>> i may being a motion not to disclose anything we talked about in closed session and the port commission approved the settlement agreement on the terms described on the agenda. i move to disclose nothing else discussed in closed session. >> second. >> roll call. >> president brandon. >> yes. >> price president adams. >> yes. >> commissioner burton. >> aye. >> commissioner gilman. >> aye. >> commissioner woo ho. we lost commissioner wooho. >> the item passed. we are now in open session.

>> item 6 is the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. . 7 announcements. please be advised a member of the public has up to three minutes to make pertinent public comments. we will instruct you to use a touch tone phone. audio prompt will signal when the comment is ready. dial in when your item is announced. if you are streaming live on sfgovtv there is a broadcasting delay. when the item is announced, dial 415-655-0001. enter access code

(187)918-0726-pound. then mute volume on the computer and listen only through the telephone. when public comment is announced dial star 3 to indicate you would like to comment. for presenters please remember to mute microphones and turnoff cameras when not presenting. item 8. public comment be on items not listed on the agenda. >> we will open the phone lines to take public comment on items not listed on the agenda. anyone on the line who would like to provide public comment. >> thank you, president brandon. we will open the queue for anyone on the phone to make public comment on items not listed on the agenda.

please dial star 3 if you wish to comment. the system will let you know when your line is open. others will wait on mute until their line is open. comments are limited to three minutes per person. the queue is now open. dial star 3 to make public comment. >> thank you. do we have anyone on the phone? >> yes, president brandon. we have three callers on the line at the moment. >> first caller, please. >> hello i am keith matthews commenting on an item not on the agenda today. last week the port of san francisco as commissioners know and the entire bay community

lost an incredible man the executive with the port of san francisco. for those who worked with him you will recognize the dedicated champion ken was. ken spearheaded numerous projects of long lasting benefits for the port region and the sport of san francisco including managing state and federal grants that impacted all things security-related at the port. i had to intense pleasure to know him as my role as sergeant with the police department marine unit. i did not complete any more prepared comments here. this is a greatly personal loss for me as well as professional.

i was a direct recipient of the great work including the nearly complete san francisco police department marine unit dock system in process for many years. it will come to final fruition here hopefully near the end of this month. mr. tashian found the funds for that and through his tenacity made this happen so my unit and team could continue to secure the port for many years to come and open up additional harbor for use by commercial fishing boats. i am at a loss for my explanation of my feelings for

mr. tashian. i am thankful i put into thanks to recognize ken for the incredible work he did. i know that we are going to be greatly missing him and his tenacity. he was known as the badger. he at times would pester and push and produce to make things happen, all with the best of intentions for the greater good. i see that the meeting here today will be closed partially in his memory. that is very fitting. i hope we will be able to erect a memorial to his honor and incredible dedication to the port. that is all i have. thank you. >> thank you for your comments.

>> next caller, please. >> i was trying to comment on item 11. >> you are welcome to call back. thank you. >> there is one more caller. i will unmute that line now.

>> hi, i am ken caregan, the current owner of cabbryio tax t. the previous owner was going to speak before i spoke. >> ask that item 11? >> no, we are calling on something unrelated. >> okay. go ahead and speak. you are on the line now. >> i would like to defer to him. do you have another caller on the line? >> we do have another caller on the line. >> then please come back once he speaks.

>> next line. >> hi, sorry for the confusion. i am sorry to hear about ken's loss. thank you for allowing me time to speak. cabrio taxi has operated at the port for a decade and lesioned space for -- leased space for eight years. we have provided hundreds of jobs and given rides to millions. we have maintained a five star rating. worked with multiple government across generations and always paid rent in full and on time. two-parts of our sustainable business. we lease equipment to operators to give rides to tourists and

citizens on the embarcadero. last april we became a zero revenue business overnight. we have been operating at a loss for 14 months. we have not turned a single dollar of revenue until last month. we are still operating at a loss. as frustrating as i was to shut doors. i am heartened by the ppp loan that gave us life for our staff, unemployment insurance has given operators a lifeline and neighbors have received substantial rental assistance and forgiveness. we are comprised of base rent. today we received assistance not forgiveness from the port. we are carrying 12 plus month burden of back rent. my life has changed radically in the last few years as many of ours has. i am expecting my first child in

august. it is a minor miracle that dan loves the pedi cab the most and is willing to carry on the taxi by trying the revive us. thanks for allowing us. it is important to emphasize our company may not succeed without rental forgiveness. hundreds of jobs are at stake and a important transportation option to locals and tourists on the port property. please do yous the kind -- do yous the kindness and forgive us the back rent. thank you very much for your time.

>> hi, thank you for accommodating us. nice to meet you all. i am sure we will get more familiar in the coming months and years. i would like to echo the sentiment what jeff said. i appreciate you guys taking the time to hear us out today. i love this business. i made an insane stretch of my resources to get this business under my control from -- to take it -- sorry, to take on this challenge of reviving this business with a time of so much uncertainty. as things are slow to open, people are reluctant to return to this job.

our work force of drivers has been decimated and we are hiring new drivers and it is complex. it is a very difficult time to get on our feet as represents keep mounting. we are struggling to cover just bear costs right now. as the things re-open, it is slow. when we get full capacity revitalization of financial district is going to still take time to come back and things will not be the same as we have lost revenue streams such as dreamforce and half a season of sports that will put us at a disadvantage to come back through all of this. we may not be a restaurant but we are very much service industry. we would appreciate that consideration when looking at

what we owe and the challenges we face going forward. i look forward to being a great tenant as jeff has been for the last nearly decade and working with you guys to be of value and great legacy contribution to the peer, the port and the embarcadero and the city as a whole. we could use the hope. we would appreciate it if you would consider it as you have considered it for others. thanks for allowing me the time to speak. i will hopefully meet you all at some point. >> thank you for your comments. >> any other callers? >> there is one more caller on the line. >> can i ask you to have staff members follow up?

>> absolutely. thank you, president brandon. >> this is deputy chief david lazar with the san francisco police department. i know you heard from sergeant matthews on behalf of chief scott and the defendant i want to offer condolences for the loss of ken tashian. ken was really promoted public safety and he really worked tirelessly to make sure the port and tenants and the visitors and everyone that had the opportunity to enjoy the port were safe. it is because of his work and the work we all did together the port is a safer place. a lot of the things we instituted such as the port officers and bicycle patrol was

because of ken and everything he promoted. on behalf of the department it is a big loss. i just wanted to offer that up to the commissioner and director forbes. we thank you for everything you have done as a commission and as director to have someone liken work -- like ken to work with us for so many years. >> thank you so much. >> any other callers? >> president brandon at this time there are no other callers wishing to make public comment. >> thank you. seeing no more callers on the phone, public comments are closed. next item, please. >> that would be item 9. a. executive director's report.

>> good afternoon, president brandon, vice president adams, commissioners, port staff and members of the public. i am executive director of the port of san francisco. this past sunday, may 23rd is one year of the pier 45 shed c fire. as you will recall sheds a, b, d were spared as were the others because of heroic efforts of the san francisco fire department who were on the scene in minutes of the initial report of the fire. thankfully there was no loss of life and only minimal injuries reported. last year's fire brought out the best in our organization. we quickly mobilized to support the firefighting efforts of the san francisco fire department as well as the massive cleaning and recovery effort led by our

talented team. throughout the past year the port staff rallied to support those affected. more than 1,000 crab pods were salvaged in time for the 2020 crab season. a million dollar loan program was established to henry place losses. by november 2020 it was cleaned and prepped for construction lay down space. additional parking for fishing tenants and construction of new northern waterfront maintenance facility. i will provide update on economic recovery and pop-up rfk and also offer recognitions. economic recovery. at this time it looks like the worst of the public health crisis may be behind us locally and around the bay area as we

continue to see high level of vaccination and dwindling numbers of cases and hospitalizations. just last week san francisco general hospital reported not having any, any covid patients for the first time in a year. 77% of san franciscans have received vaccine. children age 12 through 16 are eligible for vaccine. paving the way for greater vaccination ways. we are looking forward to june 15 when the state of california is expected to lift current restrictions to quicken the pace every opening and economic recovery. expected changes to state and public health directives depend on continued progress against the virus. we are encouraged to see foot

traffic on the waterfront starting to rebound. more good news. may 15th, the sfnta restored f service in fisherman's wharf. streetcars every 12 minutes. this will help support re-opening and return of tourism. best news. governor newsom announced $250 million from the american rescue plan will be allocated to california ports to aid in economic recovery. i would like to recognize the extreme efforts of this port commission. president brandon, vice president adams and commissioner burton, in particular for tire less efforts on wavering support and leadership to secure

american rescue plan funding for the ports. it would not have been possible without your support. because of your efforts, critical infrastructure will be main taped. california ports will be the envy of the world driving local and regional economies up and down the state. the port is facing serious financial challenges because of the economic impacts of covid. due to the covid pandemic the port lost nearly 50% revenues. total loss of $60 million this year and over $100 million over the next five years. this is a significant shortfall for a public agency with a budget of only $110 million. we have a five year recovery timeframe to return to pre-pandemic revenues.

american rescue fund planning will place the foot on able financial footing as we continue to overcome the multiyear structural budget deficit we are facing. stimulus funding announced will be utilize to backfill losses due to the covid-19 pandemic. american plan rescue funding to avoid port employee layoffs. backfill some of the last revenue, reimburse for tenant relief measures enacted including rent forgiveness for family owned small businesses and restore the capital budget to keep the waterfront safe and vibrant. this is not the end of our long battle to recover as a port enterprise. not even the beginning. it will take at least five years for the port to return to pre-covid revenues. we will continue to see state and federal stimulus dollars and

identify new streams of revenue to aid us on the road to recovery. state legislature is reviewing the budget commission i will keep the commission informed and report back as the allocations are made. i would like to recognize the finance team for the hard work in sheparding us through this process. in particular i would like to recognize the team members for their extraordinary efforts. now shifting gears to secretary. i am pleased to report that the port has launched small business drop in hours. that provides an opportunity for small businesses to have one-on-one conversations regarding contracting opportunities. they offer insight into navigating the complicated world of bidding. drop in hours will be held monthly with additional

one-on-one scheduled as well. through this effort we are sharing the economic benefit of activities and showing our commitment to the small business community. i am also pleased to report the port is working toward developing metrics and solidifying implementation for the short term actions in the racial equity action plan completed this year. progress will be share with commission equity subcommittee in advance of the first biannual progress report in july and we are anxious for that meeting. we continue with the diversity programming celebrating asian and pacific island heritage month. this thursday may 27 at 10:00 p.m. we will host the first chat. it will be hosted by the racial equity team to discuss culture, history and technology.

ly are feature the cofounder of anti-asian racism. this is to port staff on the surge of violence, why it is happening what we can do to turn the ally ship into action. a key project update on the status of the pop up art. on may seventh we seek waterfront parks and open space r.f.q. the request for qualification will establish a pool of qualified partners to work with to promote and launch events and activities along the waterfront. it is a vital public resource and offers important venues to heal, contemplate and gather as

we emerge from this pandemic. we envision events to draw visitors to the waterfront, increase foot traffic and compliment neighboring businesses. we seek activity open to the public. it will enhance the experience on the waterfront and aim to engage broad and diverse users. activities are to vary in size and scope with a maximum term of one year. port goal is a wide range of opportunities across all sites that offer exciting options. the request for qualifications solicit proposed activations for small, medium and large events. they are due june 17, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. port staff spend to return to commission on july 13th with an update and final list of

prequalified respondents. the port anticipates executing leases and licenses and permits this summer with first activities in august. i now have sad news to report. on april 30, san francisco lost a legend and close friend of the waterfront. al baccari. he walked the streets north beach daily where he grew up. he was deeply committed to the san francisco fishing industry and instrumental in building the chapel on pier 45 and wrote a 200 page book on how to sustain the waterfront in the future. we extend condolences to his son and family. i would like to conclude my report with a tribute to ken

tashian who passed away on may 19th. truly wonderful man. lived life to the fullest. genuine and deeply committed to the port and our team. he was devoted to us as he was to his family and people and pets and the jets. ken's heart was in the right place even when he would speak his mind and let you know what he thought and his take on how things could move forward to a better place. ken was well-known and respected and recognized for being a class act at the port. other city agencies and employees and across the entire waterfront. ken's commitment to our organization abpeople ran deep. he took special care to make our monthly birthday celebrations special with gifts for each month's winner.

the badger was quick to offer words of encouragement and wisdom. i was struck how generous he was with his time and willingness to connect and invest with people. ken was with the port since october of 2010. prior to his service he was with the controller office as homeland security program manager. he oversaw many projects to keep the waterfront safe and secure. he kept an eye on us, managed security and officers and loved to help connect people experiencing homeless necessary to service and care. one project he was most recently overseeing and was proud of was the san francisco police department dock replacement in fisherman's wharf. the marine unit will respond to emergencies at the waterfront. over the years ken put effort to

bringing this project along. it is very sad he will not come to see the final completion in the next few weeks. a proud united states coast guard veteran, ken was born in washington heights new york in 1946 and grew up in that jersey. he came west and built a career here. we are better off today because of his great service. the port expresses deep condolences to his wife and his family and staff would like to close the meeting in his memory. this concludes my director's report. thank you. >> thank you. >> we will open the phone lines for public comment on the executive director's report.

>> we will provide instructions for public comment. >> thank you, president brandon. at this time we will open the queue for anyone on the phone to make public comment on the executive director's report. please dial star 3 if you wish to comment. the system will let you know when your line is open. others will wait on mute until their line is open. comments are limited to three minutes per person. the queue is open. dial star 3 to make public comment. >> we have one caller on the line. >> opening the line now.

