for expanding the conversation to talk about the possibilities of advancing food for our communities. i want to quickly mention that i think the most important consideration in deciding on your funding framework for food sovereignty to come is really considering proximity that we minimize the physical cost and disproportionate time burden required for our most hung row and our most poor for meeting their essential needs. this includes expanding the scope of equity to include disability knowing that limited public transit exacerbated hunger and the inability for access to food for many in our communities. i want to thank the supervisors for their consideration and appreciate your on going efforts and supporting our most

vulnerable community members. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. we have one additional caller. >> clerk: caller, unmute it. i muted the caller. >> clerk: are there any other callers in the queue? >> there are no other callers in the queue. >> thank you to all the public commenters and to my colleagues for holding this hearing. again, i want to thank our incredible city staff across so many different departments for having worked so hard on should issue during this pandemic and we're looking forward to continuing the work through

outgoing forward and perhaps in a new deeper or more expansive ways. so with that, supervisor haney, i would be happy to make a motion to file this hearing. >> thank you. >> second. >> second by president walton. can we have a roll call vote on that. >> clerk: yes on that -- [roll call vote] you have five ayes. >> this hearing is filed, thank you for your leadership and to all of the presenters and the folks who called in for your extraordinary work and we will make this a priority during the budget process and beyond.

with that, madam clerk, are there any other items before us today? >> clerk: there are no other items. >> great. this meeting is adjourned. thank you all. >> good afternoon and welcome to the mayor's disability council. this friday may 21, 2021.

this is a virtual meeting. this meeting is broadcast to the public on sfgov tv. it is open captioned and sign language interpreted. the mayor's disability council holds nine public meetings annually and they are generally held on the third friday of every month. please call the mayor's office on disability for further information or to request accommodation at (414)554-6889.

our next regular meeting will be friday june 18, 2021 from 1:00 to 4:00. it will be broadcast on sfgov tv. we really thank you for joining us today. debbie, please read the roll call. >> clerk: good afternoon. yes, i will. i'm deborah kaplan. >> i'm helen pelzman co-chair of the mayor's disability council. i should have mentioned that, i apologize. >> clerk: thank you helen. i'm deborah kaplan. deputy director on mayor's disability council. i will read the roll call now. [roll call]

roll call is taken. >> co-chair pelzman: please read the agenda. >> clerk: after the roll call is reading an approval of the agenda. i will read the agenda now. the first item after this is an

open public comment session. general comments. next is the co-chair report after that is the discussion item, small businesses and people with disabilities, accessibility responsibilities and support for small businesses and support for small business owners with disabilities as well as opportunities for collaboration. the presenters regina dick-endrizzi, executive director of the office of small business and sharky laguana president of the small business commission. after that there will be a break and after that, a discussion item, which is the golden gate park stakeholder working group and action framework. the action framework will be the focus of this presentation as

well as information about community engagement that will take place this summer led by recreation and parks department and sfmta and that is listed on the agenda as a presentation by rachael hiatt, however, rachael hiatt was unable to attend this meeting because of the last minute conflict. david long also from c.g.a. will be here to present. the next item after that is an information item report from the mayor's disability council. after that there will be a report on correspondence. after that, another opportunity for general public comment not related to items on the agenda

following that is general councilmember comments and announcements, followed adjournment. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you, debbie. we're ready for our initial public comment period. >> clerk: i'll introduce that. at this time, members of the public may address the council on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council that are not on this meeting agenda. with respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the council will be afforded when the item is reached during the meeting. each member of the public may address the council for up to three minutes. the brown act forbids the council from taking action or

discussing any items not appearing on the posted agenda. that includes items raised during public comment. the link to join the webinar for this meeting is -- to join the zoom webinar using the telephone, you can dial into 669-900-6833. the webinar i.d. is 854 1955

0368. if you joined webinar using your computer or tablet or smartphone, you can make comments by clicking on the three horizontal dots icon and then clicking raise hand. then you will be recognized when it's your turn. you can also use the q&a feature in the zoom webinar to be recognized or to make a comment. if you wish to be recognized, type into the q&a box that you want to make a comment and hit send. you can also type your comment into the q&a botion and the clerk will read it for you. if you join by phone, dial 9 when you want to be recognized. you will be prompted when it's your turn to make comments and if i might just pause for one

second, i saw an e-mail come into my e-mail box saying the message -- there's a dial-in number. apparently on the television screen instead of the webinar address. that needs to be corrected. the information about how to get into the webinar is also in the agenda for this meeting. for those who are listening, you do have the agenda handy -- >> co-chair pelzman: i'm looking at the public comment dial-in, you want me to read it out to you? >> clerk: is it a telephone

number? >> co-chair pelzman: it's 669-900-6833. i.d., 854 1955 0368. pound, pound. >> clerk: that's to call into the webinar. does it also show the link to the? >> co-chair pelzman: yes, it has the zoom webinar. >> clerk: that information is correct. thank you for correcting it. let me ask if we have any people who want to make comments. >> currently, i do not see any members of the public with their

hands raised. we'll give them a moment and people are starting to raise their hand. i will go ahead and start allowing those people. >> caller: good afternoon. please allow me to speak to mayor's disability council. i appreciate it. i want to say that very much concerned about the m.t.a.'s inability or lack of motivation to make sure that people with disabilities and seniors are not being able to have access in taxi cabs to areas where only bicycles can go and the impact of slow streets on the ability

to access without costing a lot of money to people with disabilities. there are people who are participating in the paratransit debit card program. they pay a discounted rate through the programs administered by the broker. however, there can be a lot of cost and can make it difficult for the driver to provide the service if access is difficult for hardship due to traffic concession and/or some streets that are closed that make it difficult to either access the passenger who's requested ride or to take the passenger to his or her destination. i want to say that i'm going to

keep bringing up this topic to you. i'm hoping this council will start taking positions regarding some of these issues that come up regarding the decisions made by the sfmta. the problem is with that is that an empty ramp taxi or driver, cab driver who takes paratransit program, debit cards is that driver maybe discouraged to go from the richmond to the sunset to pick up the individual because of heavy traffic created by this. i want to warn you once hov

lanes come into effect, it can create some major problems. thank you for your time. i'm looking forward to hearing the presentation regarding j.f.k. because of the impact it have to serving seniors and disable people going to and leaving golden gate park. thank you very much. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you for your comment. are there any others? >> yes. >> caller: hello, this is bob. there's two topics. i reported the call-in number. here's the problem with that. from a land line with limited phone calls, you can't get into your call-in because the call-in

is a toll number. this is a long distance number. you're making it impossible for anybody who doesn't have long distance or toll free calling to call in by using the 669 area code. you got to change something to 85 or -- 855 or something. you were informed to give advice to the mayor. you can't do it behind the scenes. you can't do it as body out of sight. however much you folks may think alike, you're a public body, you have to take positions in public. we don't see you taking action. you're sitting there listening to stuff and asking questions but not suggesting the policy, not suggesting anything that the public can understand what you're thinking.

you want the mayor to do, say or change. that's just making it more difficult for people with disabilities to get proper response from the city and, think you're really working for us as opposed to sitting there and listening. thank you. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you, bob. >> at this time, i do not see any other people to make public comment. >> co-chair pelzman: we'll move along with the agenda. next item is co-chair report. alex madrid who our other co-chair. do you have anything to report? >> councilmember madrid: no. not at this time.

