>> we are having a video format of the meeting today broadcast on sfgov tv. the meeting is open captioned, sign language interpreted, and we will be spotlighted the speakers we have several spoken languages available including cantonese, vietnamese, and russian. translators are available in separate interpreting rooms. if you click on the icon to

choose the language which you like, if we can allow the interpreters to identify themselves, the spoken language interpreters to identify themselves please. [interpretation introduction]

thank you. >> next we will have it in russian. interpreter introduction in russian] >> we also have interpretation available in vietnamese. if one of the vietnamese interpreters is in the main room, you can make the announcement now.

both of the vietnamese interpreters are interpreting vietnamese in the interpretation room. so if you would like to listen to the meeting in vietnamese, you can press the interpretation icon and choose vietnamese. >> thank you so much. thank you. so on the bottom right you can see the interpretation icon for the spoken languages available for today's meeting. this is the mayor's office on disability meeting. this is held annually. and we have every third friday of the month a meeting available for the public. you can ca 415-554-for roll

call, we have alex madrid. >> present. >> orkid sassouni. >> present. >> denise senhaux. tiffany yu. >> present. >> helen smolinski. >> present. >> gesean lewis woods. ananya tandon-verma. and that is it for roll call. >> thank you so much. for today's agenda, item 2, reading and approval of the agenda. can we please have someone read

and approve the general for today? item 5 is information item report from the mayor's office on disability. item 6 is the closure of j.f.k. drive in golden gate park, an information item. and a presentation by maddy ruvolo from the san francisco municipal transportation and lucas to jb bin from the san francisco recreation and parks department. ie 7 is correspondence. item 8 is general public comment. item 9 is discussion item for

comments and announcements. item 10 is adjournment. please note that today's meting has two presenters. due to the importance of the topic, to people with disabilities and the larger san francisco community. based on previous correspondence received on this topic, we anticipate a great deal of public comment. we will have a break after the presentation. and we will open public comment on the golden gate park agenda item after the break. >> through the chair, this is nicole speaking. i just wanted to make sure because we're having some questions about the language access that we have assigned people to the appropriate room. i am going to pause for a moment so that winston cup smack the

are are track the chat and assign the viewers to the appropriate language room. one moment.

i am unable to see john on video, so i do not know if we can proceed.

are we okay to proceed? >> i see there are individuals who are not yet assigned to the appropriate interpretation room.

>> are there any xhebs who have any questions or comments about the agenda today? if none, please say aye to approve the agenda as it is. council members?

agenda item 3, moving forward, we can open the meeting for general public comment at this time. we welcome general public comment at the beginning and end of the meeting as well as after specific items on the agenda. each comment is limited to 3 minutes. if you want the council to respond to your comments following the meeting, please provide your contact information by email to mod@sfgov.org with

the subject comment mod public comments. members will be able to make public comment directly during public comment period. members of the public can also join the webinar by using the link or by using a telephone. you can dial 669-900-6833. the webinar i.d. is 8 (541) 955-0368. if you join the webinar using the zoom platform, click on the raise hand icon and you will be recognized when it is your turn. you can also use the q&a feature in zoom webinar to recognize or make a comment. type into the q&a box that you

would like to make a comment and hit send. type the comment into the box and the clerk will read it for you. if you join by phone, dial star 9 when you want to be recognized. and you will be prompted when it is your turn to make comments. we welcome suggestions about how to make the meetings more accessible. please send an email to mod@sfgov.org. if you need assistance accessing the meeting, call 415-919-9562 or send an email to mod@sfgov.org. at this time members of the public may address the council on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council that are not on the meeting agenda. with respect to items on the agenda, your opportunity to address the council will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. each member of the public may

address the council for up to 3 minutes. the brown act forbids the council from taking action or discussing any items not appearing on the posted agenda, including those items raised at public comment. with that i do see we have members of the public who have indicated they want to make public comment.