>> hello. good afternoon, president brandon, vice president adams, commissioners, director forbes. i am tom cotter, recently retired port employee. i would like to start out. i want to speak about kentishian on behalf of his -- ken tashian. she is great full for the support. she was moved by the e-mail to the staff. thank you, director forbes. i worked with ken for 10 years before i retired. he understood the relationships

in any organization. it was back that it was his ability to establish relationships that aided in the success of the cleanup of the creek and dogpatch navigation center. you have heard about the grants. the security grant project. writing and presenting that proposal and establishing the relationships with the fema program managers on those efforts throughout many, many millions of dollars to the port for those projects. you heard about the marine police unit dog under construction recipient of the grants. one of the things i admired most about ken. he mentored people. he took people under his wing. fellow employees, contract

employees, security guards at pier one and on the embarcadero, homeless individuals when we were out visiting the homeless encampment. those employees went to be promoted because of guidance and mentoring that ken gave them. i recall on many occasions. not only ken but ken and his wife would take food to homeless people during the day. there is much more i could share. he was really a unique individual and lived a full and varied life. i don't know who has seen the movie big fish. ken would have been the main character in big fish. that is how his life was. i think you get a sense of the

kind of person he was. he was a friend to me. i didn't keep many friends at work but ken was one of them. i love him and i miss him. i thank you for allowing me to have this time today. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. we appreciate it. are there any other comments? >> president brandon at this time there are no other caller on the line to make public comment. >> thank you. before we close i want to give the staff time to comment if they want. anybody on the staff want to comment? >> this is joe riley, emergency planning manager at port of san francisco. i had the pleasure of working

with ken tashian over the last 10 years. in the last two years we were a team to address security and emergency operations issues throughout the port. we supported other city departments in those types of issues. i want add anything to what tom said or. [please stand by]

-- we didn't do them because of his absence. so i wish him fair winds and good seas and i thank you for allowing me to make a comment. >> president brandon: thank you for your comment. any other comments? >> hi, president brandon, commissioners, brad penson. i had the pleasure to have an office right next door to ken in pier one in the bulkhead

building and he -- he was everything that tom and others have described. every time that you ran into ken he had a big smile on his face and his engagement was always 100% authentic. he expressed real personal interest in everybody that he dealt with. and just another little story -- i was describing to ken a big project that i was undertaking in my backyard. i was going to build a deck. and got excited about, you know, the idea of a big home project and he pulled out photos, he brought in photos to show me a big project that he had done. he was volunteering to come to my house and help me with the project that ended up not

happening, but it was just that enthusiasm, that personal connection. and always a commitment to the port. always -- always interested in pursuing everything that would benefit the poor, including all sorts of grant opportunities. he was a dear colleague and he'll be missed. thank you. >> president brandon: thank you, any other comments? >> hello, president brandon, vice president adams and commissioners. this is rod, an engineer for the port. you know, i really want to echo the sentiments that everybody else has given about ken. he was really wonderful to work for or with, and just to give

you an update on the police stot set of pyles for the police dock today. so, ken, if you're listening, we're going to get it done very quickly. thank you. >> okay, any more comments? anyone else from the staff, any more comments? >> hi, commissioners, david with real estate and development. i just want to echo what everybody else said. ken was hugely personable. went the extra yards to help the port and to help the community. my engagement with him was primarily around helping with the homeless, concerns that popped up in the southern waterfront and ken always launched into action to help resolve issues, whether it's to support the port's needs or support the tenants' needs and

the community concerns, or the concerns or the issues of the homelessness, ken sprung into action. he also on a personal note as tom and others alluded to, he really got to know people, to understand where they were coming from, whether it was historically or at the time, and got to know people in a real positive way. we have monthly birthday celebrations for the port and ken always kind of played a little game with everybody to provide recognition for the birthday of the month. and pull a known fact from someone's history to enlighten the celebration. and just always had a great smile and brought great positive energy to the port. so we'll miss him. thank you. >> thanks, david, i appreciate it. is there anyone else that would like to make a comment? anyone else?

commissioner woo ho. >> commissioner woo ho: thank you. first i'd just want to acknowledge director forbe's positive report on economic recovery and where we are with covid in the city. i guess that this is a meeting which i think that is a turning point for us today to hear all of the progress. i think that we look forward to the full reopening, if not totally in june, but in the summer months. i think that it's a long time coming. so i want to commend everybody at the port for all of the efforts that have been put forth on that. and i -- so, thank you very much, executive director forbes, for all of the positive news and for some of the funding opportunities that we hope that will also help us in our economic recovery here. i did not know ken. and i only knew al picari by reputation. so the report is disheartening

but it's heartening in a way that we have examples of two individuals that were well known for different accomplishments, and as a member of the commission, every time that i hear such compliments about the people that either as our tenants or as our staff make me feel very proud of the port because we have a spirit and an energy and a dedication. because it is that spirit and dedication that makes this port succeed. certainly, you know, as a fee, our employees are not incentivized other than to love the job they have, because their compensation is not comparable to what they could get in the private sector. so it's really inspiring and a very uplifting -- even though ken is not with us today -- but to hear about him and his accomplishments and his personality, how he went about, and how he exemplified the port

in so many different ways, and the fact that we had other outside agencies come in to report on, that so he was not known just inside of the port but all of the agencies that he worked with and had a reputation outside of the port. so i want to make it sort of a more joyous celebration of his passing, though it is very sad to hear of his sudden passing. so, thank you. >> commissioner gilman? >> commissioner gilman: first off, i want to echo commissioner woo ho's comments around the positive report from director forbes, both from an economic zone perspective. i think we all are looking forward to june 15th, you know, if we stay this course and if the city of san francisco makes it there where we'll be able to more fully welcome back folks to the waterfront and so will the businesses that make up both the

northeast and the southeast sector. i too did not know ken or al picardi. and i want to extend my deepest condolences to both of their families. similar to what commissioner woo ho said, i am always struck as a commissioner about how inclusive we are as a port and how many people, both from our staff to our tenants, to every citizens that participate every day, whether it's through our community advisory council, or other groups that we form on the waterfront to make the waterfront better. i think that the true testament of the waterfront is the public trust. while we are the city agency and a city department, i think that it sets us apart in how inclusive we are, and how many people dedicate their lives to support the port as average citizens and how dedicated our staff is. and, again, my deepest condolences to their families.

>> thank you, commissioner gilman. commissioner burton? >> commissioner burton: thank you. i just wanted to give a few thoughts of alesandro pirari. al and i grew up together, and he lived right around the corner from my mother's house and he was just wedded to the port of san francisco and north beach, and, trust me, we'll never see the likes of him in many years. he was just a special guy. and he was just dedicated to that in the italian-american community, and just got rest his soul. >> commissioner adams: thanks, commissioner burrton. first of all, director forbes, stellar report. and it's good to know that i

have a feeling that we're coming out of this and you will continue to lead us out of it. and as things are starting to open up. i didn't know ken or al, but, clearly, just hearing about them, clearly you can tell that these were the type of men that were heroes. they both gave us everything and many thanks. they gave as good as they got and the world and san francisco and the port is a lot better because men like this came this way. may they rest in peace. next item, please. >> clerk: certainly, that is item 10a which requests the authorization to award contracts to one bonner communications and, two, davis and associates communications inc for as-needed media relations, communications, public relations and advertising, each contract in an

amount to not exceed $225,000. this is resolution 2114. >> good afternoon, commissioners. stephanie tang here, the procurement manager with the item today before you. this item is for, as carl just mentioned, the set aside contract for as-needed communications. next slide, please. so based on the scoring panel, the two high scoring entities are davis associates and communication, who you may hear me refer to as d and a, and boner communications. each contract would have a not-to-exceed amount of $225,000 with a three-year term. next slide, please. so what is this contract for? this is an as-needed contract, for the port to put together the best guess of the rank of services that we -- range of

services that we think that we need. the scope that you see before you are some of the major topic it's -- communications, marketing, advertising, public outreach, documentation services, like photo, video, web development and digital. next slide, please. communications really advances our strategic plan in many key areas. now, of course engagement -- we need to be communicating with the public as well as receiving feedback from the public. and that all happens through our various channels of communication. but it's not just through the engagement. we also use this as an opportunity to advance our equity approach, and that we did this contract as a micro-l.b.e. setaside and this gives the smallest businesses an opportunity to not just work for the port but also to be a prime contractor with the port, which can be much more difficult and unusual for small businesses. next slide, please.

let's turn to the selection process. in the fall we initially advertised, but then half of the proposers were deemed non-responsive after fatal errors that were identified by the contract monitoring division. and the port determined that it was in the best interest of the city to reject all of those proposals and re-advertise. so we made tweaks to the r.f.p. and we re-advertised this january. we held a virtual pre-proposal conference a week later and proposals were due a month after that. we convened a panel and we received six proposals. one was deemed non-responsive and one was reviewed at the written stage but did not qualify for the oral interview. next slide, please. before you hear the slide of what the criteria were, there were 800 points for the writ proposal and then there were 100 points for the oral interview.

on-the-spot questions were the top two questions where we asked about equity and underserved communities and we also asked about social media. then we had a presentation scenario and that was given to the respondents 48 hours before their interview, and that was a scenario about economic recovery and hearing communication strategy. next slide, please. so the two high-scoring entities are here on this slide. the high scoring entity is davis and associates, d. and a. 80% of their proposed team are also l.b.e.s. and d. and a. has worked at the port and s.f.o. and with a bunch of different public entities. the other, the second high-scoring entity is boner communications which is a woman-owned business.

and all of its team are l.b.e.s and their experience includes the port, the treasure and tax collector, brookfield and a bunch of other entities. next slide, please. and so in terms of next steps, if the commission takes action today, we will then commence negotiations and we're hoping to do the notice to proceed at the change of the fiscal year. so that would be july 1st and this would be a three-year agreement. next slide. so in conclusion, you have before you resolution 202124 which is to award the contracts to entities as described, each with a dollar value of $225,000 and a term of three years. so this concludes my presentation and i'm available for questions and the project manager is also on the line if we have any questions for him. thank you. >> commissioner adams: thank you, stephanie, for your presentations.

commissioners, do i have a motion? >> so moved. >> second. >> commissioner adams: okay. let's open it up for public comment. we will open up the phone lines to take public comment on item 10a for the members of the public who are joining us on the phone. jenica is our operator and will provide instructions now for anyone on the phone who would like to provide public comment. >> clerk: thank you, vice president adams. at this time we will open up the queue for anyone on the phone who would like to make public comments on item 10a. please dial star, 3, if you wish to make public comment. the system will let you know when your line is open. others will wait on mute until their line is open. comments will be limited to three minutes per person. the queue is now open. please dial star, 3, if you wish to make public comment. >> commissioner adams: thank you, do we have anyone on the phone? >> clerk: vice president adams, at this time there are no members of the public on the

phone wishing to make public comment. oh, i'm sorry, one hand just raised. may i -- thank you. let me unmute that line. >> caller: good afternoon, and thank you president brandon and commissioners and director forbes. my name is tara lynn davis and the c.e.o. of davis associates communication and we're a local business enterprise in san francisco. i wanted to acknowledge the port's efforts to set aside work for the l.b.e. businesses to bid on. we're delighted to have been selected for this opportunity and we're looking forward to working with the port on communications with the public about the port. and to begin the recovery from covid. so i wanted to thank you for making an effort to provide opportunities for businesses

like mine to compete for a contract. and i want to acknowledge the contracting division for a very rigorous process, but that was well run. so thank you again, and i look forward to working with all of you. thank you. >> commissioner adams: thank you. anyone else on the phone? >> clerk: at this time there are no other callers on the phone wishing to make public comment on this item. >> commissioner adams: thank you, and seeing no more callers on the phone, public comment is closed. to commissioners, we have a motion and a second. carl, please call for a roll call vote -- oh, there are any comments or discussions. commissioner gilman? >> commissioner gilman: i support the item, no questions. >> commissioner adams: okay, commissioner woo ho? >> commissioner woo ho: i support the item, no questions. >> commissioner adams:

commissioner burton? >> commissioner burton: i have no questions either. >> president brandon: vice president adams i'm back and i have a couple of questions. >> commissioner adams: you got it. >> president brandon: thank you, and thank you, stephanie, for the report and the creative idea of coming up with the ability to create opportunities. my question is in the past we did three contracts for $300,000 each and now we've got a micro amount set aside and we lowered the amount of the contracts to $225,000 for two firms. so i'm just wondering what the rationale is why, when we're coming out of covid, we have 10 projects in the works where we do see a need instead of increasing it or keeping it the same? >> yeah, that's a great question, and this was done in full consideration of the budget picture at the time.

so the -- when the port was going through the overall budget process, this was kind of the -- the funding picture that we had but the way that we thought about it was that the previous contracts were also a longer duration. so this is a shorter contract. and in the previous contracts, each contractor who did have a contract, their average burn rate, the amount they were going to be utilized each year was $75,000. and under this contract, the burn rate is still the same. so i know that it's not, you know, it's less, however, we have -- we feel like we've kind of, you know, threaded the needle in terms of figuring out a way to save funds but also to make the experience for people in contract with us as similar as it could be, given the economic situation. >> president brandon: okay, and so the previous contracts were longer than three years? >> yes.

they were four-year contracts. >> president brandon: they were four-year contracts. so that would point to what -- still, i still don't think that $75,000 less. and so to me the optic is not good. to me if we're going to do something to create opportunity, we should create equal opportunity. so i still am not sure why we have chosen these firms and want to pay them less than we normally pay. >> well, we -- the people who do have contracts are going to be paid the same amount. it's that instead of having three contracts, we have two. >> president brandon: right and they're $225,000 out of $300,000. >> but if it were a four-year agreement it would have been another -- so instead of making it a longer term contract, we made the contract shorter, but

the people who have the contracts are experiencing it and fulfilling at the same rates they would have. i don't know if randy has the comments around the overall budget process, but rather than doing three contracts of smaller dollar values we went for two contracts of the same dollar -- of the same dollar value. >> president brandon: i'd love to hear (indiscernible) -- from randy. >> randy. >> i'm sorry about that. i was getting the mic and the camera on. this is randy, the communications director and the project manager for this project. this is a very difficult year and very difficult financial outlook that we're working through. and this was not an easy decision to make, and it was very difficult, quite frankly, to come to this, considering the history of funding that we had had. that said we did have to face an

uncertain economic future as, you know, we were hopeful for the best, but we have to prepare with what we have. part of the work that we're going to be doing with these partners is helping to bring the port back. so we are excited to be able to do that with two imminently qualified highly ranked groups. you know, we've had the opportunity to work with them in the past and i was excited to see them come out on top again. their work is exceptional, and i'm hopeful that, you know, working together we will be able to more quickly bring the port back. i know that we have a long road ahead, and, you know, i will get the future with eyes wide open. the economic situation is improving, we're seeing increased foot traffic up and down the waterfront. we're seeing good news coming out on the vaccine front. and we see good news coming out of potentially out of

sacramento, but we can't get ahead of ourselves, we still have to budget with what we have. i'm hopeful with their efforts and the combined efforts of all of the great things happening up and down the waterfront, we will be able to get to a better place, sooner rather than later i'm confident from this team and our ability to do -- excuse me -- to do great work together and i'm looking forward to it. >> president brandon: thank you, i appreciate that. and i understand what both of you are saying and i appreciate what both of you are saying, but to me it's still the optics of we're creating opportunity, but yet we're giving them less than we had given in the past. and to me it's just not a good optic. but if that is the way that everyone wants to move forward, i guess that there's nothing that i can do. i'm just saying over the past -- the last contract we had three, with $300,000 each.