>> co-chair pelzman: neither do i. we can move right into our next discussion item. which is small businesses and people with disabilities, accessibility responsibilities, support for small businesses and support for small business owners with disabilities as well as opportunity for collaboration. today's presentation will be by regina dick-endrizzi and i apologize for mispronouncing your name. executive director office of small business. i believe that's probably for the city of san francisco. and sharky laguana, president of the small business commission here in the city. after both of your presentations, there will be questions from the councilmembers and then we will open it up to public comment.

please start regina. i don't know who's going first. we welcome you and we look forward to your presentation. >> good afternoon, co-chair alex madrid and helen pelzman, councilmembers, director nicole bohn and deputy director debbie kaplan. ly go first and talk about the office of small business. i'll be reviewing our accessibility work and how we work with small businesses and also owners -- small business owners who have a disability. then commissioner laguana is here to have a conversation with you regarding shared space program. i want to start out -- first in

2013, our office worked with then supervisor david chu to establish a landlord notification requirement. this requirement for property owners and landlords are to notify a potential leasee as to whether their business is accessible or not. they are required to make their business accessible, the entryway, the restrooms, prior to leasing or notifying the prospective tenant as to whether this space may not meet accessibility requirement. therefore, should consult with a specialist and they are require

to provide a brochure to the lessee, explaining what are accessibility requirements for small businesses, key things to look out for. our office is responsible for maintaining those brochures, making them available which they are available online and we have it translated into six additional languages in addition to english. that is the first work that our office has done to try to raise the awareness of obligations both for the property owner and for the small businesses. under title iii both have an obligation to ensure that their property and the location that the spaces the businesses are occupying is accessible.

our office maintains a list of certified specialist. we review the list of certified access specialist that provided by the state and we call newly individuals who have been certified to see whether they are individual who like to be on our list that are willing to consult one on one with small business owners. not all certified access specialist, some are government employees. some work particularly just in an architectural firm. not all certified access specialist are willing or able to do one on one consulting with a small business.

we don't provide any guarantees or recommendations, just say that these access specialist are willing to work with small businesseses one on one. that's either doing houring consulting -- hourly consulting or a report. in addition, we provide additional resources that we have. we make sure businesses are aware of their tax credits and deductions that they can take annually. in terms of our business consulting, how we work with our small businesses when they do come to our office, we definitely review the accessibility requirement.

we emphasize the message that accessibility is good for business and that this is something to really take into consideration one when they're looking for space and when they are building out their space. we remind them to assess the entryway. identify what may be some of the key barriers or if an entry way may look accessible, things to look out for. of course, restrooms for businesses require to make their restrooms accessible.

they should consult can an access specialist to get all assessment what it will take to remediate the barrier both full remediation to a readily achievable remediation. we work with businesses and inform of them of things to look out for in their leases. we remind them of the requirement that property owners are to disclose whether the place that they are leasing are possibly leasing has had remediation done. there should be a brochure that is provided to them. things that we have recently seen that are showing up in leases because of the lawsuits is that property owners are putting in their leases that

they be sued. both the business and property owner be sued. that then the businesses is liable for any of the payments that both legal fees and payments that are made to -- that are paid out to the litigant. this is something that's new that is showing up in leases. then, we also refer businesses, if they know there is a remediation, if there's a barrier and it may be a significant barrier, we often recommend having a conversation with the property owner on how best to deal with that responsibility because it is, again, both property owner's

responsibility in addition to the business. legal services for entrepreneur has the ability to help new businesses deal with that type of -- they advise, they don't do the negotiation, they advise how best to negotiate dealing with how to remediate the barrier. in 2016, working very closely with director bohn, first the former mayor's disability council director carla johnson and now with director bohn in establishing the accessible business entrance program. this program is under the department of building inspection. it is specifically -- specific responsibility is on the property owner.

that is d.b.i. their governance and oversight is on the property owner. in designing the program, it was intentional to do it in this manner. property owners have more of the financial capacity to remediate the situation. i'm not going to go into great detail. director bohn is very familiar with this program. probably and director bohn, you can chime in please. familiarize you with the program and what the requirements are. i want to -- i want to highlight

one of the key components that i think has been a benefit of this program is dealing with the entry way was -- it is costly and expensive. it was even more costly and more expensive when remediation that require some kind of construction in the entryway, that triggered the need to review those changes with historic preservation staff. that was an expensive and long process to go through. because of the accessible business entrance program, the planning department with the historic preservation has now developed very transparent guidelines that are available on the web. you're having to make

architectural changes and there are historic elements to that facade, the criteria to use so that when it goes before historic preservationing to look -- preservation to look at, it's like over the counter review with historic preservation. it's not a secret as to what those expectations are. you can address them. when you're ready to present, it's been so far a pretty easy process through h.p.c. for making those remediation. the downside that we are experiencing with the accessible business entrance program, we're having -- we still have a high number of property owners who have not submitted their checklist, which is the first step that they need to do.

i do anticipate that relatively soon we'll be reconvening the interagency working group and looking at how we can best address this. lastly, for working with small businesses that have a disability, we are able to consult with the business where they are at. one example i like to highlight is that many of you are familiar with -- [indiscernible]. when they wanted to start and open their restaurants, they approached us. we had an initial consultation with them. with an a.s.l. interpreter and

met with them for as long as they needed while we explained the licensing and permitting process. then from there, once they were ready to engage in opening their business and engaging with the department of public health and the department of building inspection, we made sure that we found some point people within those departments for our office to have one on one contact and liaison and with the business while they went through the process of opening their restaurant. again, our office is prepared to really work with the business on the type of business they are, what are their needs and how best to facilitate through the licensing and permitting process, how best to facilitate them through that process.

in addition, there are the referral and working with our technical assistance organization and that might -- if they need assistance in financing, if they are very early in their stages of considering their business, which entity might be best to work with them in terms of developing their business plan, marketing plan, things of that sort. before i turn it over to commission president sharky laguana. i do think that we have an opportunity to potentially work together. i haven't really consulted with director bohn on this. it came to me over the weekend. central tax credits and deductions, those dollar amounts hasn't changed since 2005.

while those are federal tax dollars and deductions, perhaps what we can do as a local level is jointly write a resolution to the mayor, encouraging her to work with our federal representative to work to increase those tax credits and deductions. the cost of doing any construction in 2005, that cost is very different today and this not only would it benefit small businesses, it will benefit property owners to help them deal with the cost of doing remediation. not that's so important that we need to have tax credits and deductions and dealing with remediation. it helps to expand -- it helps

to reduce the overall cost, particularly in opening a business. for those businesses that have been around far while. it will help them in terms of dealing with the cost of doing current remediation. particularly, with the accessible business program, should the property owner make it a requirement of the business to remediate the barrier. i forgot one other thing pardon me, president laguana. the state, there's the disability access fund. the state requires san francisco to collect $4 with each business registration. this will be in place for one more year. this disability access fund is to go to offset certification and recertification for city

employees for there to be certified access specialist. in addition, up until covid, we were utilizing these funds to help offset past inspections and had started a grant program to help offset costs, should a business be rared by the property owner to do the remediation for the entryway. the entity that we had contracted with to help manage this program, that contract

ended during covid. we're in the process of having to redo that contract those grant funds aren't available right now. with that, i will now turn it over to you president laguana. >> thank you, director dick-endrizzi. excellent presentation and really appreciate all the information that you provided and deeply appreciate all the work that o.s.b. does. i like to thank the council for inviting us and hosting us. it's an honor to be here before all of you. your work is very important. it's been actually important to me personally in the past, i had a really wonderful conversation with debbie when she reached out. one of the things i wanted to convey to her is at least from

my perspective, anything that the commission can do to facilitate a better relationship between small business and the disabled community is a high priority for me and something that i want to see a lot of improvement ongoing forward. frankly, some personal reasons for this, i had a tumor in 2010 that left me unable to walk for several years. i have an experience with dealing with severe disability. i suspected that's probably unique among small business commission presidents we've had in the past. it does inform lot of my perspective on how we wrestle with so many of these changes that our city encounters just in the process of being a city and

then the accelerated course of change that we seen in the wake of the pandemic. many of the different approaches to land use out of that. from my perspective, where i'm coming from is i want to be a friend to the disabled community. i want to represent and advocate for the small business community and look wherever possible to find ways to make that relationship a positive and productive one. work to help you all do your work and advocate for the changes that you need to proceed within my own community. that's primarily where i'm coming from. my presentation is a bit shorter.

i know shared spaces is the top. i want to make myself available to talk about that and anything else that councilmembers may want to bring up. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you both. i really appreciate your compassion and your level of engagement as it relates to the community of disabled residents here in san francisco as well as the opportunity that i think we have right now given the state of flux we're in as well as all the closures. i like to go back because i'm a

little unclear as to at what point does the program to assist small businesses with accessibility entrances where do you come in when a shopkeeper takes over a new lease and has to consider access to their place? as they are opening up? how does that work? i wasn't clear about that.