>> caller: i am here to oppose the close of golden gate park,

first of all, for a couple of reasons. first of all, when i go to work, when i need to see the doctors, and when i somehow need to run some errands or do some shopping, then i need to make a big, long trip to my destination and especially right now the gasoline is so expensive and i need to put extra money on to my gasoline in order to get to my destination. so i totally oppose the close of the golden gate park. thank you. >> thank you for your comments.

[calling of next speaker]

[speaking in foreign language] >> an i'm here to oppose the closure of golden gate park again.

especially when i go to work on the weekend i didn't know the trip was closed and need to get away to my place and also because i don't live close by the park, when i need to take my kids to the park or my parents to go to the park and it is difficult to not able to drive there and park there. we cannot just focus on people who bike and that is a bike lane. and people who drive and who live far away and utilize the facility in the park. i want to oppose the close of the golden gate park.

>> thank you so much. do we have another public comment sner >> we have multiple people indicating they want to make public comment. this is a reminder we are taking general public comment for items that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council that are not on the meeting agenda. for comments about j.f.k. drive or golden gate park, we will take those directly after the break on the agenda. >> okay. the next commenter. caller ending in 1003, you have been permitted to unmute.

[speaking in foreign language] >> this is a note that the cantonese interpretation is coming through into the main room. >> i need to be assigned to the language room. >> caller ending in 1003>> caller: hello. this is general public comment about items that aren't on the agenda. my name is will railing and commenting for accessible san francisco and unincorporated nonprofit association. and first, i wanted to discuss the ongoing problem with the lack of accessibility of the outdoor dining facilities which are constructed in the public right-of-way under the shared spaces program. hundreds and hundreds of these

outdoor dining opportunities are not accessible to people with disabilities and in a few months it will have been two full years unless they are constructed. there is no exception that allows temporary facilities not to be accessible, and many of these are looking to remain permanent at any rate so i would like to report on relationship to postpone any fines for violation in the shared spaces program until 2023. this is the subject of some concern because the enforcement in the program has been actually very lax and it comes to accessibility. however, in the draft legislation authored by supervisor peskin, i am happy to say it has made clear that this

postponement of fines does not apply to disability violations. so with that said, it should not be a problem, but one never knows what happens while this legislation is being crafted. the land use and transportation committee will be taking up the legislation in a few weeks. that will go to the board of supervisors. second, many of you know the courts and after the last meeting of the council and bob planthold passed away. and he was truly a giant of accessibility advocacy in the city and smoke and involved in the council with numerous other

bodies of the city. i know the board of supervisors held a moment of silence in his honor which was a nice gesture and i just wanted to acknowledge his many decades of service to the community as well. thank you. >> thank you so much for your comment. >> are there any other members of the public who would like to comment on anything at this time? >> yes. [caller speaking in foreign language]

we will work through that with our interpreter, and we will move on to the next public comment. okay. so before i unmute the next public commenter, i see there is a question about how to unmute. if you are using the zoom platform, and you raise your hand, when we allow you to unmute, you should see an icon that you can click mute or unmute to unmute yourself. if you are joining by phone, mute and unmute by dialling star 6.

with that the next public commenter is caller ending in 3997. you have been permitted to unmute. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i would like to honor bob planthold and thank him for his lifetime of service to the cause of equal rights and point out that he was in his vital vice and i hope his memory will be honored by reopening j.f.k. drive. commissioners, can you hear me? >> yes, we can hear you.