and now that we have so much need coming out of covid and with all of these projects, we have yet created opportunities to these firms to make less money than people have in the past. and i just think that it's something that we should consider with we are looking at these contracts. so if we're really creating opportunities, let's make it fair and properly based on what we have done in the past, if we're going to be lower than we had. if that makes sense. >> this is commissioner woo ho. i mean, i hear what you are saying, president brandon. but i think that the staff made a very conscious and hard tradeoff, and i think that i am supportive of their arguments to say that they are going to try to do more with less and still achieve the same objectives, which is i think that we all

agree upon in terms of what is needed going forward to help us with the recovery efforts and all of the scope of work that's involved. but i think that, on the other hand, they have done a good job to maintain at least with the two firms that have been awarded these contracts a fair distribution of what is available in our budget at this time. and the fact that these -- the term of these contracts is shorter will give us an opportunity. by the time that the contracts are up for renewal, at that time we may have more confidence in the positive outlook and that we could go back to our higher level, both in terms of dollars and the number of firms participating. but i think that it's a prudent thing for them and a wise thing to do, what they're trying to do today, and we can always revisit this if things actually get much better sooner. but i think that right now i would say that, yeah, tightening the belt is never, never comfortable when there's a need, but i -- i think that i tend to

agree with the staff on this one. and i would say that we need to do this for now and hope that the opportunity, which i support, you know, that we are able to give out good opportunity in the future. >> president brandon: thank you, i really appreciate your comments, but my comments do stand and i do think that the optics are not good. i understand the situation that we're in, and i understand that we could have said, okay, this is where we are now, but as the recovery goes, and things get better, we can increase it another year another $75,000. i'm just saying for myself, looking through an equity lens, if we're trying to really create opportunities for them, let's do it on a fair and level playing field. let's not ask them to do more with less and that's the end of my comments. anybody else have any comments? commissioner gilman? >> commissioner gilman: i actually have a technical question of the team and i apologize, because this did not

occur to me before. i don't know the nature of this contract, so i'm only pulling this from my own previous experience of being a contractor for the city, though i'm not currently anymore. randy, is there a contingency budget or an option for extension without going back out to bid? >> i will actually defer that question to stephanie. that kind of technical r.f.p. procedure is beyond my skillset i always turn to the experts for questions like that. >> this is -- there is not. and i -- so the budget is $225,000 over three years. and the reason why there isn't a contingency, you know, there isn't an offer to extend is because the thought would be that it would be a opportunity for before three years, that the budget picture would be different and we'd want to go out for bid for a different dollar value and a longer period situation. so rather than doing a longer contract when the budget picture was so unclear, we decided to go

for three years and if we expand the budget faster we can just revisit the entire issue all together with our fall fiscal picture. >> commissioner woo ho: stephanie, again, these are -- >> commissioner gilman: stephanie, these are questions to educate me. do we as a commission have the authority to put on contingency another $75,000 to make the value of this -- and a one-year extension to make this equal to what we have done in the past? >> this was advertised with these terms. so everybody responded to these terms. so, you know, there could be a concern about somebody then saying, well, you know, the terms are materially different than what was advertised initially. so we'd have to get city attorney advice on that, but generally you want to go with what has been advertised as that was the r.f.q. at the time. >> commissioner gilman: okay. that answers my questions, thank

you. >> i have a comment, i'm going to support it but i think -- i mean, i understand what president brandon is saying and i think that what she's looking for is consistency and an equal plan. but we are doing better than we have done in the past as far as trying to make it an equal playing field, but i think we could do better. and i think that it's good that different commissioners have different points of view, but i think we understand that we need to have that kind of transparency where everybody is treated the same. nobody is treated any better than anybody else. because somebody could look at it and go, well, guess what, i guess that if they weren't african american or whatever -- right, or whatever, right, people could say that people were treated differently. and my thing is that i think to treaten fair, and i just think that we could do a better job, but i will support it. i think that you did the best that you could do, but, clearly, president brandon is not happy, and it's good that all

commissioners got their own voice and how they think, and i can -- i can see how it would look from the outside that we are still kind of like not where we need to be. and i just thank we need to work hard to get what we need to get where everybody is treated the same. so i'll leave it at that. thanks. >> president brandon: thank you, and i am not saying that i'm not happy. i thank you so much for creating this opportunity for these firms. just saying that going forward, we really need to look at it with an equity lens and if you have done it one way in the past then we should probably continue that or at least explain why we're doing it differently this time as we create these opportunities. but i do appreciate the fact that you have created it. and these are two wonderful firms. so i don't want to take away from any of that. i'm just saying that it's just the optics.

but with that, carl, can we have a roll call vote, please. >> clerk: yes. [roll call vote] >> president brandon: the motion passes unanimously. it is adopted. next item, please. >> clerk: before we move to the next item, president brandon to congratulate you and to notify your fellow commissioners and port staff that your appointment was just unanimously approved by the board of supervisors. congratulations, and with vice president adams help, we didn't miss a beat here at the port commission today. >> president brandon: thank you so much, carl, and thank you vice president adams, i really appreciate it. >> commissioner adams: congratulations, president brandon. >> clerk: item 11a is an

informational presentation on the san francisco municipal transportation agent's, embarcadero enhancement program and upcoming request to implement quick-build traffic and curb management changes in the central embarcadero segment between mission street and broadway, in support of the city's vision zero traffic safety goals. >> congratulations, president brandon, and good afternoon, vice-chair adams and members effort commission. the port's planning and environment division. i'm here to talk about the embarcadero enhancement project which is an sfmta transportation and streetscape effort to promote safety, mobility and connectivity for all of modes of traffic along embarcadero. when we last presented this project to you in january, sfmta outlined the project and the proposed phases of improvements since then, the prop 15 has conducted outreach and made adjustments for larger projects and the first phase. today we will cover the status

of the larger program and its various phases. a detailed description of phase one in the central embarcadero area which is mission and broadway streets. and a summary of the public outreach conducted since our last presentation to the commission. and the comments that came in and how the project has adjusted to reflect the public and port tenant concerns. and how the project is addressing conflicts on the promenade as part of this first phase and beyond. in context, the embarcadero enhancement project is part of the larger port and sfmta efforts to improve safety and circulation between many neighborhoods and throughout the city. the port's efforts to connect the neighborhoods to the south are part of the blue-green way, accomplished through the mission development, mission bay and on cargo way and at some point along the illinois street. also, sfmta has several safety projects in the bayview-hunters

point area that enable connections to the port's waterfront and to the embarcadero. casey hilldrith and casey will now present the project, its phases, costs, schedule, outreach and its design. and we look forward to your feedback on this effort. we also plan -- i'll leave it at that. thank you very much. casey? >> thank you, dan, for that introduction. thank you, president brandon and congratulations. vice-chair adams and fellow commissioners and port staff, thank you -- and director forbes, thank you for your time today to discuss and to review the traffic safety issues and the plans for embarcadero. in particular as dan mentioned with a focus on central and embarcadero between mission and broadway. i'm a principal planner with the sfmta's livable streets division. i help direct our agency's

planning and investments along the waterfront to improve safety, mobility and access in support of san francisco's vision zero program which aims to eliminate severe injuries and fatalities on our city streets. before i turn it over to my colleague and project manager mark dredger, i would like to provide more context on how we got here today and how we'll continue to focus our efforts in the months and the years ahead. it was about a year ago when we were in front of this body discussing our plans to address several safety hot spots along embarcadero as part of our vision zero quick build program that included the waterfront's first segment of two-way protected bikeway. next slide, please. sorry. so here you can see in front of the ferry building the two-way bikeway at let'splaysf!, and the changes to the loading and the bike lane to improve safety quick build projects are

generally low cost, easily reversible treatments that prioritize safety on our high injury network, which are the handful of streets that account for the majority of injuries and collisions. quick builds often, but not always, include protected bike infrastructure. an example near the embarcadero include work that we've done on terry france boulevard and the third street bridge to connect mission bay. and as dan mentioned going into bayview and hunter's bay, as well and into townsend and car-free market which was implemented prior to the pandemic in 2020, it is also considered part of our quick-build program. so in january of is this year we returned to the commission to report out that we had substantially completed these projects along the embarcadero and we also provided an overview of our efforts working closely with port staff on the

preliminary engineering for the remainder of the embarcadero. next slide, please. and so we discussed the engineering and the feasibility challenges for the southern and the northern segments of the embarcadero while honing in on the central segment and looking to extend our quick-build treatments between mission and broadway. the areas that are to the north and to the south just because of the roadway layout, you know, they don't have quick-build opportunities similar to the central segment, and require more study and coordination with land-use changes to advance larger capital projects. i'll briefly touch upon more details in the northern segments after mark describes central and embarcadero, but i'd like to quickly point out how we're describing the work that we're doing, getting so many pieces --

moving pieces. next slide, please. so the recognition of the need to phase in the improvements over time over multiple segments of embarcadero and to capture the non-engineering coordination that we're doing between our agencies, we now refer to the embarcadero enhancement as a program, not a project. and that helps to clarify that while we are committed -- that we're focused on central and embarcadero right now we're also committed to continuing to work with the port and area stakeholders to address safety concerns and opportunities and other segments of the corridor when the timing is right. next slide, please. and this summarizes the problematic framework of embarcadero and it does include a two-phased approach to the central segment, central embarcadero, and the need to revisit some planning and outreach in the northern segment near fisherman's wharf. and i think that it also

recognizes the body of work that we've already achieved to date, including a number of spot improvements and safety improvements, even prior to the development of our quick-build program, such as 2019 battery sampson connections project. much work remains to be done, much work has been done, but we're confident that we're here today focused on the right priorities and the right location and at the right time to support safety and economic recovery along the waterfront. and with that i'll turn it over to my colleague mark draiger. >> thank you, casey. good afternoon, commissioners. my name is mark draiger and i'm a senior transportation planner with sfmta and the project manager for the central embarcadero project. next slide, please. i'd like to give an overview of the work encompassed within this effort, in particular breaking down the quick-build segment and then also speaking a little bit to the capital phase, giving a bit of a preview of that.

so i'll show you a map in a moment. but as you can see here, this is in front of the ferry building and it's giving an example image of what the quick-build improvement would look like. and i'll point out a few key elements here. this is the segment that we're focusing on here from mission street up to broadway, so it's extending our most recent quick-build project that we completed in late -- or started the completion in late 2020, and finished with those beautiful blue railings earlier this year and that went from fulsome to mission street. so this extends the two-way bikeway that we started with that project and where we have it in this segment here, and adding pedestrian safety improvements along the way. like other projects that we have done, the quick-build project in the vein that it's something that we can implement with our sfmta shops with paint and plastic posts and other lighter treatments so that folks can really react and we can tinger

and adjust as needed alongside a robust evaluation plan. next slide, please. this quick-build would evolve into a later capital phase. i'm showing you a bit of a preview of what this looks like here, where in certain areas we could upgrade the segment and certain pedestrian crossings with islands to shorten the crossing, and other islands could help to facilitate the offloading of people and goods from loading zones. not all areas, but these are some the things that we could use and you see a crosswalk to slow down folks using the bikeway and on scooters and on bikes at the pedestrian crossing where we really want them to yield to people on foot. next slide, please. so this summary map, you know, it shows this central embarcadero segment as casey outlined earlier, kind of the central part of the embarcadero waterfront. the area in gray, this is the fulsome and mission segment that

we completed earlier this year. circled in blue that is the quick-build area that we're seeking approvals for next month, speaking to it today. so this is from mission street to broadway. this particular image highlights some of the travel lane changes that are necessary to be able to extend the two-way bikeway and to implement the pedestrian safety improvements along the stretch. so as a whole it's repurposing that third travel lane northbound and approaching the intersection we would maintain two left turn lanes on the broadway and provide for a short segment a single lane northbound. this is a pinch point along the corridor, along this segment, that necessitates some tradeoffs, but north of broadway we'd still have two travel lanes and south of this pinch point we'd still have two travel lanes. on washington street there's a short connection into the financial district with the road

guide and a protected bikeway to link with the primary improvements on the embarcadero and as a whole, these areas together, these are the quick-build. in green to the south it's the right of the image here from fulsome to bryant. this is what is encompassed with a later capital phase stheevment later capital phase would harden some of the safety improvements with the concrete islands that i showed you earlier and it could extend south to bryant. this is the grander vision and it's fulsome to bryant segment requires changes to the promenade and parking in a way that a quick-build treatment would not really be the right way to approach this. but we have more to share on this in the coming months and years. and just as that grander vision that i wanted to show you right now. next slide, please. so as i have sort of alluded to, the quick-build evolves into the

capital safety project. you know, we evaluate all of our work and i will speak to this more in a moment, but this particular process is very much one of iteration, of evaluation and adjustment. you know, putting these things on the ground now and seeing how people react to it and then looking for opportunities to tinker before we harden things and potentially extend the bikeway further south to bryant street. looking at the timeline, if approved, we could start implementation of the quick-build segment later this year as coordinated with an active sfpuc project, utility work, that is already underway. we want to minimize the interruptions to the community. in 2023-2024, that's the rough timeline that we're looking for the capital project to extend to bryant street. next slide, please. we have done extensive outreach

to get to where we are today. obviously, we have been hampered by the effects of the pandemic. you know, a lot of this outreach has been in front of a screen as opposed to in person, which has been challenging, but it's been wonderful to work with many of the same neighborhood groups that we have worked with on other projects such as the battery project to really leverage those relationships. and we are very thankful to community -- to the community for working with us in different ways. you know, not being able to do open houses or as many in-person meetings, but especially in the past few months we have been able to actually go out and meet with folks, to meet with the operators of the ferry building, and the farmers' market and to observe their operations and see that on the ground in terms of how they use that space, which you obviously can't do when you are meeting in person. and we also have a very productive walk along embarcadero and the neighborhood

with folks in the neighborhood association. so things have been a little bit challenging for us, but, you know, i feel like the community has met the need with us and been very productive to meet with stakeholders, tenants and port tenants along the waterfront and also into the adjacent neighborhoods. next slide, please. so in lieu of the open house which is a traditional way that our agency will engage with the broader community and in liei of stakeholder meetings, we developed a comprehensive survey which we distributed to folks immediately on the waterfront but also deeply into the neighborhoods. as distributed by a mailer and via a stakeholder groups as well. and we got about 1,400 responses which was really great. most of these folks saying that they live, you know, close to the waterfront. and they expressed a variety of

opinions as to the challenges that are faced on the embarcadero, safety challenges. one of the main things that we heard is conflicts on the will promenade and we have been hearing this for years where folks don't feel safe riding bikes or scooters in the bike lane adjacent to fast-moving traffic. but the promenade is a very crowded space and those faster on skateboards and scooters and even joggers in some cases create unsafe and uncomfortable conditions. so it was nice to see that two-thirds of respondents to the survey liked the idea of an on-street bikeway. hopefully to attract folks off of the promenade and into a dedicated space where they can feel safe and comfortable. a good number of folks said they felt uncomfortable needing to cross the bikeway to access the floating loading as proposed. this is a design that we have applied throughout san francisco. almost every street in soma has it at this point, this sort of a

floating protected bike lane. but we, nonetheless, appreciate that it's a new concept for embarcadero, i think that this is something that has pushed to us appreciate that it's part of the implementation and we want a strong communication and marketing plan to teach people about this facility, to explain them how to use it, and to concerning them where to get into it at the ends of the facility so it can really function as desired, having ambassadors out there, and that kind of thing. we have also heard opinions about lane configurations and approaching broadway intersection and the need to support the ferry building farmers' market and they're out there three days a week and they have a very intense operation, very well orchestrated. and, you know, it was helpful to hear from the community how much of an asset this is for the waterfront and how much they want to support, you know, the farmers' market but then other tenants along the waterfront as the city moving more solidly

into its recovery. next slide, please. sfmta, we evaluate all of our projects but this being a quick-build that would go into a capital phase, the evaluation is critical. we have a heap of before data to look at that we have collected for years, so after implementation we'd collect much of that data once again -- traffic data, how people are getting through the area, the intersection operations, but we also want to look at particular design aspects of this proposal so is the project accomplishing its goal of peeling people off the promenade and encouraging people on bikes and scooters to get into this facility? what are the interactions between the bike riders and the scooter riders and people crossing at crosswalks? these questions would inform the ability to tweak and make tiny adjustments and what sort of changes that we might like to

see in the capital phase. like i showed you earlier, these sorts of things. i mentioned earlier the idea of a public education campaign. we think that this is important and it is a critical piece that we want to tie to the implementation to specifically to teach people how to use this new facility and encourage them to use it safely but also generally to have safe, considerate behavior on the promenade. slower speeds, yielding and just taking care of each other, and also overall vision zero messages of the importance of why we need to do all of this work. just a quick overview of the timeline and we're here at the port commission and thank you for having us. we'll visit the sfmta board next tuesday to also brief them on the project. and we will be back here in two weeks once again to present this