>> it's always a challenge. accessibility requirements have two overlays. one is sort of the building code environment but above that is the civil obligation. we tend to think of title iii just small business or business responsibility. it is also a property owner responsibility. >> co-chair pelzman: can you define title iii? >> it's the federal a.d.a. it's the place public

accommodation which identifies the industries that have the accessibility requirement because they are open to the public. it's different than a manufacturing business that doesn't have the title ii obligation unless they have a retail shop that's part of their manufacturing. it is restaurants, retail shops. it's dentist, doctors office. anyone that is open to receiving the public. for our role in terms of advising, we started out first with the landlord notification requirement. we don't see every business and consults with every business

before they open business in san francisco. >> co-chair pelzman: landlord notification, does that someone complains and the landlord is notified there's a non-compliance issue? >> the landlord notification requirement, which is known in the san francisco or the government legal speak is chapter 38. which requires a property owner or the landlord at the time when they're about to lease or lease a property is to notify the business as to whether the property meets it accessibility code standard or it may not. therefore, it may not. therefore the business needs to take responsibility and understanding what barriers may

be there. at the same time, they are to provide them with a brochure that our office has and is online that outlines the business's responsibility in their accessibility requirement. how to look at each property in terms of the key barriers that generally exist with our small business are ground floor commercial business spaces. how best they might go about remediating it. how they're going to need to remediate the barriers.

that is the landlord notification requirement. that is the city's effort in trying to get to every business. the accessible business entrance program is designed to deal with all entries whether it is vacant storefront or it's an existing store front and has been existing for a while. it requires the property owner to do a checklist. the city divided the storefront

into four categories. one that aren't accessible and the property owner says i am accessible. usually has to refer to permit. they need to have an engineer or a certified access specialist fill out these checklists. they can't do it themselves. it has to be a professional. tier 2, there's some barriers. it might need door handles or some sort of slight modification to the entryway. tier 3 is one step and other significant barriers. tier 4 is an entryway that has one or more steps. these were designed -- the program was designed to give

property owners that have greater level of barrier longer period of time to to be able to assess the barriers and remediate the barrier. that would take more time and costs. that is the accessible business entrance program. while small businesses do have a requirement here in addition, we also need to remember that property owners have a requirement too. for me, i feel very strongly that while we focus a lot on our small businesses and their obligation, we as a country, we as a city, don't really focus that much on the obligation that the property owners have and that they in between leases, haven't taken the opportunity to

remediate the barriers of their entryway which they are obligated to do as well. with the lawsuits we're seeing. the lawsuits going both to the property owner and the business. the property owner are required to -- they are held as liable as the business is and not remediating the barrier. this program is really identifying to the property owner that they too have an obligation not to be evaluating -- violating individuals with civil rights. they have a higher cause they

need to be mindful of. they own the property. they have a lot more -- they have a greater ability financially to remediate those barriers. in the meantime t small businesses are still obligated to remediate the barrier to the best of their ability and so while the accessible business entrance program is in place, we are actively as best as we can when we're in conversation, newly starting businesses with existing businesses with business organizations is

educating on this overlay of the property owner's responsibility in addition to the small businesses' responsibility and how best to navigate that both as the business itself. they should not be -- if a property owner is not being proactive and is dragging their heels on remediating the barrier, they still need to do what they can do in readily means to remeetuate -- remediate that barrier. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you for that. that was helpful for somebody who is new to this. i know other councilmembers have questions. i'm sure the public does as well. i would like to offer the following as a member of the m.d.c. i would very much encourage those of you to solicit actual disabled individuals to sit in

whatever interagency or collaborative strategies you are putting together physically around what we're going to do about shared spaces. it's a complicated issue. i appreciate other professionals within city government who represent a.d.a. compliant. i think it's critical that you have disabled citizens have a seat at the table to give you a real world experience. what it's like to try to navigate the city. have a chance for them to have their choices and their needs heard directly. not through representation. i would be happy to continue that discussion following this

meeting and look forward to an opportunity to really work robustly with you on these issues. i very much appreciate the presentation today. >> councilmember madrid: thank you both of you.

my question is, are there any pushbacks right now? how do you guys let them know that -- i want to know --

[indiscernible] >> sharky, do you me to take the first question? for our office approach, when we're informing businesses of their accessibility requirement, we are informing them and really we want to help and get businesses to understand that in

addition to building code requirements but often building code requirements don't fully cover and deal with accessibility obligations and ensure that businesses are meeting those obligations. we really want to stress the civil rights component. san francisco is very proud of its civil rights in all sortings -- sort of other ways which we champion safety. this is one i feel passionate about. this is another civil rights that we need to be championing. i want to get our businesses to champion that as well. we like to frame it from that perspective as opposed to using the lawsuits or the reason why

you need to be making your business accessible. i will say not every single business owner that we have consulted with in some of business owners have been

business for a long time. they are slow to receive this message. then, of courses, there are business owners they think, the city gave me my permit oopen and don't understand the nuances that our building codes don't assure that a business is fully accessible. we do have to also educate them on that and educate them only the ongoing obligation that a business has. that is our approach. as i said, i wish that we had the ability to really able to have a conversation with every single business before they open but we are not able to do that. there does need to be a -- through the accessible business

entrance program, this is an opportunity for us moving into our next fiscal year on how we're going to expand that information both for property owners and small businesses. for those businesses that have been in existence for a good number of years, and property owners as well are being more proactive in dealing with the remediation. also doing ongoing assessment of -- what the ongoing assessment you need to do to keep your business successful. we do find businesses especially in their restrooms and pathway to the restroom, they might open their business fully compliant -- compliant pathway, they don't educate their staff and barriers

start to go up. there's definitely room for the need for expansion of continual education. >> councilmember madrid: is there any pushback? >> there are some in the sense of well, when i open my business, the department of building inspection signed off on it. why are you making me do this now? there is some pushback from some businesses that have been open for a while. we work to say, we have tools to help you with certified access

specialist that the remediation may not be to the degree based upon their ability for it readily achievable component and how to access that. there are some businesses that do have pushback. i will say we are seeing a great amount of pushback from our property owners by they're being slow around the successful business entrance program. >> co-chair pelzman: we need start moving along. >> councilmember madrid: let me finish my question to ms. laguana. >> i know this is running long. i appreciate everybody patience. let me say, all shared spaces need to be fully accessible,

full stop, period. that's something i feel very strongly about and that's something that clearly in many aspects of the city whether it's access to side lots, there's been places and cases where we have fallen short. my understanding is the diagnosis of the problem is a good chunk of the enforcement staff repurpose to emergency operation center were furloughed during the pandemic. the other challenges is the hurried nature of the creation of the program which was in response to the pandemic. by the nature, didn't have the opportunity to fully consider

how to enforce our a.d.a. considerations and c.b.c. consideration with lack of staff to enforce it. it seems to me that, my understanding is that the current legislation that is being put forward will enable couple of different things. we know that 311 is not the greatest way to deal with

disability we don't have to complain at all. that issues are addressed beforehand. to alex's earlier point, i think we can do a better job as a city and as a community conveying to business owners what the requirements are and how to adhere to them. the overwhelming majority of them want to be in compliance and don't have it in for disabled folks or deliberately trying to make things difficult. i do think we have work cut out for us in that it's unchartered terrain with respect to activating the public space it's a little bit of the wild west. which is part of what the legislation trying to help tamp down. i think there's some education

that we need to work on. we need toe frankly work on the simplification of that education. it's hard to get their attention for a long time. i'm speaking as a business owner. it can be hard to get my attention for too long and i wander off. coming up with that streamline messaging that helps address the core issues, i think it's important getting that messaging out is important for the course. also have enforcement and meaningful consequences for not being in compliant.

>> councilmember madrid: thank you. >> co-chair pelzman: we have a number of councilmembers who would like to ask questions. orkid please go ahead. >> councilmember sassouni: i want to summarize. i noticed there's a few business areas, for example, old historical buildings that really are not able to make these improvements to be in compliance. for example, there are infrastructure in the way of entrances due to the architecture. for example, doorways are really

hard to pull and they can be damaging physically to people. oftentimes these aren't fixed. they are just left. perhaps, suggestion can be to install a door push instead of having to use your physical strength to pull the door open. i do understand that doors can be heavy and hazardous to like a fire. i believe that this is one part that's extreme it will difficult having to pull out a door to enter or or exit a building. i want to bring that up.