>> u a commissioners, i know it is very, very hard to have a commissioner. i have been on boards and there is a lot of pressure and there will be issues before you today that are hot and disputed. i ask you to have the courage to do what is right for those in the community and there are so many lives that depend upon you and your decisions that no matter how hard it is that i ask you to please look at the decisions that will benefit disability and all ages and all parts of the city to defend the right of the disability committee and the elder

community and all san franciscans. a lot of weight is on your shoulder today and in the days to come that have to do with the decisions that you are making. and i also like to please have the courage to do the right thing for us. we're depending on you. and we thank you for your service. i know it's hard. and then secondly, i would like to point out that the agenda from what i have seen and what the agenda doesn't tell the details and i can't find -- i am trying to find the agenda to be accurate in my remarks. and i sao ethat the agenda has presentations by recreation and on the agenda and from the other institutions and groups that are severely negatively impacted by the road closure of j.f.k.

drive. and there is a report issued recently and by a distinguished firm that was commissioned by the to study the affects on the disability community. i believe and i hope you have a report that came out recently and i ask you to schedule your next meeting to study that report and to see the impact on the de jong museum attendance and to understand that that applies to the areas of the park and not just the institutions and the value garden, the rose garden. and to have a hearing on that study. and have give a chance to the institutions in the park and the value garden workers who have volunteered our time and are severely impacted, etc., let

them give a presentation to you as you do to the paid employees to the mta. >> thank you so much for your comments. do we have any other public commenters? just a reminder the j.f.k. and golden gate park will be discussed after the break and there will be plenty of time for public comment at that time. >> we have another caller. you have been permitted to unmute. >> caller: i am presently the executive director of a 501c3 nonprofit called designing accessible communities created after the city retired from the deputy mayor's office on

disability. so i have been involved with statewide and national, in fact, international issues on accessibility and disability rights since 2004. in that position. i also would suggest the council's need to recognize the passing of bob planthold. and like all of us, he was imperfect but he gave a huge amount of his life to advocate for the rights of people with disabilities and i hope the council will recognize that. i am vrn concerned about a coup -- i am very concerned about a couple of issues. one about the park as was brought up earlier. how the city mayor can say she is slowing down enforcement and fines for those parklets that don't meet code. that is in direct opposition to

california regulations government code and health and safety code. [inaudible] >> did we lose the speaker? there seems to be background noise. what is going on? >> we seem to have lost the speaker.

>> this is orkid. do we have another caller or speaker? that was a strange way to end the speaker comment. the next public commenter is permitted to unmute. >> caller: thank you. this is patricia eric and what i would like to talk about t a this point is the disabled in the upper grade highway. the upper grade highway has two signs. one at noriega and says there is handicapped access. these asphalt ramps were installed before we even had ada laws. ada mandates that you have equal

access. these ramps are -- they do not conform to the right elevation of 1-12. the asphalt is mixed with very rough gravel. i tried to go up these ramps and the ramp at pacheo with my physical therapist the other day and it is extremely dangerous to get up that ramp, to get up to the bike path and then onto the highway. i'm asking you council members and the mayor's office to tell rec and park that if they're going to put up signs that say there is handicap access at the two places and then someone in the wheelchair or like a walker tries to go up or down to the

lower grade highway, there is a high possibility of a fall and serious injury. it's wrong and cynical for rpd to put up the signs that supposedly make the public think that they are conforming to ada laws when they are not. another thing about the great highway when it's closed to traffic, there is absolutely no lane for seniors or the disabled to be safe and out of the way of people that ride their bikes like they're on the tour de france and are yelling at people to get out of the way. it is a very unsafe area of supposed recreation for anybody who is old and weak or is

disabled. we need to call out rfd on the cynical approach to providing any access at all along the two-mile stretch of the lower great highway. i think this is an extremely important topic that the mayor's office engages in with our rpd. thank you. thank you so much for your comment. very important. anymore public comment? >> karen, you are permitted to unmute.

>> caller: my name is karen and i am the access manager at the fine arts museum of san francisco which is a city institution. i would like to state that i am adamantly opposed to the road closure. and i will tell you why. i actually have been trained by the mayor's office on disability to be an ada compliance coordinator. and therefore, it is my job to make sure that the museums are physically and programmatically accessible to people with disabilities. i am actually unable to do my job function due to the road closure. the road should not have been temporarily closed, and it definitely should not be permanently closed in order to be in compliance with the ada's

