from -- i'm not sure where that is from, maybe "the chronicle" or somewhere, but mr. cooperman is on board plugging into the constitutions going on. -- discussions going on. some have had more success than others, and i would love to continue that discussion with you and director and make more headway there. -- in the next coming months here. so, pam, if we can go to kind of slide 9. i wanted to make a point here. yeah, slide 9 is kind of important if you're tracking on m.t.c. as all of the commissioners on this call i'm sure are. this is about the where the blue ribbon task force is going and the unprecedented coordination and cooperation that the operators are undergoing right now. there is a weekly monday call at 9:00. all the operators in the bay area are on it. i'm on it, mr. tumlin, kirch,

carter down at caltrain, sam trans, all of them are on there and we're talking through issues, we're talking about connectivity. we're talking about a more transit -- a world-class transit in the bay area that doesn't have borders. it's not bart, it's not muni, it's not county connection, it's just public transit in the bay area and in my opinion it's very impressive, the level of communication that is going on right now. so just jeff was on earlier. so just know that jeff and i are talking routinely and plugged that this the conversations. that's the takeaway there. 10 and 11 go together. and let me just start with 10, please, pam. you know, when i was prepping for this and working with pam on this. i felt one element that was a

little bit missing and i added with pam these two slides. bart is local to the city and county of san francisco. we may be a regional -- and we run all the way down to millbrae and all the way out to richmond, but for the city and county of san francisco, bart is local. and many, many of the riders that are riding today within the city are folks of color, annual income under 50k from our survey, that don't have access to a car and have been commuting to work an bart for over five years. so it was very important, you know, as we -- for my discussions with beavan and janice, we have to put the service back out now as soon as we can. there was a lot of criteria that

i walked the board through, but bart is local to the city and county of san francisco. and you can see some of the other staff there. but right now, bart pre-pandemic, 55,000 people took bart within san francisco and the county a day. that's about the geary corridor service pre-pandemic. and then the other thing, there is -- i always would argue, not to get into it with any other transit agency -- the most important thing somebody can do from an environmental standpoint right now is to get out of their car and get on the public transit. and i'm a little partial to bart. we source our power -- right now we're running 100% greenhouse gas free. i briefed the board on that last thursday. and very, very proud of where bart is going from a sustainability standpoint. then the sister slide here on 11, it's more about bart being local. you know, again, pre-pandemic

and the commissioner who talked about comparisons of the pre-pandemic and pandemic -- or post pandemic i guess, i'm with you on that. i get on my team all the time, you can't compare it like that. but pre-pandemic, 75% of our weekday trips either began or end in san francisco. and many of the office spaces are located within a half mile of bart station. so it just reinforces the concept that bart is local to the city and the county of san francisco and then there is some stats here about sales tax and some property tax and stuff like that. but the point being that, you know, bart is local to the city and county of san francisco. then i wanted to jump to slide 14. here we go. we are very committed to as

bevan alluded to, not really shiny objects if you will, if i could use that phrase, but really investing in our reliability, our predictability. there was a comment from a supervisor, you know, half hour ago about the importance of public transit to be reliable and predictable. and we are investing throughout the system. this slide just breaks it down to the city and county of san francisco. and all the work that is being done along the m line, we call it the m line that runs through the city and county of san francisco, whether it's on the traction power side, the station side, the escalator, the vertical component for mobility. and so just a lot of work that is being done in the city and county right now to maintain and improve bart's reliability and predictability for folks riding the system. and then if we go to slide 15, i

did want to highlight this. there is a lot of projects going on. we just had a recent ribbon-cutting an powell street. i think some of the commissioners are in the photo. bevan and director duffy is in the photo here. janice was the big part of it. but there was a comment about how important public transportation is to folks with mobility challenges. this is a side story. i'm in halfway decent shape, but i hurt my heel the other day. i was riding -- i went down to the m.t.c. dinner the other day at the m.t.c. building and i had to take the -- the escalators were down on both the trip to m.t.c. and getting off at embarcadero. i was a little bit livid, because i wasn't able to take the escalators. i was. i came back, why are the escalators out? i mean, i'm halfway decent