>> hi, regina dick-endrizzi. director bohn can speak to this as well. this is many of the remediations that we are seeing for especially for the entryway. it's the power door. is the power door solution. again, as i said, it's disappointing that we're not seeing more property owners being more proactive. when we are able to -- one of the grant remediations that we were working to provide businesses should the property owner put the compliance on them especially for tier 2 was to provide a grant towards the power door. getting a power door operator and installing a new power door. unfortunately that grant is

paused. we're looking to restart it in next fiscal year. >> co-chair pelzman: is there a follow-up? >> we have to be mindful of safety and access. sometimes people will leave the doors open in order to not have to fix them. there is always this compliance

piece that's really critical. i think we are -- many people are not aware of the cost inherent in these attempts. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you. denise? you're up. >> councilmember senhaux: thank you. i like to thank the presenters for offering the work with the council around some sort of resolution. the second thing some of the councilmembers already touched on these areas. i think one of the key things is when this is originally brought to the council is education to small businesses because you're already doing that. letting them know the benefits of tax credit of making the entranceway to small business accessible. people with disability spend money if they have it. i think it's important what you're doing is addressing not only the benefits but hearing as

you already mentioned, their concerns around costs and making their business accessible. this is why i'm not reporting xy and z. i know that you said lot of small businesses are there and they want to comply. i commend them for that. for the people that maybe need little bit more education around their key concerns to address as you mentioned. that's it. i had some other issues, i'm trying to summarize. thank you, again. >> co-chair pelzman: thanks. any response to that? now it's an opportunity for members of the public. do we have any members of the public who are interested in

making a statement or posing a question? >> while we're waiting for that, i want to say thank you to both of you for being here. good ideas were raised today. definitely follow up and continue to collaborate. these are really important and top of mind for lot of people in the community. we look forward to continuing to work together. >> co-chair pelzman: thanks. do we have any additional questions? >> yes. barry has been allowed to speak. >> caller: hi, good afternoon again. great presentation. you did not go over so much the shared spaces and the impact it has on access to disabled people. also the taxi drivers and the

ramp taxi drivers being able to drop off passengers. the m.t.a. did a great presentation how to make sure spaces is permanent. it was great but there's some issues that weren't resolved. one was some of the businesses don't leave enough sidewalk space for wheelchair users. it's something that has to be addressed. the fact that disabled person should not have to wait for employee of the restaurant to move table or chairs to pass by. there's been a number of public comment i heard m.t.a. regarding

that. regarding the issue of the shared spaces and the lack of available parking or being able to pull over. we're forced to use bike lanes. some bicyclist are understanding of the need. because there's no other place to pull over because there's no parking available. other bicyclist get violent with us over that issue. i want to give example of blocks that created problems. 1200 block of polk street has shared spaces where there's no place to really pull over and drop off safely. the 2000 and 2100 blocks of polk street are the same.

closer of valencia street makes it difficult. there's no designated spot for us to drop people off without impeding traffic or blocking bicyclist. i think this needs to be addressed further. before you make shared spaces permanent or make the m.t.a. more accountable regarding who they approve shared spaces and remember cab drivers are also small businesses. thank you. >> at this time, i do not see anyone else that want to make public comment. >> co-chair pelzman: should we wait for a second?

>> reminder to the public, if you want to make public comment and you're calling in by phone, you can dial star 9. if you're on the zoom platform, you can use the raise hand feature by clicking on the three dots. >> co-chair pelzman: thank you both very much for participating. i really look forward to our collaboration. i think there's a lot of really good work we can do together.

i see opportunities here for us to literally get in on the ground floor and do an aggressive job of educating and hopefully getting the resources it that we need to supplement and enforce if necessary. thank you and to be continued. at this point, it is time for a break. is there another message here? sorry. it's just a thank you from our councilmembers for your presentation. stay safe everybody. >> thank you. >> co-chair pelzman: take a break, we'll be back in 15 minutes.

>> co-chair pelzman: do we to change the phone number? what was the end of that discussion? >> i think we can talk about that next time. i don't think anything we can do about that for this meeting. we can correct that next time. it's matter of long distance versus not. we can fix that for next time for sure. >> we are live. >> co-chair pelzman: welcome back everybody. monthly meeting of the mayor's disability council. i'm co-chair helen pelzman i'm please to take us to -- i introduce our next presentation

which will be the golden gate park stakeholder working group and action framework. this will be the topic that we will be discussing on the focus of this presentation about how community can be engaged with efforts addressing the slow streets and closures over the course of this upcoming summer. david long, who is the transportation planner for s.f. county transportation authority. welcome david. >> hi, good afternoon councilmembers. i am going to try and share my

screen here. can you confirm? >> it's a blank screen now. okay, let me stop sharing and try it again. >> co-chair pelzman: okay, that

works. >> for the purpose of our audience, if you will be describing any visual material today, make sure describe the slides verbally. for those who may not be able to access or see the slides. thank you very much. >> i will try to keep that in mind. my name is david long, i'm a transportation planner san francisco county transportation. i really appreciate you having me here today. i will giving informational presentation about the golden gate park working group and action framework. chris kidd with sfmta is here with me today. he will conclude the presentation by talking about access improvement that have

been made. we will both be available to answer questions after the presentation. i'll talk more about the work we accomplished in the presentation. i like to take a minute now and describe what the presentation and working group did not address. the group did not make a recommendation about whether john f. kennedy drive should remain opentor closed to vehicles. the group did not recommendations -- [indiscernible]. those decisions were made in upcoming processes led by the sfmta and the recreation and park department.

i understand this group was not form to make a recommendation about whether j.f.k. drive is to remain car free. the slide shows, there were four requests of additional entrance, sandra lee fewer, to accomplish community goals. first to advance conversations and women consensus -- build consensus among shared value and needs. second improve travel to and from within golden gate park. let's start with a little background. in april 2020, response to the covid-19 pandemic, mayor breed

made j.f.k. drive car free seven days a week giving san franciscans more room to recreate. the financial report documenting working group process and action framework was presented for acceptance to the transportation authority board the last two sessions. the recreation and park department and sfmta began developing and evaluating for j.f.k. drive in addition to the efforts to improve our access which were identified through the working group process. i have a few quick slides now. this slide shows the eastern half of the park. in the center of the screen is j.f.k. drive which runs

east-west. the same stretch of road has been car free on sundays since 1967. this map shows the muni and muni bus and rail line. this map shows location of accessible parking spaces from eastern half of golden gate

park. this spaces yellow outlined are paved. few spaces have been added since the car free destination. this is a map showing locations in eastern half of golden gate park. prior to the car free designation, there's safety challenges on j.f.k. drive. now focus area.

we have major issues to discuss. i like to talk about the process. we'll dive into some of the finding and products of the working group. the working group 17 members including three representatives from the disability and senior community. they are members from the disability action as well as director nicole bohn. the group met four times individual interviews. in the second meeting, the group discussed an inventory of access for golden gate park. in response to the needs articulated by members

recreation and parks department, sfmta created an action framework. this slide shows the need described in the final report. contributed by working group members throughout the process. it was use to develop proposed priority actions framework. you can see that actions included seniors and people with disabilities. the immediate actionable parts of the working group effort are captured in the action framework. the purports of the framework was identify ongoing, upcoming and priority actions necessary to respond to the needs

identified. >> david. in addition to describing images, it's useful to read the text. >> absolutely. would you like me to return to the previous slides? >> that will be quite helpful. >> okay, great. these are the needs identified by the working group. the needs include access for teens, youth, seniors, people with disabilities, communities of color and park volunteers. need for clear wayfinding, signage for pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles. improved signage for the part

shuttle, same access from adjacent neighborhoods. access for children, improved parking management. need to enable regional tourism and decision-making process. i'll just repeat that these needs was assembled from statements by working group members. back to the action framework. i will read little bit of this as well. before we get into the specifics, i want to mention and recognize an action framework can be a wonky word. in this context, we can think of

it like a list. the action framework is essentially a to do list containing 42 actions. each action is designated either short or long-term. the actions are primarily the responsibility of the recreation and park department and the sfmta. however, the working group and framework did recognize the important role that park institutions need to play in managing travel. these 42 actions are split up in different categories. the categories are communication and timeline/process, westside operation analysis, access for people with mobility challenges, loading and circulation, wayfinding, signage, safe and

comfortable navigation, in park mobility services, street parking, parking garage, transit and regional access and finally surrounding streets. let's dive into little bit. here's an example of four actions in the category access for people with mobility challenges. focus here is on new a.d.a. parking in specific locations. pursuant to improvements to the parking garage and pavement condition. the first is install new a.d.a.

on park streets especially close to the garden and flowers. another is park for all of the tour bus parking lot on the concourse. another is pursue and a.d.a. parking solutions it in the garage. assess pavement conditions and pursue pavement improvements. these are all the responsibilities of the recreation and park department. shown here are some additional short-term actions. looking at creating passenger loading options with a concourse and evaluating effectiveness of as institutions reopen to something that's happening.