law. also, it concerns me that there are people that are meeting and with the san francisco mta as well as rec and park to get a presentation on the j.f.k. road closure, and it concerns me that no other museum has been asked to do a presentation. specifically me given that i am the access coordinator and i manage the program there. and therefore, i am very well knowledgeable in terms of the specific access issues. and i find the fact that i find it not to be not inclusive and

discriminatory. so again just a reminder that the ada is a law that exists to protect people with disability. there is no point in having the laws if the people are not being protected. once again, i really adamantly oppose the road closure to support people with rights and disabilities. >> thank you so much for your comments. very important. >> next speaker, next caller, and the topic of j.f.k. and the road closures in golden gate park will be discussed later, so there will be opportunity for the public to comment on that at a later point in the meeting today.

apologies. i do see a request for cantonese interpretation in the chat if someone could attend to that. thank you. >> our next public commenter, i know that richard was cut off and we're going to get him back in as a commenter. >> thank you. my name is richard scaff. sorry for that. all of a sudden you and i were no longer talking. anyway, i wanted to finish with the parklets and that is a huge issue. i know that the attorney general's office is now looking into it statewide because of the dramatic substantial violations and numbers of violations in the use of parklets and it's really

interesting. not only are many of the parklets and in of the cities inaccessible to people who use mobility devices but there have been accidents where they have encroached on to the parklets because the parklets are wood or other materials that don't act as a vehicle barrier. if you look at the manual and the traffic control devices by cities and counties in california that is the cal-trans and it repairs when you put people in to a vehicle lane temporarily or permanently to put parklets on there has to be protective devices and something that will keep a vehicle from encroaching into the area where the public is sitting or

standing in one of the leagues. in this case in san francisco and the parking lane. those situations and the parklets. the third is i have written asking why the meeting only includes the presentation from one perspective. and that is let's close the golden gate park and number of the golden gate roads. this is not only inappropriate but probably could be suggested to be illegal. and the proposal is also problematic. in my mind as a person who's dealt with the americans with disabilities act 504 regulations

and california requirements, this is pretty clear that closing the streets may make it more convenient for bicyclists and walk san francisco members, but it directly denies access to not only san francisco, but san francisco is a destination to many people from around the world. and many of those visitors to san francisco go to golden gate park because it's historic nature and to see the sites within that facility and the academy of science and museum.

a the city receives federal money and they have to meet the americans with disability and 504 and my understanding is city will be in dramatic violation of the regulations. thank you for allowing me to speak again.

>> there is a chat in the in the cantonese and i oppose closing j.f.k. permanently because this is very inconvenient for me for most general public, they don't ride a bike and if j.f.k. closed, it is not fair for the general public and also there is another one. let me see.

let me take a look. this is also in the chat. >> and i oppose the close of j.f.k.. >> thank you so much. >> an it looks like there is also another public comment in the chat. we can resend it to you directly to interpret it after next person. we have 15 people who currently have their hands raise to make public comment. as a reminder, once again, at this time please -- we have it open for general public comment. everyone will have an opportunity to make a comment about j.f.k. drive after the break.

our next public commenter. you have been permitted to unmute. >> thank you. my name is steven and i want to express for support for what patricia eric said. it is reprehensible that park and rec says there is available disability access for the multiuse pass and the disabled and seniors are affected again because they can't drive down there to go anywhere and the mobility is no one from the

disabled group is allowed to present during the j.f.k. closure and we will do it anyway. and we don't care. and that is all i want to say on that aspect. and it is really bad to have the highway closed since emergency vehicles need to go down it. and when it's not clear. people don't know when emergency vehicles are coming and they have to roll along slowly and it will eventually affect someone's life. and it already has. that is what i would like to say about that. i think it's time to have an open process, legitimate data be

used and not hookie statistics that have been used by mta and rec and park in the last year and a half. thank you. >> there is a message from the chat and this is from min lee. i left in san francisco for over -- i live in san francisco for over 15 years and i need to take care of my mother-in-law and she is not very -- she is disabled. and i also need to take other elderly people go to the park for like for recreation and also

exercise. if the j.f.k. is closed, then the disabled person need to to walk a long way to get to the place they want. it is very inconvenient we want for the disabled people. and also the park. they don't have enough parking space. so for the elderly people and also for the disabled person is a long walk for them and also the park seems like is only good for the people and they ride the

bike. so it's not fair for other people. i want a city they can reopen j.f.k. >> thank you. all right, the next public commenter, frank, you have been permitted to unmute. frank, you have been permitted to unmute. [caller speaking in foreign language]