project. at that point we'll get approval. and we are concurrently with all of this seeking funding to complete design and implement this project via the board, with the final approval hearing for that scheduled for the 22nd. and then i alluded to earlier, you know, the implementation could start early this year, as early as late fall. and we are coordinating and at this point they expect to take the better part of this year to finish up that work. so we really want to limit the impacts to the community with that project and we'd like to follow on, when they repave the street we can reconfigure the street in such a way that people have something new. i think that is all i have for central and embarcadero, but i would like to turn to back to casey to just give you an overview of the thinking for the northern embarcadero and the

southern embarcadero. next slide, please. >> thanks, mark. referring to the southern embarcadero, i just want to point out, you know, our current proposal has it stopping at bryant street. which is not necessarily a strong connection as other connections to embarcadero are. but it is a logical stopping point in the sense that it's difficult for us to continue designing a capital project to the south without pausing and really coordinating further with, you know, some pretty substantial development plans, i believe that as you are all well aware of, for the historic piers and the seawall lot 330. so we do have some tidying up of our engineering concepts. otherwise, we're going to be sort of working with port staff in different capacities, working on resiliency, design

guidelines, and then, you know, when these developments are a bit further along, we have more information about highway the promenade and the circulation may be impacted, certainly, the sfmta will be there to coordinate, to review these projects, and then hopefully at some point we will have another capital project identified to sort of close the gap between the third street bridge and mission bay and the work that we're doing in central and embarcadero to support these investments. next slide, please. in northern embarcadero, you know, we have sort of a half completed study for circulation in the firerman's pier 39 area and it was shut down in large part due to covid, and also as we worked through the preliminary engineering with embarcadero, we realized that we have to kind of revisit some of our planning assumptions, which we hope to do next year, if not

later this year. and in the meantime we're going to be collecting a new rounds of data and focusing on this data collection, because things have changed. jefferson street will open up soon and circulation will be slightly different. again, also continuing to work on the port adaptation design guidelines with the port staff. there could be some targeted investments that we identify in the years ahead, but just going back to the original sort of preliminary engineering analysis, it's very difficult for us to envision implementing the protected bikeway and keeping the appropriate travel lanes through this northern segment. it would be incredibly challenging design, as well as a cost prohibitive project. so we do want to continue to work with the community to understand what is most relevant now and, again, perhaps to follow the proposal as land-use

needs come forward. that rounds out our embarcadero program, and we're happy to answer any questions that you may have at this time and thank you. >> president brandon: thank you for your presentation. now let's open it up to public comment. open up the phone lines to take comments on item 11a. for those members of the public joining us on the phone, jennifer is our operator and will provide instructions now for anyone on the phone to provide public comment. >> clerk: thank you, president brandon. at this time we will open up the queue for anyone on the phone who would like to make public comment on item 11a. please dial star, 3, if you wish to make public comment. the system will let you know when your line is open. others will wait on mute until their line is open. comments will be limited to three minutes per person. the queue is now open. please dial star, 3, if you wish to make public comment.

>> president brandon: thank you, do we have anyone on the line? >> clerk: yes, president brandon it looks like we have six callers on the line. >> president brandon: please open up the first one. >> clerk: thank you. opening up the first line now. >> caller: hello, and i'm calling for the embarcadero lanes. in my past i am from modesto, california, and as vaccinations open up, particularly in california, plan on bringing out of town friends and visitors and to show the amazing improvements that have occurred through embarcadero, but driving them around, you know, how it feels when you're driving around relatives for a process.

to make it more interesting i was hoping to do alternatives like sports. the traffic would increase over the summer as vaccinations come up and i want to show that there's a great opportunity through s.f. and why that is through the embarcadero (indiscernible) and it's economically useful as well as the utility hampering for our customers in embarcadero area as well. and you can walk on the promenade as well. and i have support for protected bike lanes, and hope you'll have a good day. thank you. >> president brandon: thank you next caller, please. >> clerk: thank you. opening up the next one now.

>> caller: hello, good afternoon, commissioners and director forbes. my name is janice lee and i wear many hats, i was with the port waterfront working group. and i am elected with the bart board representing the west side san francisco, but today i'm here speaking on behalf of the san francisco bicycle co ation and i want to first congratulate president brandon for your reappointment to the commission and i thank you for your service in keeping the port a financially and environmentally stable agency. as you may know, the bicycle coalition is a non-profit advocacy organization with a mission of promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation. we do that in a variety of ways, whether it's our free bike education, or our free bicycle distribution program to get bicycles in the hands of low-income residents who need them the most. or celebrating people who bike, who bike every day.

we have been involved in embarcadero projects and the subsequent quick build for many years and our goal has always been the same. we believe that our world-class waterfront deserves a world-class bike facility and to achieve that we have always supported a fully protected two-lane waterside bike facility on embarcadero. the embarcadero is one of the most popular places to bike in the entire city and even during the pandemic we have seen that it's a place for people to safely recreate outside. people flock to embarcadero. i recall the mission meeting in february 2020, when there was a need to have a better bicycle infrastructure here and how protected bike lanes would reduce conflicts and give a space for people to bike safely president brandon, you had that quote, that we need a plan of action. so we're excited that it will come soon with your support.

the bicycle coalition is supportive of the work that sfmta and the staff have done for what is before you, especially in mission to broadway. your support for this will help to continue the success and the quick-build and for implementation to begin as soon as possible, really by the end of this calendar year. i know that there may be some concerns around the farmers' market operations, so i have already been in touch with places to have outreach, to ensure that everyone is sharing the space safely after implementation. we have done similar outreach in the past on embarcadero and i plan to work with the tenants to make thur that embarcadero is a welcome place for everyone. and i hope that you really support these projects before you. thank you. >> president brandon: thank you for your service. next caller, please. >> clerk: thank you.

i'm unmuting the next line now. >> caller: thank you and good afternoon, president brandon, vice president adams, commissioners and director forbes. my name is brian hobbsman and i am with the vision zero organizer. i wanted to share walk san francisco's strong support for the embarcadero safety project as part of the larger embarcadero enhancement program because walk san francisco as the city's pedestrian advocacy organization, we focus on the transforming san francisco's most dangerous streets. unfortunately, for years embarcadero has been one of them. it's on the list of the city's high injury corridors for preventable crashes, regularly seriously injured and even killed people walking, biking and driving along embarcadero. and each year on average 15 people are injured on crashes just in the central part between mission and broadway. a majority of them are people walking or biking. and because the street is

unsafe, many people bike asking scooting avoid the bike lanes as you noted in the presentation and they use the promenade instead which makes the space cramped and creates hazards for people traveling on foot. so we really support these proposed improvements. this brings down the danger for everyone. and the wide bikeway is a better alternative to the promenade for people on bikes and scooters and the proposed islands and the safety zones will be especially important for those who need more time to cross, like older adults and people with disabilities. we know that these improvements work because we have seen similar changes in other projects. on second street, for example, after protected bike lanes and intersection improvements were made, the 85% percentile speed went to 24 miles per hour. just four miles an hour but this drops the likelihood of a fatal crash by nearly half.

this project is, you know, many years in the making and it's improved with partners and neighbors, all of the various groups who use embarcadero every single week. and when this item comes back for a vote we ask you to approve this proposed project so that we can all benefit from the urgently needed safety measures thank you so much. >> president brandon: thank you >> clerk: thank you, opening up the next line. >> caller: hello, i am parker day and a resident of district 3 and a member of walk san francisco and a member of the san francisco bicycle coalition. i'm calling you to urge support for the sfmta's quick-build in central embarcadero segment. i regularly walk and bike through this area. and right now it's one of the most dangerous stretch of road that i travel on by bike. there's been talk of making

embarcadero safer for people who use it as they cut through. and i think that the changes are long overdue. if you ride along embarcadero today there's a huge discrepancies between the southern segment and the central segment. in the southern segment for three blocks with the curb protected bike lane it feels safe and pleasant. meanwhile, in the central segment it's the complete opposite. although improved from embarcadero freeway days it feels that we went from a double-decker highway to a surface highway. and the bike lane feels like an after thought. i can't remember the last time that i was able to ride my bike unobstructed, there's trucks and ride-share vehicles. and this plays a role in active transportation around district 3 because of the city's geography and i have no choice but to ride my bike on it if i want to go without an automobile. i see improving safety and using

a protected bike lane is between moving between the fast-moving traffic and the promenade. this is to the benefit who visit the port, it makes the crosswalks shorter and safer and has a better business environment. and we must move faster and act bolder, specifically it's a shame that the two turning lanes are retained at washington street to the detriment of those who walk and bike here. the reason given is that it's synonymous with the fast-moving car traffic. it seems ridiculous to me that there's a proposed education campaign around the bike path while maintaining a lot of fast moving car traffic. from what i remember it's been almost automobiles and truck californias that have killed people along embarcadero. we want the port commission to end the traffic violence that is most harmful. i would like to close my comments to remember kevin manning. as you know, that kevin was a

cab operator who was run over and killed by a driver in the unsafe bike lanes on embarcadero three years ago. although it wasn't a portion that we're talking about today, i think that it's worth remembering that these changes can save lives and delays can cut lives short. kevin was loved by those in the community and our hearts are heavy knowing that the bike lane is still dangerous today. move forward the improvements on embarcadero in kevin's memory to prevent another senseless death of happening along this stretch of roadway. thank you for hearing my comments. >> president brandon: thank you, next caller, please. >> clerk: thank you. opening the next line. >> caller: thank you, president brandon, and congratulations your reappointment and thank you to vice president adams. i'm with the farmers' market and we're a sub-tenant of the port and we have enjoyed a great

relationship with the port of san francisco and i appreciate both the introduction and i have spoken at great length with those at sfmta. i am calling in today to just express my concerns and my strong willingness to work with sfmta to ensure that the changes allow the farmers' market to remain a vibrant part of the fabric of this city. the proposed plan to remove that one lane of northbound vehicular traffic and to install the two directional bike lane has us concerned about cyclist safety and the viability of the farmers' market because of the placement of the loading. the way that the plan is, that the farmers' market -- as the farmers unload and the pedestrians -- or, excuse me, if people get out of vehicles they'll have to cross that to get on to the promenade. i wanted to just say that the farmers' market has remained open during covid as an essential food access point and

that we are not just a lovely lifestyle activity on a saturday when the weather is great, but that we're actually key for the livelihoods of 100 plus small family farms that are within 90 miles of our region and a key point for restaurants who rely on our markets for their live limood and there are thousands -- livelihoods. and many families have used cal fresh over the last year as we have experienced a lot of food insecurity issues related to the pandemic. the farmers' markets have also endured financial hardship with loss of income. as the port knows and knows, that office workers are no longer working across the streets from our farmers' markets and store fronts have been shuttered and tourists have not visited our city. so our weekend markets are suffering from the decreased foot traffic. we know that it will come back and we than it will be a long recovery. we felt that we wanted to

express some things that we would like to see happen so that the farmers' market can remain this positive and economic engine for the city as people spend their dollars in the farmers' market and then spend them at retail establishments nearby. and then also to share the way that the changes that we want to work together on changes because with the pandemic people are shopping and we want to have this inviting environment where people can connect as humans and learn where their food comes from and to share a meal and support a small family business so the things that we're really keen to make sure are included in the plan are a guaranteed white zone in front of the newly opened ferry plaza. it's north of the agricultural building and south of the ferry building to allow for additional loading zones because the plan is shortening the amount of space that our sellers would have to unload. we also want to have a guarantee that we can manage that load and load out process during the

farmers' market because the way that the farmers back up to unload means that we'll be temporarily be blocking parts of the bike lane. so we want to really work with sfmta to make sure that is communicated widely and that cyclists aren't upset with us for this temporary redirection on the promenade or a redirection on a different part of the lane while we unload for the farmers' market. we are hoping that equipment and signage can be really be a part of it as casey mentioned. >> out of time. >> caller: okay. >> president brandon: thank you, christine. >> clerk: okay, opening up the next line. >> caller: good afternoon, commissioners, president brandon and vice president adams. commissioners. this is alice rogers. i'm president of the south beach

neighborhood association and i have worked with you all on the waterfront land-use and a member of walk san francisco also. our neighborhood association has worked for years with casey and with you, the port, in trying to eliminate the embarcadero, and we see that this proposed project will help a long way in getting the ability to move wheeled mobility devices from interrupting the safety of walking along embarcadero. so we will support this, i do think that it's a need up and down the waterfront. it's so important to get the cycling connected, otherwise,

(indiscernible) we go from a short segment of safety to a long segment of danger. so it's completely understandable why bikes end up on the sidewalk. but sfmta and the farmers' market, they are great institutions and to find a way to work together. so i think that we should do this together and i'm certain that with creativity, it could be had. so thank you very much, and keep up the good work. >> president brandon: thank you any other callers? >> clerk: president brandon, there's three other callers on the line. >> president brandon: next caller, please.

>> clerk: thank you. opening that line now. >> caller: yes, my name is robert cartwright and i'm born and raised in san francisco and i have a downtown financial business district for the last 40 years. i pay rent every month and i was here pretty much by myself in my vacant office space in the financial district for the past year. i have remote offices throughout northern california, and i need to make court appearances all over northern california, and, therefore, i need my car. i have been commuting into san francisco for 40 years, hopefully more than that, from the peninsula. and after the quake brought down the embarcadero freeway which used to be a very unsightly thing but it was very easy access to get into the city in

the morning and that made it for an easy commute, since that has been down it's been much more difficult and gets worse every year. i am someone who contributed to the bike coalition and to walk san francisco, and made financial contributions, but i am opposed to these changes. the second street corridor which has gone from two lanes to one lane to create these bike lanes and alton street used my main access point. during the pandemic it's been fairly easy it get through there and now that it's been narrowed to one lane. but before the pandemic started when there were two lanes, it used to take me 40 minutes to get from the freeway to my office at california. this morning and in the last week as businesses have been opening up, you're now waiting usually two signals to get

through a single light and i hate to think what it's going to be like after the city really opens up in june and people start to come back to work and to fill up all of these downtown buildings. i and thousands of my professional colleagues down here here, we need to have to have a vehicle. and we are simply not going to work and we cannot take bicycles. it's the way that our works. so it made it intolerable to drive in the city at this point and to narrow it from three lanes to two, right now embarcadero is the only other access point that you can take when it becomes completely logjammed getting through the financial district. to narrow it from three lanes to two, i think that the changes that have been made in the past -- we have a beautiful

embarcadero, we have been under construction it feels like for 30 years, but it's perfect now. it's great. it's not just totally safe, it never will be totally safe. but there is a bike access lane people can get through there. and i'll just say that this morning, for example, and this last week, knowing that this hearing coming up and i have been counting. this morning there were hundreds of cars in alton street and second street corridor trying to get through and in entire week i have seen one bicycle -- one, using those lanes. and so i understand the need -- >> time is up. >> caller: thank you. >> president brandon: thank you next caller, please. >> clerk: thank you. opening up the next line. >> caller: good afternoon, president brandon and commissioners. my name is katie la dell and i have lived here in the

neighborhood two blocks away from embarcadero for 26 years. and i have spent many years involved with pedestrian safety, with the port, and with the sfmta. before i go on i want to say congratulations, president brandon, you are such a gem and thank you for everything that you do for the port and for us. i want to thank mark and casey and dan for all of of the time and the expertise they have put into this program. so i have always loved being able to access the embarcadero and stroll there to relax and to exercise. but i did stop doing this a few years back after being buzzed and bombarded one too many times by bicycles and skateboards and other wheeled vehicles. the situation is better now where the bike lanes have been installed but the quick fixes proposed truly need to be put in place soon.

i am even more adamant about these improvements now that i am 75 and i have developed a disability which requires that i use a walker. there are a lot of us out there and we want to enjoy this piece of san francisco heaven as much and maybe even more than able-bodied folks. right now the embarcadero is still not safe. there are still people riding bikes, scooters and other wheeled vehicles going too fast and throwing us off balance. the quick-build project proposed would make it both safer and more enjoyable for everybody on embarcadero. in particular i like the plan to remove a traffic lane and to make a wide two-way bikeway. this creates a safe space for people on bikes and scooters outside of the promenade. so i am here today to ask that you support these safety improvements for all of us. thank you.