updating new signage circulation -- [indiscernible]. another short-term access plan, conservatory of flowers. also, few more long-term actions that get an idea how things are included in the action framework and then we can move on to next steps. here, we have some additional actions including prioritize and developing equitable and time

competitive non-auto transportation options for residents in southeast and chinatown. [please stand by]

>> okay. so what comes next. the transportation authority board voted to accept the final report of the working group and action frame. next, the rec and parks department will be the design project that process will build on the values and actions developed here conduct additional public outreach, improves alternative including a preferred alternative. in the sfcta will prepare by shamman walton. the recommendation brought forward by rec park and the

sfmta around jfk drive operations will be heard as the sfmta board of directors and finally, will need to be approved by the board of supervisors. this describes the process for deciding the future of jfk drive operations and directly related access improvements. the vast majority of action identified by this working group process and captured in the action framework and pursuant and independent to whatever happens at jfk. there's a circle and diagram on the screen which referenced this ongoing work. i'm now going to pass things over to my colleague at the sfmta who's spent a little time talking about near term actions that will be completed. chris. >> thank you, david. and, thank you to this council for having both of us today.

my name is christopher kid, i am a planner with the complete street section of the sfmta. and, in addition to working with the working group that the sfcta led, i'm also running the coordinating position between all rec and park staff that are pursuing long term solutions in golden gate park that does include a public outreach process as david had shown in the previous slide. what i wanted to talk about as well is the ongoing work that we are engaged in right now that doesn't require us to take a public outreach process. there are things that we know need doing and so we don't want to delay them. the first of which is a few things that have already taken place. we have added five new ada spaces on mlk drive adjacent to

the music concourse and nancy pelosi drive. we have converted four ada spaces that were in the ban shell lot, but only available on saturdays. in march, we re-opened nancy pelosi drive and created three new additional parking spaces we are working with our rec and park colleagues from arguello over to the pathway adjacent to the conservatory of flowers which can provide direct access and loading access for the conservatory of flowers. we are also working towards a

full repaving and regrading of the banshell parking lot and construction of accessible path of travel in that parking lot. the reason why we aren't able to provide ada spaces in that parking lot currently is because the slope of the parking lot is a little bit problematic and there is no current accessible path of travel to the adjacent sidewalks. so we're working with rec and park to repave that lot and to convert it to add between 8 to 14 new a.d.a. spaces that is mainly going to be determined by the design process and what we're able to provide kind of safely and effectively within that space and that would be in addition to the four spaces that are there currently. the current plans are to have that completed by october of this year.

and, we are also making some various small improvements throughout the park mostly related to bicycle access that some of those would also benefit a.d.a. access especially where we are going to be providing additional programs and removing curb barriers for pass of travel. and, lastly, we kind of have an ongoing task. we and rec and parks department in collaboration are always looking for additional onstreet ada parking opportunities especially ones that can provide closer access to some of the key park institutions. >> thank you, chris. happy to take questions from council members now.

>> i apologize. i was muted. i have two questions. what is the plan to continue your working group participation including representatives of the facility community in san francisco? are they going to continue to participate in this implementation process or what are the next steps for their engagement? >> thank you for the question. the working group process itself at this point has concluded. we've had meetings and [inaudible] and the action framework but two new public outreach processes are kicking off. one will be related to the

equity study which my agency is running and the other will be a [inaudible] city based outreach and sfmta are currently scoping. chris, do you have any details about how facilities specifically will be incorporated in that outreach process? >> yeah. thank you, david. so the public outreach plan is currently in development between largely myself and some of my recreation and parks colleagues. i think we recognize the integral nature of contributions from the disability community and, you know, one of the primary goals of this outreach process is to ensure that we are improving access to the park above and beyond the conditions that existed prior to covid-19. and, as part of that public outreach process, we are going

to have special emphasis on working with and reaching out to members of the disability community and, as we continue to develop the public outreach plan, you know, we would be more than happy to continue to coordinate with m.o.d. on how we can most effectively reach with and collaborate during these citywide public outreach process. >> thank you for that. that's great. as i stated earlier in the earlier presentation, while i think it's important that we have representatives within city government represent our community, i would like to elicit a commitment from you all that you have individual to a residence or an advocate representing different advocacy groups for the disabled

community to continue to have a seat at the table meaning aside from government officials. can we agree that that will be something you have in your planning process. can you commit to that? >> well, at this time, you know, i don't have enough definition on what our public outreach process looks like itself whether that will involve some sort of steering committee or advisory body to that outreach process, that has yet to be determined. if that is the case, i think we absolutely want to ensure there's representative from the disability community and shape that process. >> will you report back to us once you've concluded what your outreach program is going to look like? >> absolutely. >> great. thank you for that.

how many a.d.a. spaces were lost? >> i would have to go back to the exact numbers, i believe it was 26, but, of course, if you count i think when you're looking at the saturday partial closure, there was a lesser amount that was lost. i think our goal as an agency and rec park as well is we want to ensure we have a full replacement of spaces so that's something that we want to make sure that we're working towards and, in addition to that, we want to sort of take a very

clear comprehensive look at not just the number of spaces, but the utility of those spaces in regards to their location distance from the key park destinations like the museums. >> okay. that would be great. again, the timeline is critical. no more people are going to want to be accessing golden gate park and it looks like right now, you won't have on your presentation, you'll have a total of 26 by october if the area that you described will be graded correctly. i don't know your technical turns and i imagine we're going to have a lot of people today. so i just want to raise the issue and now i would be happy

to turn over questions to my cochair alex and to our council members and then we will be following up with opportunities for the public. thank you both very much for your presentation. that was -- and i appreciate the fact that you didn't emphasize process as much as we have seen in other presentations. so thank you for that. >> chairman: thank you, co-chair pelzman. my question is i know the enterprise has some issue on how we suggested -- if that's

resolved issue. that's one. and the second thing is that um, accessibility not only the parking and staff. there's one component of accessibility. when it comes to accessibility and what's on that? >> thank you for your question. so, first of all, with

paratransit service, i am having some discussions right now with some paratransit staff as well as rec park staff about the potential to access portions of jfk has needed. right now, there is an agreement with the delivery vehicles to be able to access portions of jfk and of course the 44 o'seanasea bus so we are having internal discussions about how would it allow paratransit vehicles to have some amount of limited access to reach key destinations. i think the other piece for paratransit especially as well as greater accessibility that's not related to parking within the park one of the more long-term actions that we're working on directly right now

is the potential to bring a taxi stand into the park which would require changing the park code to allow that which is why it takes a little bit longer to get that done, but there is a really high level of interest both at sfmta and rec park to bring a taxi stand potentially to the music concourse allowing that kind of direct transportation access for both paratransit and for, you know, disability accessible taxi vehicles to those institutions. >> chairman: what do you mean by limited access when it comes to paratransit? as you know people visit paratransit a lot of issues on

this. i don't think if i -- i'm trying to put it in another way, but it sounds like it hasn't been [inaudible] and i want to ask if the walking group and what you guys to sfmta regarding this issue. i'm a little bit confused on when you talk about limited access when it comes to

paratransit. >> yeah. and, david, you can step in and i'll follow up. >> sure. i think chris probably had more insight to this than i do but because [inaudible] there is an action in the action framework which says we need to enhance paratransit service or visitors with disabilities, that's detailed as the action framework gets at this point. so i think we're still really in the process of figuring out what it means by paratransit access to that section of the park and, he's more involved. it does appear in the action. >> yes.