>> i live in san francisco for 15 years and i am a disabled person and every so often i go to golden gate park for exercise and recreation. normally i drive there, but now the j.f.k. is closed and so it's hard for me to get out there. and it is hard for me because i am a disabled person because it is very hard for me to get to the park and also the museum.

and now the park it seems like it is only is the benefit and ride the bike and they walk or use the skateboard. and actually, i think there's too many bike riders or too many people use skateboards in the park. it is a dangerous and for the elderly and also dangerous with the disabled person. and also i wonder if the city can build more facilities particularly for the disabled and senior people. so i oppose to close the j.f.k. permanently and i encourage city

to consider to reopen j.f.k. allowing me to public comment. i want to remind folks that after the general public comment, there will be a golden park presentation. if you are wanting to comment regarding golden gate park, please wait for that presentation. so that we can move along with this meeting.

again, golden gate presentation is right after this general public comment. do we have anymore general public comment at this time? >> at this time we have 10 people who indicated they want to make public comment by raising their hands. and to reiterate alex's point and as a reminder, if you want to make public comment about j.f.k. drive or golden gate park, we will have opportunity for comment specifically about that subject after the break. at this time the council will be taking general public comment about items within their jurisdiction that are not on today's agenda.

and so we have -- >> this is orkid just jumping in here. with restill on item number 3, the general public comment? >> yes. >> this is regarding what is not already on the agenda today. that we're still on that item number? >> we're still on that item. >> and you have been permitted to unmute.

[caller speaking in foreign language]

>> do we have an interpreter in the main room who can interpret that comment for us? we will communicate with our interpreters and follow-up with the interpretation or translation of that comment. our next comment is from caller ending in 9007. and you have been permitted to unmute. >> caller: can you hear me? >> yes. >> caller: hi. i live up in sacramento, california, and i am calling for several reasons.

one is since this is the general comment, i wanted to say that new york city is getting rid of dining sheds they call them there because of health reasons, and it is also because of prohibition of accessibility for persons that those dining parklets have caused. they call them dining sheds. vehicular accidents. and i also want to say that i am also appalled that the city attorney would come out and come out so strong with an anti-ada access message when it comes to people suing for accessibility whether it's chinatown or oakland because of the fact he has not ever necessarily answered questions about were

there actual violations. and regardless of that, there needs to be more promotion of enforcement of accessibility standards throughout the state of california and the nation. and that includes san francisco. and my comments on the j.f.k. drive if case i don't get to come back on later and golden gate park is that is really a civil rights issue to have access for persons with disabilities and seniors to access the physically and programmatically the venues that exist there like the young museum and the playground and other events that are on there. and they need to provide access and inclusion for persons with disabilities. many visitors come from out of

the area. and any comprise on accessibility, like myself, that i drive a high-tech specially adapted vanna nobody else can drive. you have to have adequate parking and van accessible parking and it can't require a long distance of travel for the path of travel that must be accessible to get to those events. i am really appalled to hear that somebody from coordinator position was saying she's not been asked to comment on this. i am opposed to the sfmta and recreation and parks department and mayor breed and any public officials that would oppose equity and access for persons with disabilities. and i hope you will keep the roads open because that is vital

to providing access to the venues that exist within golden gate park. also, nobody else can drive my van except me. if i am there with somebody that goes with me, they cannot drive my van. i have to have full access to a van accessible parking space. and many of the onstreet parking situations don't provide access either. those comments about accessibility need to be taken serious and not close j.f.k. drive or golden gate park access for seniors and persons with disabilities. and not only within san francisco but outside of san francisco that includes visitors from all over the united states. thank you very much. >> thank you so much for your