>> president brandon: thank you, katie. next caller, please. >> clerk: okay, we have two callers remaining. i will open up the next line. >> caller: hello, i am diana taylor, with the neighborhood association. and i sent a letter to the port commission around our organization around what the gateway tenants' association. and we have support with some caveat with the embarcadero and project along the central section of embarcadero. first, i want to commend embarcadero on the enhancement staff with a particular shoutout to casey, and for taking on the responses to our multiple meetings with our neighborhood groups. the bcna and the b.t.a. support sfmta's plan for the two-way bike lanes along the waterfront as well as other safety measures that will help to funnel the

bicyclers safely on to two-way lanes. in the sfmta's survey, they show that there is wide concerns about the pedestrian conflicts on the promenade with fast bikes and skateboards and the many near-misses with scooters. we share these concerns and strongly support enforcing the project, the prohibition of motorized vehicles on the promenade. we support most of the project measures between washington street and pier 39, however, we have concerns about providing two left turn only lanes and just one straight thru lane on embarcadero and broadway. having only one thru lane on embarcadero at the broadway intersection creates a serious risk of increased congestion there. and it establishes an unviable precedent. that press didn't will likely constrain the next section between broadway and bay street

to recommend only one thru traffic lane as well. i urge the sfmta to have the change, with one left turn only and one optional left turn thru lane and one thru lane from the northbound of embarcadero at broadway. given these concerns we are requesting that the sfmta, one, to reconsider the embarcadero to broadway left turn only lane. and, two, to monitor and evaluate the traffic impacts and report out the findings within three to six months after traffic implementation. thank you on behalf of the bcma and the gateway tenants' association. >> president brandon: next caller, please. >> clerk: thank you, this looks like the last caller. i will unmute their line now. >> caller: good afternoon, madam

president, and mr. vice president, commissioners and director and staff. i'm representing the gateway tenants' association and the apartments and the townhouses across from piers 1 and 3. you have received our written comments in a joint letter supporting this program with the of thatiats that diana taylor just spoke to. i'm calling to support her comments and also i wish to speak as a former waterfront advisory member, since retiring in 2001, and now a resident. my wife and i walked the promenade almost every day. pedestrian safety is a significant issue. remembering not to stray from a straight task without first looking for speeding bicycles, scooters, e-scooters and skateboards. and feeling the whoosh of air from speeding vehicles, many near-misses and brushes and collisions.

the embarcadero program will help, especially with the protected bikeways and diverting the bicycles and scooters from the sidewalk. however, please consider stronger measures to separate the speeders from the walkers. more signage, including walk bikes in crowded areas. clearly prohibit motorized vehicles of all kinds on the promenade. education and if that doesn't work, enforcement. we are delighted with the promenade and we enjoy it almost every day, but right now as we hopefully end -- near the end of covid, it's like the wild, wild west. anything goes, not only will vehicles, even runners -- a runner slammed into my wife 11 days ago, and bowling her over and turned without breaking her slide. we went by ambulance to san francisco hospital, and a concussion and bruises all along her left side and bruised or

cracked ribs and a black eye. this is not an unusual incident a few days earlier, a biker said, get out of my way and she said, i never heard that. and the promenade needs traffic calming. please give priority to this and extend and the programs for pedestrian safety. thank you for your service. >> president brandon: thank you, alex. any other callers? >> clerk: president brandon, there are no other members of the public on the phone wishing to make public comment on this item. >> president brandon: thank you seeing no more callers on the phone, public comment is closed commissioner woo ho? >> commissioner woo ho: thank you for this update.

as mentioned by one comment earlier that since the last time that we have heard this item that a lot of progress has been made and i think that we asked questions at that time in terms of how long the quick-build would take, where the funding was, and it sounds like at this point that you have found the funding, at least among the transportation agency to do more of the quick-build faster, because we did advocate that last time. obviously, you know, there's many, many stakeholders in embarcadero, you have pedestrians we just heard from, we have the bikers, and we have some of the other vehicles that are on the promenade, scooters, whatever i guess -- pedi-cabs and we have also the motor way which has cars. it's a delicate balancing act to make sure that everybody's interest in both in terms of being able to use it as a transportation route as well as a safety at the same time. i think that sfmta has tried to

do their best to balance all of those priorities. i think that you heard more suggestions today to continue to improve that. i do think that it's important -- and i don't have an answer and it's not a criticism, that the embarcadero did have to remain as a motorway to a certain extent, and we have been taking away some of the lanes for bike paths and i also wondes question last time -- i think we've given up some of the parking meters as a result and i'm not sure that we know what that tradeoff is, but we should know what that conscious tradeoff is if we're giving up parking space to be able to broaden embarcadero. so i think that we have to keep balancing all of the stakeholders. i think that we -- you know, we can't have one stakeholder group take over the entire interest of embarcadero. it's trying to do the best for every stakeholder that uses the promenade as well as the motorway, both for means to get

where they need to go as well as for recreation, for -- for enjoyment, etc., as many people have called. i think that we're making a good effort. i appreciate the report. i think that sfmta needs to continue to hear from people and figure out how they can continue to fine-tune and i think that perhaps you said that you are going to review some of the statistics because we know that we are going through a recovery right now and hopefully the covid era is mostly over, but i think there's some changes in patterns that will not change and so some of the specifics that you will gather in the future in terms of how embarcadero is being used may change. and that you are still open to making continuous adjustments over time as we see the recovery happen. so i don't have any specific recommendations or comments, but i just think that it's a delicate balancing act. i mean, i know that if you are in a car that you probably are

experiencing much longer delays and that's very unfortunate, and we shouldn't just ignore it totally, but it should be reasonable. i mean, there has to be a reasonable balance between all of the stakeholder interests as well as safety. and so i'm not sure that we are trumpeting one group over the other and we should never do that, because it's there for a reason. so i'm saying to keep all of the interests at heart and you all have a difficult job of figuring out how to make it work for everybody. thank you. >> president brandon: thank you commissioner burton? >> commissioner burton:thank you. i'd like to associate myself to the remarks of my fellow commission woo ho. what i'm wondering, with my experience with sfmta, in what they call neighborhood input has been rather lame. it's a little bit different than

my neighborhood in patrero hill that i never received once in my life a notice that talks about certain streets being closed to traffic, except for those who live there. and those of us that don't have to circle around the block two or three times or else possibly get a ticket. i don't know when you had the notices, although i hear that you did them by mail. and i don't know -- i would like to know the percent, the number of mailings that you did about the embarcadero situation. and then how many receipts you had and, again, what was the percentage of people that maybe had an opinion of either go slow or just take it the way that

it's been -- it's been going. but it's just -- it seems to me from my limited experience that there are times when i have seen the car lanes, and i haven't had a bike since i was like 12 years old, secondhand it was, a schwinn. but that people then are stopped in the traffic, and then you find out that that there are not that many bikes using these bike lanes at this time. and there are other times that i'm stopped at, say, lampton and market street and i count the number of bikes that are going right through the stop sign.

and it's a significant amount of bike traffic, which i think that it is a plan for the environment. but i really believe that before we go helter-skelter in this that we really have to take a look at what is in the general interest as opposed to one special interest. and much to their credit, the bike coalition has probably got as much clout as anybody in the city. and having the clout, it should not mean that pedestrians should be ignored, including people with pets that are walking. i have seen the scooters and sometimes, worst of all, they're going at a faster pace in many instances than the automobiles. so i think that this is

something that are real hearings and not hearings that nobody attends to. and there's no notice in many of the hearings, supposed hearings that were hold, during the covid. a lot of people are working, and they do not have the ability to stay home and do a zoom and make their feelings heard about, you know, cutting -- in fact, one of the walking places that they cut off is right off of the freeway coming -- the vermont exit and headed towards mission bay and i just think that the transportation commission ought to really start re-doing how they test what people are thinking of that may or may not be aware of the issue. but it will be a lot more valid than whatever they were doing

when they were shutting down streets all over the city, you know, for walking, which was fine, but, you know, they shut down a hill that people had to get off the freeway to get to third street. whereas, they left the place where people could actually walk and then you could drive by that anytime that you want. so i just want to associate myself with commissioner woo ho's feelings, and i think that this would be one test of m.t.a., if they consider the general good and not the specific good, whether it's cars or whether it's bikes, or whether it's mopeds, or to do something that will make the city very proud -- especially when you talk about the about port, that is owned for and paid for by the people of san francisco. which, you know, the last time

that you had to pay a license to have a bicycle, i think that it was 50 years ago when i had one thank you. >> president brandon: thank you >> commissioner burton: i'm not running for re-election. >> president brandon: commissioner gilman. >> commissioner gilman: i think that there would be some things that i would look for before we take a vote on this in a couple of weeks. and, again, i -- i am an advocate for protected bike lanes and i like the quick-build program of m.t.a. and of moving fast and swift to have these changes before they become hard and they can't be adjusted. but there's a couple of things they wanted to ask the m.t.a. and port staff to really look at before it comes back to us. i would like to see how we're going to solve the solutions for the loading and the unloading for the farmers' market.

i think that is a lifeline for many people in our community. it does take cal fresh and e.b.c. cards and it's accessible for folks at all income levels. i like the idea of a white zone in front of the agriculture building if that is possible. i really do want to that and i think that the ambassadors and i also appreciate the bike coalition and sharing comments that they would be willing to help with public outreach. we need signage all along the promenade that the promenade is for folks who are walking. we heard testimony from folks who have been injured by motorized vehicles or bicycles riding on the promenade. myself, i talked with director forbes and i was clipped on the shoulder. i had somebody on an electric -- an electric skateboard thing with a giant wheel in it.

and ins are places like sydney and in vancouver along their waterfronts, there's very clear signage that makes it very clear where you're supposed to walk and where you are to ride electric vehicles or man-powered vehicles like bicycles, scooters, skateboards, etc. and i think that the lack of signage is doing a disservice of education for everyone. a lot of these devices are rented by tourists who come to town and rent scooters or rent these bicycles. so i really would like to see how that is addressed in the plan to really motivate, particularly our tourists, to use these protected bike lanes. i have every faith that our bikes community that lives and works in san francisco understands that and will use it. i'm much more concerned around tourists and other folks who come into in the city and see it as a convenient way to get around. i want to press that point with sfmta around education. and really ensuring that we find a way for everyone to be safe

along the embarcadero and along the promenade. thank you. >> president brandon: mark or casey, can you address that, because i'm not quite sure that having these protected lanes is going to take bikes off of the promenade? >> yes, be happy, commissioner, be happy to address that and may i ask casey to assist with that right now the current bike lane is not considered safe by most of the cyclists that use it. what m.t.a. is doing is creating an environment with a two-way bike lane, the intent is to attract different wheeled vehicles, whether it's scooters or skateboards or bicycles or electric bicycles, to provide a safe that they feel safe and willing to travel on. this -- the current quick phase is proposed here includes changes to the embarcadero

promenade that includes signage and includes other measures. i'll let casey fill you in on that. but, yes, we have heard this concern and it's an excellent comment. thank you very much, commissioner gilman. i think that we share that. i think that the public shares that concern too from the outreach we've been doing. so it's great to hear this consistency. casey, can you build on anything here for me? >> yes, i think that, you know, things that we have been focused on with the design and the discussions with community members, you know, really focusing on not just the linear facility along embarcadero, but the connections into it, and particularly the connections at the end of the facilities, so making sure that those are logical and intuitive connections so that it's not easier to get on the promenade. and it's easier to get into the bikeway. we have been focusing on that and we'll continue to do so. modal signage, i think that directing cyclists and directing scooters into specifically into

this facility, we do expect to include that with our quick-build project. i think that what we're not proposing at the moment is to go to the next level and, you know, to slap a bunch of enforcement, thou shall not do this and create a negative message. we're trying to bring a positive message to start and then through our consistent data collection and evaluation, that we will be testing whether that is enough. and then, you know, we would be able to layer in additional signage, additional enforcement measures or other communication tools in addition to signage to reinforce that message. we're also looking at -- i think that it's important but subtle ways of, again, just encouraging the use -- the proper use of the bikeway. so right now -- this gets to the loading as well -- a lot of bike racks in front of the ferry building, there's just a bunch of scooters locked up from the scooter share program.

you know, we want to perhaps to consolidate those parking -- you know, we want to increase the overall parking because we want more folks to come to the ferry building in a sustainable mode. but they can be placed in a better position where it's more logical to get in and out of the bikeway and not just, you know, to drive right up to the front steps of the ferry building. at the same time, we're making that a more permeable and flexible space for the vendors. you know, we have thought through all of the nuanced changes and flexibility needed to make the operations work, the extension of the loading zone and all of that, you know, is baked into our current proposal so we can certainly come back and highlight those changes at the next presentation. but i think that what you're saying is consistent with what we have already from folks that really support the project in both, you know, a bike prospective and a pedestrian perspective. we just want everyone to slow down, be more civil. and we want them to use the facilities that we're providing

and we have a lot of tools to go from where we are today to where we thank we can go in a pretty short time. >> i'm sorry, casey, commissioner, if you will indulge me. i want to ask a question and maybe offline with the briefings. is it right now -- i mean, i'm normally not this kind of person -- is it permissible for me to ride my bicycle or my electric scooter on the promenade today? >> if i can address that one, commissioner. the embarcadero promenade is not a public sidewalk. it is a public place that allowt does allow bicycles on it. it allows other types of services that make the port run it's a multiuse, multipurpose pagway. it serves port purposes and serves the public and it's also a bcdc required public access

area. in the port code, we do not allow motorized vehicles on the promenade. we allow bicycles, but if it has a motor on it, technically it's not permitted there. and we don't have an enforcement arm to take and to handle this at this point. that would come with -- that would not be sfmta's responsibility. it would be the port's responsibility. and there would be a cost associated with it. we are trying to approach this problem by providing a good facility that all of these users are going to want to be on. and then in conjunction with that, the public education campaign that was outlined by mark and casey and the signage that you described and was also mentioned by some calling in. and described by casey as well. so it's all of these pieces coming into place at the same time and trying to prompt good behavior.