and paratransit access to the closed portions of jfk has been kind of an evolving picture. for instance, there was a period when we actually provided paratransit service as a supplement to the in-park shuttle to be able to provide direct access to people up and down the sections of jfk that were closed to traffic due to some very low utilizization of that period. as demand increases within the park and as we have institutions open up, we understand that there's going to be an increase demand for

and if there are solutions that can be for all users, we want to make sure we can implement that and provide guidance to the paratransit operators in a way where they feel confident in the actions that they take and make sure that everybody is being safe. and so that's really kind of what i had meant when i said "limited access" because for the time being as jfk remains closed to vehicle traffic, we want to ensure that it remains a safe and inviting place for people that are using it to walk and bike upon and when we do introduce paratransit vehicles as necessary that it's done so in a way that's safe and not disruptive to the people using the street, but that it's also effective for the paratransit users themselves. >> i might supplement here

because i was in the working group, this is nicole speaking. one of the things that senior disability and rich rockman was part of the working group as well representing older adults and seniors, we talked about paratransit specifically also in the context of with these changes we were hearing and learning that paratransit operators both those two use the larger vehicles and may use taxis as their main source were unclear about how to access the park and folks were getting lost and turning around and getting confused. so that's partly the reason for the recommendation that's only improved routing and loading zone options and pick up and drop off, but also improved

signage was a recommendation from the advocate group. it was the stakeholder working group. just to supplement that a little bit. >> thank you, nicole. >> chairman: thank you for that clarification. thank you. >> thank you, alex. thank you, nicole. i do not see any council members with raised hands. i'm sorry. [inaudible] okay. yes, orkid, please go ahead. >> yes. i have something that i'd like to say. i have been a deaf woman who works for specific deaf organizations that [inaudible] clients and multiple disabilities that happen to use paratransit specifically to go

to golden gate park, to go to different activities there and up until it happens the people get dropped off pretty far away from the location and they have no idea where to drop off individuals. so that happens in the moment and so when they get dropped off, they have to walk quite a long length away to their location. often times it gets canceled when they go to get picked up by paratransit. so it's important to teach and inform the operators about the situation because it happens quite often and so it's in coordination with the paratransit wells, you know, wanting to have physical support for the riders they're sometimes -- we don't want to force them to walk when they're getting dropped off. so i'm specifically wondering about the history in the past of, you know, the work and the

effort that was made there in order to, you know, set up access. right. so that's the situation for me has been very shocking. there are few people that also um, specifically with the young museum, there's all the people that volunteer there and they depend on free parking and, you know, often times they have to get there very early like 9:00 in the morning. when they go to show up to the human at 9:00 in the morning, they don't have access because now it's opening at 8:00 in the morning. golden gate park, when they want to go to golden gate park, they end up having to drive there and, you know, with an older group like that, we need to ensure that parking is close

and not expensive, that it's financially accessible because a lot of people are on limited income, they're retired and they often don't have that expense in mind when they're planning to go to museums or going on tours, so many things happen around it's not just one unique situation, it's very common. so i'm concerned of the types of changes that are affecting the public and the smaller group of people that are kind of left to their own devices and, you know, maybe that might weigh on their motivation and i'm thinking of entertainment and accessing that and how this frame work is also impacting parking spaces and availability. >> and, also the ferris wheel thing that's there in the park, that's -- we have a park with

millions of visitors per year and that's a huge challenge. it is not a good idea to close this driveway in our park. i understand we want to be green, i certainly understand that, but how are you going to address the needs of so many people who are already having trouble getting there especially people from the east bay? we cannot overlook the importance of this. >> yeah. no. >> you know, that's a big concern. it's a really big concern of mine. >> i appreciate both of your comments. regarding the paratransit work, we are working directly with our accessibility services team. i believe maddie rifalo is on the call today although she works in accessibling and

having better communication with our paratransit operators is very critical and we are very committed to updating not just the signage out in the world in the park, but in our communications with the operators and also in updating driving guidance when it comes to the sfmta website, recreation and parks website and attempting to work with mapping companies such as google to modify their own corrections and guidance, because we absolutely want to ensure that folks are getting door-to-door service. >> there's so many people that that are used to getting the same type of information and you see it on the news, there's always these changes and they're accustomed to those types of changes.

i know that the goal is to be green, to have families enjoy themselves, but i'm wondering why are we using -- why aren't we using the sidewalk? is there a specific reason for not using the sidewalk? you know, i'll go ahead and, you know, stop talking, but i'll go ahead and pass it over to someone else. thank you for allowing me to comment. >> yeah. i'm not sure what the comment was in reference to using the sidewalk. i think that the desire to utilize jfk as an open space for walking and biking has been a topic for many years and as we've seen with the closure on sunday and partially on saturday as introduced. i think as discussed in the working group pay report as well as some of the forthcoming

documentation that we're developing, you know, park roadways should be utilized for the benefit of park users and the park experience and what we found on jfk drive is 75% of vehicle trips that use jfk precovid were using it for cut through traffic with no park purpose whatsoever and so when we look at that in the context of the history of collisions on that street and injuries that have been sustained as well as the overall functioning of the park for park services, i think there's a really compelling argument to be made and a robust discussion to have about how we best use jfk drive to support park purposes and park visits by all members of the community and that's absolutely something we want to engage in through the public outreach process that we plan to have

from june through october. in regards to park volunteers and their need to access parking, for the park volunteers, that is absolutely critical and important. we want to make sure we're good partners with the museums. we also want to ensure that the museums are being good partners with us for achieving the goals that we have as a city and the goals that we have for golden gate park. you know, i would say that we have a very large underground parking garage that especially for early morning trees is vastly underutilized. you know, and this is just an off the cuff thought from myself, not necessarily a city point of view, but i think, you know, the museums bear some responsibility for helping to ensure that their volunteers can come and volunteer, you

know in a way that is sustainable and works for them. and so that means providing parking vouchers for them to be able to park in the garage for free. i think that's a very good future step that could be taken. and, then just regarding the parking availability within the park at large and the removal of parking spaces on jfk drive. you know, i would mention that golden gate park has 4,700 parking spaces in it that are still available even after the establishment of the golden gate park's flow streets alignment and there's an additional 1,600 parking spaces on the streets that surround golden gate park as well as at the ocean beach parking lot out at the west end of the park. and so, from our point of view, it's not really a question of

whether there's enough parking or not. it's really a question of how are we managing that parking appropriately so we can make sure that the people who need it the most have access to it, especially the members of the disability community whom we really want to ensure, you know, have preorganization in their access and that they have close access to their destinations. but, we also want to ensure they have ample opportunities to reach the park in ways that don't require driving for those who need it or aren't able to arrange alternative transportation methods such as paratransit. >> orkid, are you finished? >> yes. thank you. thank you very much for your

answers. and, i understand the idea is to convert parking but it just seems like there's so many changes going on in the park that it seems so difficult to nail things down. you know, the parking garage is a situation and the park in a disabled parking spot, you can park for an entire day, you know, without, there's no limit. so it's a challenge to manage all of that. >> it absolutely is. i agree. >> yeah. thanks. for reasons i can't explain, i'm not seeing raised hands, so i want to check in with the other council members to see if they have questions. >> this is i man, i just want to note that maddie from sfmta is represented by one of the speakers and she has her hand

raised and so i'm going to allow her to speak. >> chairman: thank you iman. please go ahead maddie. >> hi. this is maddie. i just wanted to thank everybody for their comments and, orkid, i really appreciate hearing from you and as chris mentioned, i'm working with the team specifically on accessible parking in golden gate park and so i just want to again, reiterate that we are looking wholistically at the parking situation. and i guess i also just wanted to say that i know sometimes when the city goes through big changes, people with disabilities are often left behind or not considered and i understand that sometimes hearing that things are changing can be really concerning for that reason

because so often we hear, you know, access is going to be feign, we're looking at access and then ultimately accessibility is not considered or centered in the way that we know that it needs to be. so i just wanted to acknowledge that. i know that that is a really real concern and certainly if somebody with disabilities myself i have experienced. so i just want to say i'm looking forward to working with everybody on this and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. i can put my e-mail address in the chat. >> chairman: that would be great. thank you so much. excuse me. are there any other questions? pardon me -- from the council? >> while we're waiting for that, helen, if i may comment i might just say publicly, thank you, of course, but also -- are

you okay? >> chairman: yeah. i'm fine. >> that's the most important thing. >> chairman: thank you. >> so i just want to say very publicly, the public engagement process in this next phase hasn't started formally yet. we really have an opportunity right now to do this part right, engage people from the beginning of this process and really think about it right now and really get that plan together because so often as we all know i'm preaching to the choir in this room definitely, but especially during the pandemic which we know that people with disabilities have been consulted and i just

really want to push for that and whatever we can do and whatever the mtc can do to help advise around that, please let us do that so we can bring people together in a way that is productive and collaborative because there's a lot of interest, but also concern about this issue. so it's just my commercial. thanks, so much. >> chairman: that commercial is endorsed by the co-chair. i can't speak for everybody else. thank you for that, nicole. a very important point. do we have any other council members who would like to ask a question or make a comment? i will just make a comment to end this which is i don't know how it works, but i hope part