comments. very important. anymore comments here? >> i am going to ask maggie the interpreter to unmute to provide an interpretation of the previous comment that was in chinese. >> moving forward with the agenda item. did i miss something? are we moving forward? we're moving on? >> we will follow up with the interpreter again to get that translation of the chinese comment. and right now as the clerk, i am suggesting or proposing to the co-chairs given that we still have 12 attendees who have int

indicated they want to make comment during the general public comment time, if you would to take those comments during the general public comment at the end of the meeting. >> sure. >> agreed. >> agreed. >> thank you so much for the idea. time is. essence and we need to put a pin in this and come back to it later on. >> all right. >> moving forward, then we would be on agenda item number four. which is the co-chair reports. we haven't had a meeting since january and the mdc has a few things to catch up as far as activities and so forth, so i would like to add informational

-- informational items related to uber. and supervisor comments at that point. and there will be an extended increase and some repairs done. also the co-chair alex madrid and the m.o.d. staff have met with the department of environmental findings. there has been a notification regarding plastic straws for

people with disabilities being provided when requested. alex, you have been involved with that report so perhaps you could comment. >> sure. >> i met with the department of the environment. we asked about the update on implementing the -- when someone

asks for reasonable with a plastic straw, most of the businesses are not complying on this. we are investigating to see how the disability department can work together on what to do next. >> thank you, alex. so if we could -- i think we might be pausing for a break right now for 15 minutes.

>> is it possible to take just a 10-minute break? >> agree. we will be returning at 2:30 then. 2:30 to resume item number 5. which is -- will begin after 2:30. it is now 2:18. and we will be taking a short break. >> this is agenda item number 5.

nicole, will you please comment on agenda item number 5? the director's report at this time. awe thank you. one moment. we have two presentations and public comment and then we will move on to item 6. >> just to clarify, this is the director's report to the mayor's disability council from me and then we will have a presentation related to j.f.k. drive followed immediately by public comment on that item. and then we will move again to

other items and first, i would like to say thank you very much to the council and the public and the m.o.d. staff. and very recently in february and extended and so i wanted to say thank you for the concern and the work that the council did to advance items on sidewalk safety and mobility. thank you very much. and a hard fought appreciation to everyone in the public and to

keep going and i am grateful and thank you very much. the next thing i wanted to acknowledge in the regular in addition of bob planthold. and i was reminded during the memorial service that the mayor's disability council at one time bestowed upon bob and the mayor's beacon award given to outstanding members of the disability community for their work and disability as advocacy and perhaps you want to consider to think about that award in his honor. a few more items and then j.f.k. drive. besides j.f.k. drive access, the

mayor's office on ability dblt has also been working on the appropriate access for meetings that will be partially in person and partially virtual beginning in march. there is more to come on that and i encourage the council to follow that and if you would like to think about promoting and disseminating the citywide web accessibility policy. and so this will be another item to perhaps consider for a future agenda.

we are also following ones to highlight for the council specifically today is the one that was mentioned earlier in public comment and that is the shared spaces item with the reference number 211.301 and this is currently in the 30-day rule and land use committee and that is the legislation that is talking about limits on fines for shared spaces. as the way the legislation is currently written, there is no plus for accessibility violation citation. that is in to follow the shared

spaces and outdoor dining. the mayor's office and disability of disability have provided extensive guidelines on how to provide the facilities in an accessible way. and encourage the council to continue to monitor this issue. and that is where i will pause my report for today. thank you very much. >> just looking at our agenda here. and i believe we are at item number 6, correct? you were just reporting on number 6, nicole? >> number 6.

and that would be the report from the mayor's office on disability. and now we have lou lucas tobin and maddy rivolo from the san francisco municipal transportation agency. welcome. the council members will be allowed to ask questions or comment immediately after your presentations. at the moment, please hold comments or questions to council member members until after the presentations have been finished. great. thank you so much. thank you so much, maddy and lucas. you can begin. and thank you so much for being here today.