that's the approach that is being done now. of course, there's an evaluation period too and a chance to see which is working and what's not and to go back and to adjust that as we go forward. >> i anxiously await that, you know, and i don't see why having a little scooter icon with a slash that you're not supposed to do this -- i'm not talking about having people ticketing or enforcing in that kind of way. i just think that -- i actually think that a lot of the motorized vehicles are tourist oriented and if you're from other parts of the country and you don't know these things you'll do them -- not out of a place of being negligent, a place of being ignorant. so i really would like to think about the public campaign. we heard from people in the call and i have witnessed myself people being injured on the promenade because those vehicles move very quickly and they move much quicker than most people who are walking. so that concludes my comments. >> we can accommodate that

request. >> president brandon: thank you commissioner woo ho. >> commissioner woo ho: a quick comment and you said that the port code does not at the time -- when it was put together, probably we didn't have all of these electric motorized type of vehicles in existence. i mean, these things have happened over the last few years and where all of a sudden you have a lot of electric bicycles, bicyclesmopeds and scooby-doo, r they call them. and when we feel that the quick-build is actually working that we should change our port code so that we can say that we should really adopt that as a policy. because obviously that code was put in place when these vehiclenot exist, but today they do. and so i would suggest that as a policy that we make that change and you can bring it back to the port commission for us to approve and adopt. >> president brandon: thank you

vice president adams? >> commissioner adams: i want to thank dan and casey and mark. this is one of the best discussions that i think that we've had on the commission. i really have enjoyed this. and for me hearing from the community, commissioner woo ho, you were spot on, just hit it out of the park. and gilman, you guys hit it. for me i'm a person who walks on embarcadero every day and that's where i get my exercise. so i have seen all kinds of things, this is my hood, this is where i'm at every day down there. and i understand everybody's concerns. i worry about safety. but just listening to everybody, somewhere we have to have a comment since we have to find a balance, because sooner or later our tourism is going to pick back up. and we -- i don't know, commissioner woo ho in a year or two, but one time we'll be back to 30 million visitors a year. it has to be where everyone can

use it with respect and yet safety. i can't wait for you to come back and you delve into it. but when people really engage in this conversation, it's good, because as commissioner burton said, different groups have different power and they believe in different issues. and sometimes it's hard to balance it, but i think that you're on the right track and i like what i'm hearing and i'm really -- i can't wait until you get back and i'm sorry to hear that commissioner gilman got hit. i have seen people get hit on embarcadero and bicycles have hit them and crazy stuff happens. it's not like it's an everyday occurrence but i have been doing it for years and every once in a while you see somebody that gets hit. that's how it is. so far i haven't seen anybody get killed or anything, but, anyway, i wanted to say thank you and i'm looking forward to it and how we're going to make it safe and make it a place where everybody can go and find that balance that people like.

because everybody has their own turf, but something about san francisco, we'll figure out a way to get what is best for our city and what is best for the port. because we want the tourism to come back, we want people to come and we want people to enjoy our beautiful embarcadero. i think it's one of the prettiest in the world. thank you. >> president brandon: thank you thank you again for the presentation. it's been a great presentation and a lot of information and congratulations on all of the work that has been done over the past year. while there's not been a lot of traffic. but i think that my fellow commissioners, i agree with my fellow commissioners in that it's a very delicate balancing act and it has to be acceptable for everyone, whether you're in a car, whether you're on a bike or a motorized vehicle or on skates or walking, it has to be accessible for everyone. and i know that i have asked this question before because

it's like, okay, once we get these dedicated bike lanes, can we make sure that those dedicated bike lanes are used? and we get all of these wheels off of the promenade. or as many as we can. because people have to be able to walk safely down the promenade. if we have these dedicated bike lanes there should be no reason why individuals shouldn't be in the bike lanes with their bikes so it's a very delicate process but it's not -- we're not just trying to solve for one mode of transportation. we're trying to solve for several modes of transportation and we have to make it work for everyone. so you guys have done a great job and there's still a lot of work to be done, but i hope that in the end we're looking at all angles and at all modes of transportation. so that everybody can feel comfortable and safe on the

waterfront. >> here, here. >> president brandon: thank you call next item, please. >> clerk: item 12a is an informational presentation on a memorandum of understanding and 16808, between the port of san francisco and the san francisco municipal transportation agency for the use of a portion of seawall lot 354, also known as 139 the marin street for general office, general warehouse, storage, related parking of the sfmta staff vehicles, maintenance and repair of sfmta buses, including fueling and washing of same, and for incidental, directly-related uses and for no other purpose for a term of seven years and a waiver of the security deposit. >> president brandon, congratulations to your reappointment. good afternoon, my name is kimberly beal, with real estate

and development. today i'll joined by monica coral, and others with real estate and development with jason diago and jesse schofield and teresa kavanaugh with sfmta and as mentioned, this is an informational presentation for a proposed memorandum of understanding with sfmta for continued use of a portion of seawall lot 354. next slide, please. so since december 1998, sfmta has been using a portion of seawall lot 354, known as 1399 marin street under an m.o.u. with the port. this is a 3.2 acre site located in the southern waterfront off caesar chavez west of third. this site was originally used to house a temporary operating division during reconstruction of a nearby sfmta facility. next slide, please. the current and proposed uses

under the m.o.u. are office, storage, maintenance and repair of buses, general warehouse uses and parking of sfmta staff vehicles. next slide, please. and so the rationale for the proposed use and the term of the m.o.u., from m.t.a.'s point of view, they have been leasing the site for the last 20 years. the site serves as a flex facility that helps in upgrades to sfmta's primary yards and its function flexes with the capital projects. sfmta has made investments into the port facility that has mutual benefit for port, sfmta and the community. from the port standpoint entering into the new m.o.u. with m.t.a. provides a continued income stream at current parameter with no downtime to have to market the site.

and it requires no capital outlay on behalf of port, and it allows the site to continue to be used by a tenant that has been in good standing with the port for the last two decades. next slide, please. the property has served as a muni motor coach acceptance and maintenance yard and storage and as a historic streetcar yard. the sfmta plans to continue this use in a similar fashion as it has throughout the past two decades, with one positive variation. the historic streetcars and the muni track department will be relocated and the property will accommodate a small portion of sfmta electric trolley fleets for maintenance and storage, rather than the current hybrid diesel motor coach storage and maintenance use. next slide, please. the capacity will remain at about 30 buses.

and in addition to various upgrades made throughout the years, new improvements funded by m.t.a. are to include but are not limited to site modifications to accommodate the electric trolley fleet, raising the site and addressing flooding and having restrooms and break roomses for the staff there. and the existing m.o.u. expires in july of this year and under the proposed new m.o.u., the property will remain -- or the use of the property -- will remain the same with the exception of the changes just mentioned to accommodate the trolleys. the rent will be increased to current parameter. the rent will be increased annually by 3%. m.t.a. will have one option to extend for an additional two years. the initial term that is proposed is seven years. and then m.t.a. will continue to be responsible for all

maintenance and utilities associated with the site. next slide, please. so to be provided as part of the m.o.u. proposed community benefits include installation and maintenance at and around slave creek and with the history of the area and about the slave creek resilience planning and they will also be installing two hour street parking which will provide parking for shoreline visitors. next slide, please. electric trolley buses will be maintained at the site versus diesel hybrid motor coaches, providing air quality benefits to the neighborhood. and as part of the good neighbor policy, m.t.a. staff keeps the area, around 1399 marin clean and provides maintenance and gardening of the space west of indiana street. next slide, please.

so this m.o.u. will also meet the port's strategic objectives of stability as m.t.a. will pay the current parameter rent which is 14.8% increase over the existing rent, supporting the port revenues, and the goal of sustainability as a portion of the trolleys replace the diesel motor coaches stored and maintained at the facility. next slide, please. so the recommended next steps, port staff welcomes the port commission's questions and comments. we will, along with m.t.a. staff, bring this item to the southern advisory committee for discussion and that will occur on june 23rd. it will support m.t.a. staff and bringing this m.o.u. to the m.t.a. board and recommend that the port commission directs staff to bring the m.o.u. for

approval to a future meeting for the continued use and the rental of 1399 marin street. and with that, that ends my presentation, and, again, we welcome any questions or comments that the commission may have. >> president brandon: thank you (indiscernible) open up the phone lines to table public comment on item 12a for members of the public who are joining us on the phone. our operator will provide instructions now for anyone on the phone who would like to provide public comment. >> clerk: thank you, president brandon. at this time we will open up the queue for anyone on the phone who would like to make public comment on item 12a. please dial star, 3, if you wish to make public comment. the system will let you know when your line is open. others will wait on mute until their line is open.

comments will be limited to three minutes per person. the queue is now open. please dial star, 3, if you wish to make public comment. >> president brandon: thank you do we have any callers? >> clerk: president brandon, at this time there are no callers on the line wishing to make public comment on this item. >> president brandon: thank you seeing no callers on the phone, public comment is closed. commissioner gilman? >> commissioner gilman: i wanted to really thank you for this report. and the background that the m.t.a. has been using this site for a really long time. you know, i don't have any pressing questions at this moment. i do want to say that i'm very interested in what the southern advisory waterfront group feels about this m.o.u. and this continued sort of industrial/office use at the site. so when you bring it back for our -- i'm assuming that we come back as an action item for approval of the m.o.u., i would

like to really understand what their input is and how they feel about the community benefits. but at this time i don't have any questions with the combination of parameter rent and the community benefits, but i really do want to see what their input is and how that the m.o.u. changes from that input. i assume if they have input they will change the m.o.u., am i right about those assumptions? >> that is correct. at this time we have basic lease terms and those are the ones that i have just discussed about the m.o.u. is not drafted so there's opportunities for modifications there. >> commissioner gilman: great, thank you so much. >> president brandon: thank you commissioner woo ho? >> commissioner woo ho: yeah, thank you, kimberly, for this report. obviously, you know, we want to support our fellow agencies and so i am generally supportive of the item and the subject to hearing more from the community

which commissioner gilman has referenced. out of curiosity, you know, this was supposed to be a temporary use and, obviously, a lot has changed in the neighborhood over time in this particular area, in the southern waterfront. i am not terribly familiar in particular with this piece of land, but what i would like to know is that if the sfmta was not going to use this space what would the port think -- what would be some of the potential uses of the space -- so just so that we understand if the sfmta did not use it, what would we do with that space. and i think that i would like to hear -- you don't have to answer that entirely today -- the staff may want to think about it, but i think that we would want to at least understand what is the potential of this site over time. and, you know, given that time has changed a lot the neighborhood since this site was

first started for usage by the sfmta. i'm not against the item, so i just want to know what the potential is and we can have a comparison in our mind. >> that is an excellent question and one that staff has not discussed. so we will do so and come back to provide you with that information. >> commissioner woo ho: thank you. >> president brandon: thank you commissioner burton? vice president adams? >> commissioner adams: chair, a great report, thank you for providing that information. i liked it and i am looking forward to what you bring back and i think that all of the commissioners kind of hit on it and i think that you were very thorough and looking forward to the finished product, thank you >> president brandon: thank you

kimberly, thank you again for the presentation. just a few questions. and so are we saying that they will no longer have current hybrid diesel motor coach storage, only have electric trolleys? >> it's going to be something that stays and perhaps one of the people from m.t.a. -- i don't know if tess or jason want to respond to that question. >> sure. i -- hopefully you can hear me. i can certainly respond to it. good afternoon, director forbes, president brandon and vice president adams and fellow commissioners. i'm jason giagos, the manager of real estate for the sfmta. and to answer your question, our intent is to make some modifications of the site, to

accommodate our electric trolley bus coaches and to kind of get the site ready for what is our future long-term plan which is, you know, moving the entire transit fleet to an electric fleet. and we'll have an electric charging station there. we have brand-new electric e-buses that were delivered last week, just a few came over, and they're part of our inspection process right now. and so the idea is to not service hybrid diesel electric buses there. we are, however, going to keep our redundancy fuel tanks there in the event that at our ancillary sites or primary fueling sites we happen to have a issue or a failure, that that capacity could possibly be used in the future. >> president brandon: so what you're saying is that they will still continue to be there until you do these upgrades for the

project and is your long-term project within the terms of this? >> yes, so the upgrades -- so what we're doing right now is we're essentially relocating the functions that we have right there and we're relocating them to another site or other sites that we had to acquire and, we're going to make up upgrades over the next year and a half. so those upgrades will be completed around 2023 and at that time then we will transfer a small portion of our electric fleet over there to be maintained and storage for the buses while they're not in the maintenance phase. >> president brandon: okay. so what will they use until 202- >> there will be no uses, yes. we'll be under construction. >> president brandon: so it will be under construction. and you guys are going to raze the site? >> yeah, we're going to raise it about six to 12 inches.

when if floods out there, we have some issues within the actual storage facility so we're going to invest one million or two million in raising the site to mitigate those flooding concerns. because we're going to electrify the site. so not having, you know, issues with water and electricity is probably to our benefit. so to speak. >> president brandon: right, right. and it will help us with our flood plan, our future flood plans. >> absolutely, yes, it will. >> president brandon: okay, you have answered all of my questions and i look forward to hearing what the southern advisory committee has to say. so thank you so much for the presentation. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. >> president brandon: call next item, please. >> clerk: item 13a is an informational presentation regarding waterfront resilience program, local business enterprise subcontracting and w.r.p., equity actions. >> good afternoon, president

brandon, vice president adams, commissioners. brad benson, the port waterfront resilience director here today with carlos co lone, our program administrator, to present a regularly -- a regular quarterly equity and l.b.e. report to the commission. this say standing quarterly item going forward. i wanted to start by congratulating you on your reappointment, president brandon. you have made such amazing service to the commission and the community here at the port. so next slide, please. so today it's a brief report. we want to go over the program's commitment to equity, provide an overview of the l.b.e.

performance in the ch2ml engineer contract, that's our main contract supporting the program. and also provide an l.b.e. update about the civic edge consulting communications contract. that contract is actually expiring later this summer. and then discuss next steps. next slide, please. so the program's commitment to equity is growing. the team is very engaged in that work. next slide, please. over the program -- the efforts to prioritize equity focus on jobs, providing for san francisco residents to gain training necessary to participate in the job opportunities that we see over the coming years through new

contract opportunities. similarly, we have a team who is engaging with the l.b.e. community and potential l.b.e.s to identify those opportunities to hook up with contractors who will move in on that work going forward. and then funding. we want to develop, you know, a funding stream to support programmatic efforts beyond proposition a that provides, you know, a consistent fully-funded program ensuring continuity for work for people finding jobs in the program and contracting opportunities going forward. next slide, please. we're inspired by the port's strategic plan and racial equity action plan. and we're currently focused on cultivating a culture of

inclusion across the w.r.p. team. we often start our team meetings with culture of caring moments and we flecting on things that we're seeing across the country, and having open and honest conversation about more than just the work in the program. we're considering a process to roll out race equity and inclusion training to the w.r.p. team. really thinking about the amazing, you know, equity training effort that is happening right now with port senior staff and how we take some of that learning into the program. i hope to develop a social inclusion and equity plan. we may need some dedicated program resources to develop that. we were very pleased to see that

ch2m hill created a unique internship opportunity advertised to our community colleges. they actually hired a resident of the bayview to gain resilience experience in the program. we just heard today our intern was accepted into u.c. berkeley josé hualong, and we're so proud of him. and this is the kind of opportunity that we want to create in the program where people can really see their path to a career in resilience. next slide, please. i'll hand it off to carlos to talk about the ch2m hill contract. >> thanks, brad. good evening, commissioners, i am the program admin stator with the waterfront resilience program and i'm going to go over the progress of ch2m hill

regarding l.b.e. and minority firm participation through the last quarter, ending in march 2021. next slide, please. and the approval of the contract amendment in december 2019, and ch2m is increasing from 12.1% to 20.2% of total payments. in this last quarter, which ended in march 2021, payments were for work completed by l.b.e. sub-consultants with 11.1% to minority-owned businesses, including 10.7% to african american owned businesses. a significant portion of this work was focused on a stakeholder engagement task with 25% of payments to minority-owned firms and a workforce development task with 100% of payments to minority-owned african american-owned firms.