shape, but there are people relying on these for vertical mobility and we are very committed to folks with mobility throughout the system that bart remains the number one accessible transit agency in the united states. so i just wanted to make that comment. i just made notes when the prior meeting was going on there. if we can go to slide 16 and 17 and i'll wrap up. i'm happy to take any questions, have any discussion on any topic with bart or public transit. if we can go to -- yes, 16. so bart is so all in when you're doing your poker stuff on transit oriented development. it is -- the pandemic, yeah,ed ridership has slowed down and it's starting to come back up

here. but bart -- and i think the region effort on development have not slowed down. in fact, we've been pushing very aggressively. and we have projects -- this is a picture of balboa yard, commissioner is on with me and he and i talked about the project. we were 95% of the way there, supervisor. and you and i, we had to help get it across the finish line. and i appreciate you calling us directly and getting this across the finish line. but you can see some of the stats here. this is just balboa park. we have active projects, major projects right now going at the plaza, north berkley, west oakland, lake merritt. we have a 35% affordable housing requirement portfolio-wide and then each specific project has

to have a minimum of 20%. and so we are all in on affordable housing and development around bart transit stations and just, you know, the picture there, it's of the city and muni. so i wanted to acknowledge the partnership there. but it's right next to public transit and that's why we should be having developments around public transit. and then i think slide 17 was more on this specific one. you all, i'm assuming -- and maybe i should never assume, i was taught that. i hope you're all tracking on this upper yard project. 100% affordable, 131 multi-family units right at the balboa park station and we're going to improve the plaza there. and so, you know, 100% affordable right next to bart. you connect into the city.

you know, into the whole bay area on bart's connectivity to other transit agencies. you can't think of a -- i would challenge anybody here on this phone call to think of a better place to put affordable housing other than at a bart station. and this one is 100% affordable. so, thank you for your leadership. and sticking with me. and not taking as we got the last 5% over the finish line there, i just wanted to thank you for your guidance and leadership there. with that, i'm right on time. chair person. and i will turn this over to you and pam and i will do our best to work through our discussion with the commissioners here. >> chair mandelman: thank you general manager powers. and maybe we should -- if director lee would like to say hi.

you don't have to. now you aren't, because you're somehow muted in ways we do not understand. we can't hear you. might be headphones. we'll hear from director lee when she gets connected, but if there are any colleagues. commissioner safai has raised his hand. >> supervisor safai: thank you, chair mandelman. i wanted to take a moment to thank commissioner duffty and executive director powers for their collaboration on our affordable housing transit oriented development there in the upper yard. it is under construction. yay, baeven. yay, director powers, we're excited about the affordable housing getting built.

we're exited about the collaboration on the plaza and all of the work that you all did with sfmta with my office, with the mayor's office of housing. we appreciate it. we have to major hubs, the balboa and the glen park that serve our residents, so we care deeply about the effort and energy that you all have put into that. the support you've given on supporting affordable housing and the applications we put in to get the additional support. i want to take a moment to say i really appreciate the collaboration. really am thankful for the commissioner for his work. at least from the perspective of being elected official since i've been in office. he's been super proactive and engaging in our part of town. so really appreciate the work he's done. and same thing with director powers. before he came into office, i

don't think we had as an accessible executive director. have had to call him on a number of occasions for a number of things. we're still working out a right-of-way in my district, and we're going to get there, but just wanted to say thank you. and really appreciate all the hard work you've all done. thank you, chair. >> chair mandelman: thank you, commissioner. director lee, do you want to give another try? >> yeah. thank you so much, chair. i would like to say i would love to have bevan follow me around and be my hype man everywhere, but i would echo everything about the confidence in the general manager bob powers. there is a lot going on. you know my background is in transportation advocacy. when i joined the bart board, i thought we'd be talking about transportation, transit fares. but i learned that we oversee a

police department with 200 officers. we're trying to figure out how we use our land for the best use and how to build affordable housing. we are trying to figure out how we take on what is really a major macro issue of homelessness and how we address the substance use and the -- those taking refuge in the station. these are much more macro issues. what i will say, the director and i are here because we believe how important the partnership with sfmta and the board is. how much you all do as commissioners and supervisors. and you know that we will make sure that bart staff get on top of whatever inquiry you have and find ways to work together. >> chair mandelman: thank you, director lee. i want to thank both of you for your engagement around some of