of this discussion is how expensive it is to park at the human. it's -- i don't need to explain it. so whomever we need to speak to, they may have heard from a lot of people, but i'm sure they would have many more who would add to that. i don't know if there's a negotiation opportunity there. now it's an opportunity for m.o.d. staff to ask a question or make a comment. nicole, either. >> i can just make a quick comment around the garage so the garage is very difficult. i'm sure some folks know about some of the issues around it. it is managed by the parking authority when it was created around the bonds to build the garage. so they have a certain responsibility to the bond repayment and it's extremely

complicated. but there is a lot of interest from rec and park and others about reform to the parking authority and potentially even dissolving them, potentially moving management either directly into rec park, moving it to mta, moving it somewhere else which would allow for a greater level of flexibility into how the garage is managed and how the rates are set. there is to some extent, there is some flexibility in that today, but not to the level that would be desired to like do effective management of that facility and then just beyond that, there is the larger looming question of the bond repayments themselves and, you know, i think that if there were an alternative fund source to be able to pay them off, that would resolve a lot of the

questions. but, of course, that is not something that is on the horizon at this point. >> but that raises an interesting point and possibly an opportunity. so i didn't realize the connection to the bond repayment, but thank you for that insight and it sounds like something that would be worthwhile for the council to investigate further. anybody from the m.o.d. team who would like to make a comment. >> i think we can move on to public comment at this time. >> chairman: okay. thank you, nicole. iman, do we have anybody from the public waiting to make a comment. >> we do. >> chairman: thank you. >> caller ended in 2263, you've

been permitted to speak. >> hi, this is bob. i wanted to point out with all the talk about number officer parking spaces being added, it's not static. so adding parking places doesn't automatically mean that one can easily get to the [inaudible] , can get to the model yacht base, that can get to any number of places in the western part of the jfk drive area. but it's also the fact that you're going to have to find a way to make some of the self-proclaimed or volunteer guardians of access allowing more than just paratransit vehicle. if i'm a passenger in a private vehicle and somebody's taken me somewhere, let's say to skull lake boat house or to any

number of other places, i'm not in a paratransit vehicle, but people are going to be guarding this you're going to have to let me in the vehicle i'm in without having to go through some interrogation. if i display a blue plaquered that should be sufficient. i also want to go back and say, you know, this process really didn't get itself made public despite involvement of some people mentioned here. we never heard major mention of the disability council meeting. the stakeholder working group meeting is coming up. ment pay attention. the point is people with disabilities didn't have a chance to monitor, to ask questions during this. there was also no release publicly of the draft and drafts are by ordinance public

information. including the public was not part of the easy function of this process. i'm going to go back. access needs to be unfettered, unrestricted without any interrogation, without anybody butting in as a self-appointed marshal of what is or not allowed to be traveled upon jfk drive. that's different from you and whatever private vehicle can go there. i'm not saying that. somebody with a disability isn't always in paratransit or still doesn't qualify and still able to go anywhere along jfk drive. even to stop and picnic with their family members, neighbors, colleagues, classmates. that's what's being neglected. when you hear numbers of parking spaces being added. that's not good enough. you're going to have to press m.t.a. and rec and park for

much more than what has been publicly stated about their options. thank you. bye bye. >> thank you. iman, is there another caller. >> yes, we have five more people wanting to make public comment at this time. so the next caller ending in 1580, you've been allowed to speak. >> hi, my name is jody. alongside nicole bond and also representative senior disability action. as an organization, senior and disability working group of the vision zero coalition and we are deeply committed to continue to uphold the needs of

the disability -- >> i'm sorry. could you speak more slowly for access, thank you. >> sure. sorry about that. again, we facilitate the senior and disability working group of the vision zero coalition. and, we are deeply committed to continuing to uphold the needs of older adults in the disability community and i think that with the public outreach that's going to begin that this group is going to be integral to the city agency's outreach and engagement process and i hope that you'll invite us to come and present on the engagement with the mayor's disability council. i do want to thank david and chris for sharing the stakeholder report and also outlining the mitigation that you've been working on while the jfk has been closed to scars and open to people walking, biking, children,

learning how to ride a bike, scooters, people in wheelchairs and everybody enjoying and breathing free in golden gate park. i did want to say what we told to the commissioners is what i also share with you is that the report acknowledges the requests made were not new requests. our city agencies know that jfk and all the streets surrounding the park are on our high injury network. and, to us, there's no excuse why a street in a park should be a dangerous street and if we plan on achieving this, we need to create safe access to recreational space and the

institutions in the park we know the disability community has been asking for changes including a.d.a. additional parking including lower park and improvements to the shuttle and this is not new, but at least now it's written in this report and we feel like this is a step in the right direction and how we can make jfk safe, accessible and equitable space and that we can goat with the help of a transparent and robust outreach a commitment from city leaders and agencies to implement these changes so that all of us can enjoy golden gate park for people of all ages and all abilities. thank you. >> thank you for that comment. and, please, make sure that you

share your contact information with our staff. we would very much welcome you to a council. >> thank you, absolutely. >> chairman: thank you. iman, are we ready for our next caller. >> okay. sonya, you've been permitted to speak. >> thank you. hi everyone. my name is sonya ochoa galant. my job is to help and be as accessible as possible for every person who would like to come to the museum. i invite visitors when they call and want to know how they will access.

the red closure has eliminated the closest ada parking spaces. i'm asked if i can raise parking garage fees which are quite high and i have to explain to the parking garage, we don't have the ability to make parking more affordable. i do happen to know they're able to pull up along the front of the museum on garden drive to drop visitors, to be dropped off while a driver must go hunt for a parking space in the neighborhood outside the park. this is incredibly discouraging to people who tell me it is impractical and it's a daunting task when they depend on the person who comes with them and cannot be separated for an indefinite amount of time. several spots within the a.d.a. museum and they have all been eliminated by this road

closure. there are a smattering of spaces within a quarter mile of the entrance, but most are farther away. for visitors using a wheelchair or walker, that distance can be prohibitive. identify been told that the eliminated spots will be eliminated by other areas in the park i'm not clear where they all are, but they're not nearly as close to the museum entrance as the eliminated spaces were. so free public parking and a.d.a. parking and close proximity is critical for access and not everyone who needs that close parking as a plaquered. so we've got seniors that have family and children who do not have that plaquered, but depend on that close proximity which cannot be replaced no matter

how many ada spots are placed on nancy pelosi drive or m.l.k. drive. thank you. >> thank you very much for that. and, please leave your contact information with our team. i'm sure we would like to follow up. i just want to comment that we were coming up on, we have 9 minutes left so i don't know. i'm going to defer to debbie on this. do we need to extend an invitation to our asl translators? i just want to get ahead of this before we hit 4:00. >> the interpreters are here until 4:45 and the captioner is also here longer. >> okay. great. iman, can we have our next caller, please. >> caller ending in 1404,

you've been allowed to speak. >> hello. hi, my name is paria. i work with our access advisors. they're an all volunteer group with disabilities and they've done so for over 30 years. i appreciate the time you've taken on the matter and i've been at every meeting of this council since. i've heard sfmta and rec and park but have honestly seen very little action. when the road was closed in april of 2020, no consideration was made for the impact. after being pressed on this in the october 2020 meeting of this counsel, rec and parks representative lucas tobin

would be replaced the next thirty days only five spaces have been replaced. there's also lots of clarity on where those spots are. due to the closure. i think, chair pelzman, you were the one who asked about it directly on this. exploring many other different ideas for accessibility, but this has truly been the reality of what's taken place. in the action framework, the access has 18% of total parking east of transverse drive and 20% of accessible parking. but all parking is not acceptable to all parts of the park. this park is over a thousand acres. we need to look directly at the impact of the parks institutions. here's the data when you look

at it more specifically. but then one quarter mile. is reduced by 1%. the 1788 parking spaces lost on jfk drive were 1/10 of a mile within the entrance. free parking has been reduced by 75%. free parking and a.d.a. parking is critical in ensuring access to the museum. persons with disabilities don't just rely. this is a real direct and impact and cannot be generalized. thank you.

>> chairman: i'm sorry. i was muted. thank you for your comment. would it be possible for you to share that data with the m.o.d. team that you just presented on those statistics. >> absolutely. and i'm happy to send those over. >> chairman: okay. and also the references from where that data came from. yes. that would be terrific. thank you, again. that was incredibly informative. iman, we have another caller. do we? >> yes. we do. one moment. caller ending in 7312, you've been permitted to speak.