and this is included in the waterfront program l.b.e. clearly report which is exhibit a of the staff report. next slide, please. as i mentioned previously, payments to l.b.e. firms totals 20.2% of total payments. this table here shows that payments to l.b.e. firms has been 29.7% since the contract amendment back in october 2019. we have increased the participation from all l.b.e. ownership types. next slide, please. so with this graphic we are showing that the majority of the work in phase one is scoped and support the scoping of phases two and three. as you can see the different tasks and the phases of work have different levels of l.b.e. and m.b.e. participation, depending on the work undertaken. phase one has a forecasted l.b.e. participation of 15.5%.

forecasted to increase to 35% in phase two. and forecasted to be 24% in phase three. m.b.e. firms were forecasted to be 9.6% for phase one and forecasted to increase to 27.5% in phase two. and forecasted to be 20.4% in phase three. next slide, please. so this graph shows the accumulated impact from the previous slide. and as you can see a phase two commences this year there's a forecasted acceleration of l.b.i. support in the program. you can also see at the time of the contract amendment, september 2019, that fees were to reach 8.6% of the participation by march 2021. the current -- the actual participation is actually 12.9 percent. next slide, please.

brad,you would take over. >> sure. the other -- the other contract that we're reporting on today is the civic i think consultant contract. a communications contract focused on the resilience program. as i mentioned at the top of the presentation, this contract is expected to end in august of this year. it has been a workhorse contract and really supportive of very strong communications work, strong public engagement work throughout the program and civic has done a very good job of developing a diverse team to execute this work. next slide, please. when we're at that commission at the last quarterly report, we gave an update about jacob's

ch2m hill firm and their commitments to equity at a corporate level. president brandon, you asked to understand what civic edge consulting is doing along the same lines. so it is a certified small business firm, they have 10 employees. 60% of their workforce identify as people of color. and a third of their ownership identifies as people of color. and since 2018, civic edge has been working with a diversity and equity and inclusion consultants to create a framework for the company. they've had multiple staff workshops with consultant support and also weekly meetings of a race equity working group. and they're investing in staff

and consultant time since 2020, and dedicated commitment to support underrepresented staff, partners and businesses. and they're also holding weekly un-learn sessions at staff meetings and so they're deeply committed to this work. amber has expressed that to our team, and we have also had great participation from civic edge and their team members in our own equity working group that carlos co-chairs. next slide, please. so over the last six months under this civic edge contract african american-owned businesses performed nearly 80% of the work under the contract. in the past year, african americans and latino-owned business participation is at 50%. next slide, please.

so this -- for the total contract, the total payments have been approximately $1.4 million and the l.b.e. payments, $574,000, and overall l.b.e. participation by payments is at 40.1% with 7.1% going to minority-owned businesses, 13.9% going to women-owned businesses, and then breakdown by ethnicity, african american-owned businesses received 10.4% of payments, and latino-american owned businesses received 7.4% of payments. civic edge as an l.b.e. self-performed half of the contracts, resulting in a total l.b.e. participation of 87%. next slide, please.

so as, you know, as we are getting into the routine of making this report, ultimately we'd like to line up with the broader port contracting report and to be on the same calendar. we are working closely with bethany and with tony autry, to advance the equity in the program and to just keep a close eye on our l.b.e. sub-contracting as we move through and add new l.b.e. sub-contractors to the contracts. and to prepare these reports to the commission. so i'll stop there and ask if the commission has any questions for staff. >> president brandon: thank you, brad and carlos for that presentation. now let's open it up for public comment. we will open up the phone lines to take public comment on item 13a for members of the public who are joining us on the phone jennifer is our operator and

will provide instructions now for anyone on the phone who would like to provide public comment. >> clerk: thank you, president brandon. at this time we will open up the queue for anyone on the phone who would like to make public comments on item 13a. please dial star, 3, if you wish do make public comment. the system will let you know when your line is open. and others will wait on mute until their line is open. comments will be limited to three minutes per person and the queue is now open. please dial star, 3, if you wish to make public comment. >> president brandon: thank you do we have anyone on the line? >> clerk: president brandon, at this time there are no members of the public on the phone wishing to make public comment. >> president brandon: thank you, seeing no callers on the phone, the public comment is closed.

>> sorry, did you call on somebody? thank you, brad and carlos. this was a very encouraging report. and very comprehensive. i don't have specific comments but as we discuss equity throughout as being a important priority, i think that you guys have hit the note very high and i appreciate that and i'm sure that president brandon will speak more of it, because it's one of her passions. but i wanted to compliment all of you for taking the time and the effort and to bring us up-to-date on how this is actually being actioned and translated into day-to-day activity at the port and i applaud you for the effort and thank you very much for the report. thank you. >> president brandon: thank you, commissioner gilman. >> commissioner gilman: similarly, i want to thank you for the report. this is a lot of progress.

i mean, i think that on page 6 of the staff report you see in the last three years from the contract amendment and from you are able to almost -- almost triple our w.b.e. participation and almost triple overall on the sub-percentage, so i think that it's a starting point. and i want to commend the young gentleman who saw resiliency as a pathway and got into berkeley i want to congratulate him as well, because this is just a start. i'm sure that commissioner brandon will have a lot more comments but it will be an incredible when this is just a norm and 75% contractors fall into this category and we are cultrating small minority-owned businesses to be part of this.

and i look forward to the quarterly updates and i want to commend your work. >> president brandon: thank you vice president adams. >> commissioner adams: yeah, brad and carlos, great job. president brandon, she's like a train and she keeps pushing and pushing and pushing and we keep raising the bar. so i want to thank you. i know that it's late in the day and it might be a little worn out, but thank you. and commissioner gilman is right, that today she made this a norm and this is who we are at the port. and commissioner woo ho's comments are right and so we're continuing to raise it up and i hope that -- you know, one thing that you know about president brandon, we all know that she'll go, great report but -- so we'll see what she has to say. i'm all done, thank you.

>> president brandon: thank you and thank you so much for this report. i really appreciate the update and i really appreciate the effort and the intentions and the thought that has gone into making this report better than it was last time. and hopefully we just continue that. i really want to congratulate the intern who got into berkeley. that's a major accomplishment. and hopefully we'll have more interns over the summer that can get involved in this project. so i just want to thank you for increasing our l.b.e. outreach and engagement, and i just hope that going forward that we can engage our m.b.e.s and our

w.b.e.s earlier in the process and not wait until the end of the process. so i just hope that we can continue this momentum because you are doing a great job and i want to really just thank you. >> thank you so much, president brandon and commissioners. >> president brandon: thank you call next item, please. >> clerk: that would be item 13b which is an informational presentation regarding the southeast mobility adaptation strategy. >> president brandon, commissioners, brad benson again. i want to just introduce this item, i know that we're late in the day. this is been a great opportunity for the port to collaborate with city department partners, the planning department has led this study of the islais creek area with a grant from caltrans.

we've had participation by sfmta and sfpuc and it's really great to see a city team collaborating in this way, particularly through a process that requires robust public engagement. some of the highlights for this study for me have been that engagement -- i think that we've been very intentional about reaching out beyond that group of folks who are committed and want to show up to public meetings and we've tried through this engagement process to meet people where they are already meeting and to get to a broader audience. another aspect of this work that you'll hear a little bit more about has been the port tenant engagement. we're seeing that there's a lot of current flooding issues in this area of the waterfront and

these issues are affecting the tenant operations. you heard about sfmta's plan to raise the bus facility as they're undertaking new construction, and other port maritime tenants are facing similar problems. i am going to hand over the presentation to terry kilstrom, the port lead planner on this effort and she will be followed by lisa fisher, representing the planning department who is the lead on this study. and i just would like to say one thing about terry -- the commission may not know but mindy lowe, who was our lead planner in the resilience program left for another great career opportunity. terry has been with the port planning and environment division and with diana's support stepped up to fill some pretty big shoes in the program and has done a remarkable job.

and i just want to thank terry for her work on this study while we recruit for the replacement. so, terry, take it away, please >> thank you, brad. that's very nice of you to say. good afternoon, and congratulations president brandon, vice president adams and commissioners, director forbes, terry kilstrom here on behalf of the waterfront resilience program. we are very pleased as brad said to provide an informational presentation -- the islais creek southeast mobility and adaptation strategy. it's a long title, but essentially it's a tool kit and a road map for reducing the combined risk of two types of flooding. temporary flooding that occurs during heavy storms, and permanent inundation that is expected over time due to sea level rise. sea level rise is a slow moving problem, so we have time to plan and to fund solutions.

but the risk of temporary flooding is a current problem in some locations during heavy storms or tides along the shoreline. so this work will help the city agencies and the port to focus on near-term and long term flood protection. next slide, please. so here's an overview of what we'll cover as brad mentioned. this has been -- this is a district-wide adaptation strategy that reaches beyond port properties and it has been coordinated effort with several city agencies, including s.f. planning, m.t.a., p.u. krmple and the port. and lisa fisher is joining us today and as the project lead for the city team she will describe the flood adaptation strategy in more detail. as brad mentioned this is a two-year effort funded by a grant from caltrans and it will be completed by the end of june

we'll talk more about the community engagement and the creative approaches used to successfully to reach and to listen to residents and business owners and then lisa will walk us through the details of the flood risk modeling and the flood adaptation strategies. next slide, please. so let's start with the general orientation to this work at a high level and how it relates to other planning efforts in the city and the port waterfront resilience program, and regional plans that affect this district and go into more detail about the early community engagement that laid the groundwork for resilience planning. next slide, please. so the strategy is just one of multiple climate resilience efforts in san francisco. to address the flood risks along the city's bay and the ocean

shorelines. the port's waterfront resilience program is another one of those efforts. the city's goal is to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. next slide, please. and as you know, the waterfront resilience program is leading to resilience efforts that encompass the 7.5 miles of shoreline managed by the port. the comprehensive adapt plan and the resiliency plan in partnership with the port. so given the overlap of the islais creek district and the portwide resilience planning, the port resilience program coordinated closely with the city team, particularly to engage with the community in advance of the planning work. when complete, the islais creek adaptation strategy will provide a key input to the adapt plan

and the army corps flood study where they'll examine a broader range of flood projections, and adaptation alternatives to identify the potential for a federally funded project. next slide, please. so the project area is focused on the district between the southern patch and the northern bay view neighborhoods. it's bounded by the elevated highways on the west and san francisco bay. next slide, please. this district-wide approach required coordination among multiple city agencies to gain alignment on strategies that protect all of our critical city assets in the area. for example, we talked about muni earlier in the meeting and they have transit and bus facilities near the shoreline.

the two creek crossings here at islais creek bridge and illinois street bridge provide critical connections to the rest of the city for residents and business operations. the p.u.c.'s southeast treatment plant is located within the district. and, of course, the piers 80 through 96 support maritime operations and future growth opportunities. next slide, please. so from the outset, the islais creek southeast mobility project, to develop the vision and the goals that have informed the adaptation strategies. with the talented support of the port's communication contractors, the engagement with equity-based, by focusing on removing barriers to participation to hear about

community needs, questions and concerns. before covid, the port and the city team collaborated on a series of engagement events to increase awareness about flood risks and to co-create the community goals. so these events included three in-person community workshops, including attendance by supervisor maxwell at the time. and a halloween pop-up with hunters view residents. attended by board president walton. and a holiday mixer at radio africa, you may remember, president brandon attended, director forbes and director walton. and walking tours around islais creek led by s.f. planning and port staff that were very well attended. in all, the series of events held within the community reached over 300 people. in the last six months, during

covid, 9 community benefit organizations hosted meetings virtually for status updates on the waterfront resilience program and islais creek strategy. next slide, please. the team also asked the community members to participate in an asset mapping exercise to identify the places that people love about the waterfront that are important to their lives and things that people are concerned about during a disaster. to highlight a few, people responded that they loved candlestick point and parks and open spaces and water access. people named housing, the bridges and transportation, jobs and wastewater treatment as important assets and facilities here. concerns during a disaster include emergency response services, hospital access and

water quality. next slide, please. so during the in-person meeting series there were five goals for all planning for the islais kreect district. the vision is that islais creek adapt the flood risk while ensuring healthy and resilient communities. the goal is to focus on a socially and an environmentally resilient neighborhood, and a transparent public engagement, and a resilient transportation system, and a healthy environment for people and ecologies. and a sustainable economy that benefits workers and industries in a moment lisa will describe adaptation strategies that reflect these community goals to

advance equity through reliable transit, a cleaner shoreline and long-term job opportunities. next slide, please. so regarding a sustainable economy, it's important to point out two recently completed regional plans for 2050 that have economic growth objectives for this district. first, the planned bay area 2050, prepared by the m.t.c. and the abag designates the islais creek as a priority production area. the purpose of this designation is to enable the city's remaining industrial area to thrive and grow and to expand middle wage jobs near more affordable housing. next slide. the second regional policy is the seaport plan. one of the goals of the seaport plan is to reserve the port area

to accommodate the future growth in maritime cargo. minimizing the need for new bay fill for port development later in the future. piers 80 through 96 are designated port use and for the deep water berth, expansive terminal area and ground transportation routes to the regional highway system. our recent update to the cargo forecast for 2050 expects growth in roll on and roll off cargo, automobile cargoes and the dry bulk cargo. pier 96 was a key site to accommodate this growth, assuming full use of piers 86 through 90 as well. and the last note is that cargo terminals are important public safety assets. the city and the disaster response plans rely upon these

piers for berthing large supply ships, staging mobile and medical hospital facilities, and other emergency response operations. so with that background, i'll pass the presentation to lisa fisher to walk us through the islais creek adaptation strategy. >> thank so much, carey. next slide, please. good afternoon, commissioners, in particular president brandon, congratulations again. and director forbes, and all of the port staff. so great to work with everyone. thank you for having us. again, i'm lisa fisher, i lead the resilience and the sustainability work at the department and it's my pleasure to serve as a project director for this effort, along with my colleague, louise baretta who is here as the project manager.