the issues impacting folks in your system who are also unhoused folks in our neighborhoods. i have spoken with the director about the challenges which he alluded to earlier, but around figuring out exactly who in the city might be available to respond to particular issues or concerns. we've had internal staff level meeting and weyant to extend the -- i want to extend the offer to the extent we need to have another one of those or come back to that board, we're available to do that. i see that commissioner preston is in the queue. >> supervisor preston: thank you, chair mandelman. i just want to echo the thanks for director duffy and lee and general manager powers as well. and obviously, a lot of really important stuff in the overview. particularly want to thank you for the progressive policing

effort that you've highlighted. just one thing i did want to ask about is the experience with the 50% discount on fares. because that's different than what some other systems have done. it's obviously been an active point of discussion for supervisors with our efforts during the pandemic to try to get some free fares during height of the pandemic and also then an effort to do a three-month pilot that was vetoed. but -- and then ultimately, the free -- the free fares for youth which i think this entire audience has been very supportive of, along with the mayor. i'm curious as an agency in an effort to welcome people back to public transit, how is that going? what lessons?

or is it too soon to learn the lessons from this experiment? what can you share with us about that? >> yeah, i will share everything i can with you. you are the elected officials and so it is a little bit too soon, commissioner preston. i've committed as soon as -- and pam is on and she can edit me or add, however she feels. it's a democracy here in my leadership. but commissioner preston, we're right coming up to the end of september and we'll finish up and do our, you know, post processing of the data and report out to the bart board and go from there. and then the other thing, commissioner, that you should be tracking on as far as fare integration goes, there is a study -- there is not a study, but recommendations coming out of the clipper executive board subgroup. this is fare integration. and it's very promising. there is going to be a pilot and then -- hopefully.

i'm getting a little ahead of myself because it hasn't been approved by the board yet, but what was presented to me -- and i'm tracking on it because i have a deputy on it. but a pass for employers and universities and, you know, junior colleges and, you know, that they would buy and then their student population can use any transit system. so that was one idea that was being thrown around. this is going to come right around the corner and other improvement with clipper, too. and so i would just say, stay tuned to that and we'll work with tilley on it, but that's kind of where we are. pam, do you want to edit me or add to me? >> yeah. you hit that well. we're going to take a look back at september particularly compared to the october ridership. we have been tracking the ridership daily and weekly.

and what also helped was the service restoration put in place in early august. but we'd be happy to report back with our results at a later date. >> chair mandelman: thank you. i appreciate that. >> one of the things i think that was frustrating for us in the efforts to do a pilot was just, i will say that myself and i know commissioner haney was really excited and many of the others who supported the effort, were excited to pilot it regardless some had real concerns about whether or not we could do long-term. there was disagreement among even us who supported the effort. i think it's important that we be piloting these things, looking at the data and recommitting. so i just want to invite you to please share with our office. i'd love to be in touch. as you look at data and reach your findings and also make decisions on whether any aspect

of that will continue on into the future. thank you. >> commissioner, if i could just add briefly, that one of the things when latifah and i came to the board, our youth fair stopped at age 12. we didn't have a youth fair from 12-18 and that was implemented. i think pam would know the numbers, but i think it's brought a lot of youth ridership in and we hope to do more and appreciate the direction that you and others have taken on the issues. >> chair peskin, mute yourself. thank you, commissioner preston. commissioner melgar and then walton. and i will only caution my colleagues that we are pressing up against 1:00. we're going to have to take public comment on this item and we're going to have to take general public comment. so commissioner melgar. >> supervisor melgar: i'll be quick, chair.

first, i want to thank you director powers for your collaborativeness with director chang for my district, district 7 on the west side. it has been really important to have that collaboration on the study for the ocean avenue corridor. because that's bart muni station. that will now have affordable housing. so it's such an important hub for both district 11, 7 and also the connection to city college. thank you so much for that and your collaboration on the dream of having a subway connection connecting north and the west side. i'm not giving up on that [laughter], so i think that i appreciate your efforts. my question was, director duffy just touched on, the muni, the

bart -- free bart for youth. basically, if you could talk about that just a little bit and any future plans for it beyond what you're doing for the pandemic. we have implemented that as you know here in san francisco for this budget year. i'm hoping that it will remain because it's such an important part of not just everyday life of youth, but also training a new generation of riders. >> yeah. so i'll let pam give you the specifics, commissioner, but the one thing that we can -- that i would ask us to think about is, you know, when i'm out in the system and i'm talking to youth riders. i was just out at 16 and balboa park not too long ago. i would talk to the riders and say are you taking, are you part of the 50%? and a lot of them, commissioner melgar, said no. and so that got me to think coming back into my office here