>> hello, this is kathryn jero and i want to say i agree wholeheartedly with the previous callers and i'd like to appeal to you to please undo this lack of access i don't understand why this needs to be considered. i find it very interesting we're having people drive too

fast on the outer lines of the park. closing down the access to the park to those of us who are of all ages and certainly those who are disabled certainly right now and having access to outdoor spaces is so important and closing them down just to benefit individuals. my brothers and sisters learn to ride our bikes so there's plenty of places for people to walk, to jog, to learn how to ride a bike and there are certain of us i mean, it was intended, its purpose was intended to allow for those that were being isolated and

told to shelter in place. so i thank you so much and i sure hope that you will just re-open it and perhaps address maybe putting in more stop signs or something about slowing people driving so fast throughout the city as opposed to closing down access to those who really need it and deserve it and it just doesn't seem fair when there's other options for those that you're saying are enjoying being able to ride their bikes and walk without being harmed. okay. thank you so much and really appreciate it and i hope that helps. i've seen people by accident turn on to the slow street or jam on their brakes.

it's time, please re-open our city and when you start closing down streets give people of all capabilities because this doesn't seem fair. we need to all be open. thank you so much. >> thank you. we appreciate that comment. iman, do we have another caller? >> yes. we do. barry, you've been permitted to speak. >> yes. thank you very much. i'm going to be late to work because i have to go drive and pick up my taxicab, but i am very much in agreement with a lot of the other speakers before me about the issues that they presented. the affordability of the garage

is one of the issues that came up with shamman walton which was a problem there. i want to thank christopher to consider putting a taxicab at the museum so that we can stage there during the day for people visiting the museums or be available for people who are coming out so we have a place to stop. i also -- it'd be great if we had the same access as the 44. if we can run the same route as the 44 bus through the park. i don't know if there's been incidents regarding taxicabs, bicycles, and pedestrians, but we are supposed to be more cautious, it's our jobs and our livelihoods to be cautious, to not have confrontations with other users of the park and

it'd be great if you can definitely push through this to get in. if you need any help, sfmta and cta with getting this push through, it'd be great. i'm glad to hear that the taxi access ability staff of the mta has also been pushing for this. so regarding the access for the seniors and disabled, i think it's important they are as close as possible to these venues. there are probably going to be some events at night at the academy of sciences, so the question is whether we'd be able to queue up there when these events end or whether you're going to continue to allow a lot of t.n.c. drivers to get lost. the last point, i think one of the council members pointed out about having better signage so we don't get lost.

i think putting way finding signs to deal with the fact that more streets are going to be closed than open that it would be great if you actually improve the signage for getting to the amenities in the park. thank you for your time. now i've got to get ready for work. >> thank you, barry. anybody else, iman? >> right now, it does not appear that there's anyone else indicating that they'd want to make public comment. as a reminder to the public if you want to make public comment and you're on the phone you and dial star 9. if you're on the zoom app, you can click on the three horizontal dots and you have the option to raise your hand on the desk top, you will see a raised hand button. >> thank you for that. and there's going to be another opportunity for public comment

after the presentation from the mayor's office on disability. nicole, are you ready for the director's report? >> yes. i can proceed with that. if we're finished, we can thank our previous guests for attending. >> okay. thank you both for -- it was clearly a very interesting and dynamic presentation and, again, i appreciate the process. very much so. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. i think we're ready. >> okay. so i'm up next. >> yep. >> great. okay. so this portion of the agenda is the director's report to the

mdc. you'll have a full report that's published to our website and it will go out to distribution and will also be provided to the council. in the interest of time, i'm going to highlight some of the most pressing matters i am very pleased to once you all know that m.o.d. has a new staff member. we are very pleased to welcome [inaudible] john cost to our team as our office and communications coordinator. he's waving right now. for those of wow remember nathan webb in this position. john is assuming some of those responsibilities and so we're very pleased to have you, john. welcome. thanks for joining the meeting

today if you get a sense of what the m.d.c. is all about. so thank you if for being here. >> thank you for having me join the team. >> great to have you. so now what i'd like to do is let the council and public know about some other things that we've been working on since the last meeting. so it's been a very busy month as you might imagine. the most eminent thing that is on top of mind for most folks as of today is the shared spaces the community engagements that we've had from the temporary program. i'm not going to get into the

details of that in this report, but just some of the things we've done in the past month and reached out. so first of all, the language in and of itself emphasizing language as part of the revised legislation which is legislative version three. so if you're interested, can you find it there. i do believe legislation was sent to the council before this meeting. we have also been able to do some outreach to talk about accessibility with sfmta board member. we've talked to the north beach business association. the paratransit coordinated council. last friday at this time, we talked with the age and disability friendly work group.

we did the work group these part of the age and disability task force which you may remember is working on the goals and task force of eight different domains. i would encourage you to invite age and disability group back for a presentation at some point in the future. yesterday, also, we talked to the transit justice coalition of senior disability action. so we've had a lot of engagement. there are still a lot of questions that i know that the public has and we're committed to bringing all of the accessibility information together in a way that is easy to understand and where it can be accessed in one place. so we're working on that as a very important action item for us. the item of shared spaces if you're interested in tracking

it is scheduled to be heard as item number three on land use and transportation committee meetings tomorrow. if you would like to give public comment or would like to follow the legislation, that is the next time it will be heard. so this coming monday in the afternoon. the meetings generally start at 1:30 and the item is number 3. so i wanted to just highlight that. >> nicole, could you please repeat the committee that is will be heard in. >> land use and transportation. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. next, i wanted to emphasize new topic. we also had a good meeting as part of the senior and disability coalition of the business zero working group. i think i'm getting that acronym confused, but it is a group of folks who work

specifically on vision zero related efforts and we heard some preliminary information about peoples' reactions to slow streets and i really want to encourage the council to consider slow streets as an agenda item for if not the next meeting, a meeting very soon because decisions are being made on slow streets right now. i would also like to emphasize that we are in conversation with our colleagues both with the school district and also with the department of children, youth, and families on how to better improve the accessibility of the summer together programs. i'm encouraged with the conversations that we're having, that is another topic that the council may want to learn more about. this is the first program of its kind, the city, the program

received $24 million grant to provide summer camps to kids and it's a great program, but we're working on the accessibility elements towards that. you'd be interested in hearing more about that i think. i'm also pleased to say, new topic that the city looking at our accessibility guidelines for policy that includes website accessibility and, finally, i wanted to emphasize a few things that are happening right now we are still in a pandemic unfortunately. we've made some great strides. i just wanted to emphasize a couple things. first, during this meeting, we have completed a video entirely

in asl about vaccine access and home bound access. and i'm very excited to share that video, so we'll be doing that as part of this meeting and then i also want to emphasize that our efforts now have shifted in terms of disability access to really helping the home bound program understand who may still be at home and needing access to a vaccine. if you or someone you know is in that situation to make sure that we know that you or someone who is home bound and still needs a vaccine or knows someone who is. so please do take advantage of that because people will come to you. so far specific to individual

business, we've had 133 scheduled. and that concludes my report for today. >> chairman: you have been very busy. >> it has been a busy month, yes. >> and, i just want to congratulate and acknowledge your leadership in our vaccine and covid efforts in the city. i know what an integral role you've played and it must be nice to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. >> it is. thank you very much for saying that. thank you very much. >> and we appreciate you. moving along. does anybody from the council have any comments or questions for nicole? seeing none. i'm going to move into general public comment. iman, do we have any outstanding calls or comments? >> at this time, i do not see anybody indicating they want to make public comment.

as a reminder, you can press star 9 to indicate you'd like to make a comment or use the raised hand feature in zoom. >> i'm just going to give a pause and see if we get any kind of response. >> this is for items that are not on today's agenda. so if it there's something that the public would like to bring up that we haven't addressed today, now is the time to do that. >> thanks for that. while we're waiting, can we go to correspondence received by m.o.d. in this past month or all correspondence? >> this is deborah kaplan and there is no correspondence this past month directed

specifically to the counsel. and we don't have any people calling in so i would like to move to adjourn. would somebody like to second? >> i need somebody to second adjournment? >> i second. >> thank you alex. any opposed? hearing none. >> i would like to say thank you to all of our participants. i think this was a really productive meeting and i wish you all a very nice weekend. healthy weekend and we will look forward to seeing you in june. good-bye everyone. -

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>> this is the tida meeting. due to the health emergency board members are participating remotely. public comment is available for each item. members of the public who wish to comment the phone number is 415-655-0001. access code (187)023-3522.