and carey mentioned tim dutiry from the sfmta and sarah minic from wastewater. so together working within our divisions and especially working together we're excited to bring you the latest on this islais mass project as we like to call it, project. it doesn't seem that the standard font at planning may be in the standard fonts at port, so if any of the titles are weird, i apologize about that. next slide, please. and then the next slide. so one of the main points of this project is how can we understand the most possible about the future so that as we invest, you know, whether it's in the near term or the near term or 20 years from now, that we do that in a way that is coordinating together with the efficient city resources and then making sure that all of those investments can withstand, you know, through 2080 and on into the future. so in that, this project, you

know, it really focused on that deep analysis, which i will share with you. we explored the different scenarios for adaptation planning. and, again, we heard from our great community stakeholders and from, of course, from all of the agencies at hand. and then we have been working to formulate this set of adaptation strategies and pathways which i'll go into. so thanks, carey, for highlighting a lot of the stakeholder engagement. the last piece of that that we conducted last week and i wanted to share, we hosted two community circle back events where we kind of personally invited all of those folks who have in any way touched this project over the last two years. and we hosted sessions where we gave up updates and we kind of unveiled our favorite ideas about these strategies and then we spent the bulk of the time had aring from the community. both about are we missing anything, but of these ideas which are you most excited

about. and the other piece of this project that we're all really excited about is understanding what are those come potential community benefits that some of these investments could unlock. as we all work to advance racial and social equity, it's particularly important, you know, in these communities that have been historically underserved, have historically and today also suffer from some of the greater impacts in terms of air quality, you know, other -- excuse me -- in other of these climate impacts, that, you know, we really try to provide for the community with all of our investments. and we were also happy to have president walton to help us to kick off those events and, you know, in addition to being here tonight, the team presented this morning at the sfmta's policy and governance committee. we, carey and louise will present later this week at the southeast advisory committee for you all. and then next thursday we'll be going to the planning commission.

and so together all of that community feedback and all of the discussion from these commission hearings, it's all included in the final report to caltran and we'll incorporate all of those salient ideas and ideas into our final version of the materials that we'll turn in next month. next slide, please. so here's a quick snapshot. this is the most technical diagram of my presentation, but we are pretty proud that this was the first truly combined flood modeling. i'm sure that many of you have seen a lot of combined flood modeling where we talk about permanent sea rise and coastal storms. this model adds in the layer of inland kind of precipitation-based flooding which we experience as stormwater. so in this diagram, if you see tiny orange dots, that is a stormwater flood pattern. the light turquoise is the anticipated coastal flood extent that we could see in 2080 because, of course, as the seas

rise, the extent of that coastal flooding has the opportunity to travel further inland. and then in the kind of, you know, the hot pink/purple color, this is the permanent inundation of sea level rise if we get that 4.5 feet that is projected by 2080, this is what we could be up against. assuming that no action is in this area. so, fortunately, we are a city of action and we are excited to get some of this going. but just to really point to the picture of why did we even focus on islais creek in the first place and what are we up against. so next slide, please. so in order to make all of this technical information a little friendlier we have created a series of more bird's eye diagrams. and the first slide is to illustrate why does this area flood so much. and not unique to many areas of our waterfront, there's a lot of landfill. so you can see that here in gray. and the original shoreline are these kind of hot pink dots and

then always you know, if you are aware this area used to be a marsh and it kind of represents the tailend of the watershed that started way back if glen canyon. as we're surrounded by the hills, the water is naturally coming into the basin as well as the bayshore coming in. next slide, please. and then as we add in today's built environment, you know, you might also know that there's not a ton of greening, there's not a ton of places for this water to go. when we talk about impervious services, there's the stormwater here that is in streets and gutters. so that's part of what we're solving for. next slide, please. this is a snapshot of today's land uses. it's interesting to note that the bulk is production and repair, which we call p.d.r. here in the light purple. i note that this is one of the

main concentrations of these uses so there's warehouses and there's makers and there's automotive repair and there's the produce market, you know, there's all of those types of industries that really are unique to this district. and then as you go closer to the water, you have the port piers and the maritime uses and those are still uniquely suited to host, but then kind of surrounding our district are all of these res differential neighborhoods -- residential neighborhoods. we have the indian basin on the south. we have this kind of third street corridor that is in its own series of evolutions so we want to consider this as we think about how to protect the district. next slide. another unique piece of this district is the amount of public ownership. both in terms much land and in terms of assets. so here you can see the public

parcels which includes the southeast treatment plant, you know, some public works facilities and then if you go to the next slide, please, this project islais itself, we had the opportunity to do a deeper dive on seven of those assets. so working with the agencies as well as hearing from the community, we identified these seven assets of the focus of this particular study so that includes the port pier 80 and 96 as well as 86 and 96 back land and the bridges over islais creek bridge. which some call third street bridge and the illinois street bridge and the two facilities there on the northwest side of the creek. next slide, please. so i think as we all work together to make sure that every city investment is kind of helping each other, that, you know, some of this is happening now. you know, we just heard a presentation about some

facilities looking at elevating and we of course that petrero station is elevating and this is the new way that we're building so, again, this is a snapshot of today's 100-year flood risk and the coastal maps. next slide, please. and so today we're already seeing, you know, transit and transportation disruptions and folks who can't get to work or worried about stepping in water and getting electrocuted. there's been damage to propertys and cline ups and those sorts of things. next slide, please. so as we look to 2050 when we see up to two feet of permanent sea rise, the extent of that temporary flooding is going to continue to grow. and you can also see in 2050, we're already starting to lose some of the pieces of land shown in the dark turquoise. next slide, please. and then by 2080 which is the

extent of this particular study, you know, we're looking at upwards of 4.5% of water, and when you added the 100-year storm, and if you have tides at the same time that you have a huge storm and you have wave run-up, that's about 93 inches of impact. and you can see here that those dark turquoise areas of permanent inundation becoming quite significant. next slide, please. so some of the disreportions anl continue to get worse. so we definitely, you know, we want to start solving for that as soon as possible. next slide, please. so in terms of how are we going to solve for it and what are our ideas, you know... (please stand by) -- you can do a

deeper dive on any of these strategies or sub-geographies but we'll show you the ones that support the goals around economics and around open space and so here we have the sustainable economic slide which is really, again, talking about jobs, you know, and the industries, the businesses, that we want to support them to be able to grow and to thrive in this area. you know, especially the ones that are very unique and can really only exist in this kind

of economic ecosystem. so you can see that we have a lot of strategies around raising and rebuilding pier edges and berths and enhancing those job areas. everything that we do to protect flooding helps to preserve the inland areas for economic activity. next slide, please. and for the healthy environment, you know, we will be looking at some of the parks, expanding some of those, and then also creating different types of ecological solutions, whether it's wetlands or eel grass beds that you can see in the dark turquoise or oyster beds, that help to protect the edges from erosion and on the west side the creek, looking at how we can bring in more nature as we evolve over time. and to have amenities along that part of the creek. as we begin to solve for the stormwater issues in the neighborhood, that plenty more

of the green infrastructure approach with rain guard and street trees, and those are things that not only help to manage flooding but also help the neighborhood to fare better with heat waves and smoke, just that kind of general neighborhood. and then the last one, please. and then -- excuse me, i think that the mobility slide got missed but you can see here in blue the mobility focus slide which in this case, you know, we're, of course, really focused on the bridges and how can we do some near interim term improvements for pedestrians and bicycle safety and help to avoid some of the conflicts of the trucks and the other commercial-based vehicles as well as the blue-green wave. we appreciate the port being such a great champion for the blue-green way up and down the waterfront and we're excited about the idea of connecting with totrero power station and coming through and thinking about the alignment between pier 80 and the m.t.a. facility to

get us further away from that hectic illinois street corridor and then as we go south of the creek, you know, how do we continue to improve the blue-green way so that it connect this is whole network of parks and particularly unlocks them for all of the folks living in the bayview. and then, again, just on all of these major streets and then around this area, continuous, like, working together with m.t.a. and our friends at public works about other improvements around safety for every mode. so this is our kind of compilation of strategies. the last thing they want to say is that we have taken this approach which you may have heard of called adaptation pathways and it's where we have grouped the strategies, not only guy geography but also in a way that there's decision points over time. so the city is not in a position, you know, here in 2021 to really have to decide about what we are we going to commit through to 2080, but understand how strategies over time, you

know, as things change -- like the projections are different for the flooding or the economics changes, or other things happen, that we have these pivot points where we can really be smart about how we focus and how we invest. so that concludes the presentation and that is around the port properties. >> thank you, lisa. next slide, please. and on the district-wide framework for 2080. and i want to point out that there's a line of defense proposed and it generally follows the edge of the pier berths and it would be engineered to support the maritime functions and for the adjacent on the landslide. as lisa pointed out, the

strategy is to help decision makers to make smart near-term and long-term decisions and where we can see those and low points where we have vulnerability in the early decades and so -- and we also have been talking with and in a couple of cases, they're experiencing flooding now during king tides and storm events. and so and we can take manageable steps over the decades to handle the big picture of sea level rise.

so i wanted to just point that out that it's a good road map. and the next slide, please. and so -- i have to keep up. so although this is two-year resilience planning effort for islais creek and concludes next month, the goals will continue to guide the resilience planning and inform the army corps flood study later this year. in many ways completing this work is just the first step. the islais creek strategy is a starting point for continued collaboration with our fellow agencies and we can seek funding together, we can prioritize the projects. and continue our community engagement. and so i want to close by thanking the members of the community and our leadership and everyone that has supported this

effort, especially for working through the talented and the limitations and so thank you for your attention to this informational item at the end of a long meeting. and, lisa, brad and i are available to answer any questions. >> president brandon: thank you so much, brad, carey and lisa for that great presentation. staff, opening it up for public comment. we will open up the phone lines to take public comment on item 13b for the members of the public on the phone.

>> i attended the policy and guidance. of them. they have indicated and instructed the taft -- the stuff to come up with a plan. they are not only interested in disability studies, but they are talking about what is the sfmta financing obligations in all of this? how can we implement equity? how do we collaborate with the sfpuc and make things happen? we cannot wait until 2050. the resilience plan is essential to the development of the waterfront and also to the

development of the bayview. we are excited. the blue-green way plan is already in place. we want to commit local, state, federal and public, private partnership to start this process. janelle has all these individuals working together. thank you for your leadership. and your director and the rest of the staff. i am in support. we are in support. we are energized and we are looking at the republic of san francisco. the port of san francisco is the driver of the economic recovery, post covid-19. congratulations again, president brandon, and all to the commissioners and the staff of san francisco and sfmta and the

sfpuc, san francisco planning, let's get together and help the city and county of san francisco to recover. thank you. >> thank you, linda. >> president brandon, there are no other members of the public on the phone wishing to make public comment. >> thank you. seeing no more callers on the phone, public comment is closed. commissioner gelman? >> lisa and carrie and brad, thank you for such a detailed report on so many levels. it really illustrates the resiliency efforts, but the community outreach efforts. i do want to applaud you on that. i also want -- i don't have any questions about your report. i want to echo what we heard in public comment from mr. richardson. this is an area of the waterfront that we still need

for p.d.r. use and industrial use, but we have emerging neighbourhoods and existing neighborhood to have been ignored. i'm really happy to see how we are trying to balance all of those needs. it is complex. especially for our makers and our light manufacturing. we still need that usage in the city. we need to acknowledge the emerging neighbourhoods and existing neighbourhoods that have always been in that area. i want to thank you for calling that out on the map. i thought that was a really important data point and that we continue our efforts to ensure the viability and sustainability of this part of the waterfront and for those neighbourhoods. i want to also thank you on your community outreach. it seems like you're listening to the community, you are doing your best to model that into departmentally as mr. richardson stated. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, brad, lisa, and

carrie. excellent report. it's like an encyclopedia. you have given us all the background to understand the resilience plan and what is in there for the future. it's a great example of how we are handling this issue and it does deal with some of the strategic challenges that we have known that we will face with climate change and other things going on. and all the other developments that are going on at the same time. i think it was very well presented. i also -- here is some background noise. maybe it is gone now. sometimes, you know, there seems to be a theme that runs through some of our commission meetings that i pick him -- that i pick up on, at least. what struck me today is the interagency collaboration and cooperation that we have. obviously, today, your presentation with the planning department, and earlier we had the sfmta and i heard, of course, i wanted to hear that the port is one of the leading

collaborators in that regard and we are respected for how we work with other sister agencies in the city and not only in terms of the actual cost, but also the use that we bring to the work. [indiscernible] i just want to say, today seems like we had a lot of that in terms of how we work together, and certainly we heard that even when talking about some of our staff members who unfortunately, did pass unexpectedly, and how well he exemplified that. sometimes you just pick up these things that come up and they just exemplify what the port represents and i'm always amazed at the depth and quality and the excellence and professionalism of our staff in terms of what

they do, the content of what they do, as well as how you carry it out. they are really coming together. it makes us feel, as commissioners, that we are sure -- sitting on an agency that knows what it's doing and doing it well and it helps to be able to sleep well at night. i do sleep well at night knowing all of you are doing such a great job. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. vice president adams? >> i just want to say to lisa, carrie, brad, just a stellar report. it was just an immaculate report. all of the information and then the great oratory of lender richardson. it was like a symphony of words. she just brought it home. it was beautiful to hear it. i am just really excited about it. it just was one of the best

meetings i've ever had. you are ending it at such a high note. it's late. it is almost 7:00. i could stay a couple hours. i'm so fired up about your report. i love how everything came together. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> again, thank you so much for this presentation and the way you guys are doing it. you are doing a great job in working with the community. all of my questions have been answered because the report was so thorough and detailed. we really appreciate hearing it. we can't wait to see the next step and how it expands with the army corps and the additional study that we are going to do and all the financing opportunities that are going to come because of it. thank you for that report. >> thank you, president brandon.

it is a pleasure. >> thank you. >> item 14 is new business. >> commissioners, do we have any new business? >> i do, commissioner brandon, if that is okay. i wanted to ask for an informational on improper and illegal visiting on the waterfront. on the land use committee, the owner of queen po boys on the northeast section of the waterfront, at that hearing, they complained about her frustration about what she perceived as improper or illegal vendors of food and merchandise along the waterfront. i was hoping i could get an informational, hopefully this summer from port staff.

i just wanted to ask for that informational. >> thank you. >> i would like to follow-up and second commissioner gilman's request. >> i'm sorry, are they with us? >> yes, i am, president brandon. >> okay. >> okay. >> i see them every morning when they're walking out on the waterfront where commissioner gilman is talking. right down past alcatraz. i don't know, whatever they have out there, i am not hating on nobody, but they are out there hustling. we all know it. it was broad, i'm sure. it has been brought to director forbes' attention.

it's kind of like catch me if you can. i am sure director forbes knows more and you too, president brandon. i know it's hard, but they are out there. i will leave it at that. i support commissioner gilman's feelings about looking into that. especially when some of our tenants are trying to make it. thank you, president brandon. >> is there any other new business? [indiscernible] >> motion to adjourn. [laughter] >> second. >> roll call vote, please. [roll call]

>> meeting is adjourned at 7:12 p.m. >> thanks, everyone. i appreciate it. >> good night, everyone. >> thank you so much.

>> growing up in san francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry -- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area. i was born in san diego and

adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old. i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay. we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism. you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. very queer family. growing up in the 90's with a

queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. i was a weird kid. i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we

characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing. it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. at its core, autism is a social disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. i didn't like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i

overshared. i was very difficult to be around. but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need.

it was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasn't sure, so i went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to care for

parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the prospective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult with autism. i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate and kind of getting think early childhood credits before i

started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and i'm like absolutely. so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here. i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a

resource center, and this resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about certain chunts, like the transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary.

all emergency proclamation suspending and modifying in-person meeting. during the coronavirus emergency, this meeting will convene remotely until the committee is legally authorized to meet in person. public comment will be available on each item of the agenda. comments or opportunity to speak during the public comment period are available by calling