getting to alicia trove who bevan referenced, we have to make sure we're communicating that to our ridership about the discounts out there. when we're out there and they were like, no, we didn't know about it. and it's -- we got to figure that piece out. it's good, but we have to get the word out so everybody can take advantage of it. and then pam can talk the specifics. do you have a brief summary on the 50% off? >> for the youth, we offer 50% off through age 18. we're really excited to lift the age up to 18 from 12. we saw a nice jump in the ridership, but i don't have the stats in my head. it was a few years ago. i want to point out, we do capture a lot of younger riders with the san francisco state gator pass. i want to thank the sfmta, they provided feed money to get that

going and partnered with muni as well on that program. >> thank you. i would love to get that data if you could send it my way. and i also wanted to say thank you so much for the, you know, girls safety focus. that bart has had. i had the pleasure of being on a panel the other day and i think that muni can learn a lot from you and i'm looking forward to getting what we can get from you so we can replicate that program here on our public transportation, because i think it really significant. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner melgar. >> supervisor walton: -- >> uh-oh, how do we get

commissioner walton unmuted? that's peculiar. all right. perhaps t.a. staff can reach out to commissioner walton because something is going on with his connection, i think. why don't we open up to public comment and come back to commissioner walton. let's open item 9 to public comment. >> hello, caller, your two minutes begins now. >> good afternoon, my name is jessie i'm the president of local 1555 recognizing front-line workers at bart. i urge this board to include a increased share of bart projects

in the plan. our typical residents riding bart are lower income, individuals of color who are reliant on bart to get around. bart service that we provide support the san francisco workers and their san francisco employers. with 73% of office space in the city located within half mile of the bart stations increased investment in bart will help to spur financial recovery for the businesses for san francisco workers and the city at large. the needed investment will increase bart's capacity, improve safety and security making san francisco stations more accessible. improving signage and connectivity and reliability. this increase in the investment will not only benefit the pre-pandemic 55,000 riders who ride bart in san francisco, but as a true multiplier, it will are benefit hundreds of thousands of san franciscans each day. relieving congestion. helping to alleviate congestion coming into and out of the city.

we urge you to prioritize the increase in bart share in the san francisco sales package plan and i thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. and good afternoon, commissioner. my name is lori thomas and i'm the executive director of the golden gate restaurant association and we represent over 800 restaurants and cafes and caters in san francisco. and our organize is trying to advocate for policies to help our industry survive. i wanted to call in and give an example of a success story to thank bart staff and board for working with us and industry colleagues in a couple of ways recently that has created a great partnership. in mid june, we started hearing from numerous restaurants and hotels, especially those in the union square, that the lack of

late night bart service was crippling the ability to bring back workers. the bar alliance, the chamber of commerce and others, we reached out to both the bart board and staff and asked them to consider moving their late night service up. that responded in a response that was really helpful. we're pleased to report with the support of bart's labor partners, bart was able to move up the late night service providing trains in july and returning to full service august 2nd which was critical for us. and then further more, because of the relationships we developed, we reached out to rod lee, i reached out to when we realized the proof of vaccine mandate was going in for august 20 and we created with our hospitality partners a proof of relax your vax campaign to get the word out there to our residents who live across the bay as well as san francisco and our tourists and business

workers, that if you're going to dine inside or drink inside, you needed to be showing proof. and rod reached out to david martin dale and we were able to get 60 posters that are now in bart stations and i want to say thank you for working with us to do that. we appreciate your support. >> thank you, caller. >> hello. i'm calling to thank the county commissioners today for your insightful questions and i'm sorry that my supervisor rafael mandelman was not present for the presentation and i think the majority of the public comments today. so i hope that he will review it, and take the concerns of j church riders seriously.

thank you. >> thank you, caller. >> your two minutes begins now. >> hello. i'm jessica from the san francisco travel association. and i'm calling to express our appreciation to bob powers and the bart team for their responsiveness to the tourism and business industry's request for expanding late-night bart service. i want to echo what lori thomas expressed earlier, in that we really needed late-night service to support the employees coming to our restaurants and our hotels for work, late night. and for the patrons to come to the city to support businesses. i want to thank bart for responding to our call and delivering on late-night service. thank you. >> thank you, caller.