>> i believe that should be visible. thank you, everyone, and thank you so much for having us today. i am maddy ravulo and transportation director on the transportation services team and also disable and working in disability rights for over a decade. and here with several of my colleagues from m.t.a. and rec and park who will introduce everyone else. >> i supervise recreation and inclusion services and also

a.d.a. coordinator and working at rec and park to provide services for people with disabilities. happy to be here today. >> thank you, maddy. i am with the sfmta and the project manager for golden gate park and elook forward to the presentation and hearing your feedback. >> good afternoon. i am a manager with the recreation and park department and again, echoing other comments and glad we are here and able to address the project and get critical feedback from the team here. >> thank you. >> as everybody said, we are glad to be with you here today.

and we initially came to the mayor's disability council in october. and we are back to share what we have heard from the disability community to explain some of the actions that we have taken so far to improve accessibility and also to share next steps and very importantly here to hear your feedback. big picture, this outreach process was designed to identify project and policy to improve safety, accessibility and exneck golden gate park. i will describe the images on the screen. we have fun photo of the family with two children and one is riding a scooter on j.f.k.. and a pink scooter. we also have a photo from our adaptive scooter event with

students that were riding adaptive scooters on j.f.k.. and next we have an overview of the timeline for the project and working and last winter followed by collaboration between sfmta and the recreation and parks department last summer. and we then entered into the public outreach phase last fall and engaged park stakeholders with a particular emphasis on park institutions, disability and senior community, equity priority communities and youth and families and the study on the equity park and that county transportation authority. and as we approach spring into

the final board of supervisors and technical outreach and policy mitigation. >> so i am going to share an outreach recap of the outreach that we have done so far in this project. we have worked to engage a broad variety of stakeholders through a broad variety of methods to reach san franciscans who don't normally participate in city processes. we have gone to neighborhood group meetings. we have had access tours in the park and including bilingual accessible tour and several people have mentioned the wonderful and much missed bob planthold. bob had an idea to have a live stream of the one of the accessibility tours so folks weren't able to come in person and to do that. and we also had online surveys

and language and bilingual events. and the survey receives close to 10,000 responses and that is only one tool and many different approaches and have heard many different methodologies and some statistics over 2,000 people were able to talk directly to rec and park and staff and groups to engage in the project. and as a result, staff facilitated over 60 events to focus on this project and happening and to speak. we worked really hard to meet people where they are at to reach out to groups and partner with them and really focus on groups who were the least likely to fail out deeper engagement

with groups like the disability community and in the park and equity priority groups. we have worked really hard to ensure that whatever the final staff proposal that it really reflects the input that we have heard from everybody. i will describe the images that we have on scene here. and we have a group of folks with the adaptive scooter demonstrations. we have a screen shot from a public outreach meeting online. and there is a photo of kids and adults and they're holding water bottles at a public jute reach event. -- at a public outreach event. again, more information on the outreach. we have worked specifically

around people with disabilities and completing surveys and we focused specifically on chinese language events and focused surveys and had community specific presentations and events at community organizations. and here on this slide with the photos of people at outreach events. then a photo of cyclists on j.f.k. as well.

. . . . what we are seeing in general across the board is that about 70% of the people that we have talked with want to keep j.f.k. in the current configuration. there is support for this across almost all demographics and citizens across the city. we have heard from a lot of people and it's important to note that we have heard from people with disabilities who

really appreciate having the roads closed to vehicles and in particular we heard there are the number of people who can't or don't drive on public transit or paratransit and we heard from some of those folks that they support keeping the road closed to cars and we also heard from folks who are passionate about pedestrian safety who know that prior to closure, there were a number of collisions and injury collisions on the roads that are currently closed. and collisions mostly between cars and pedestrians. and from that and going grouing

older around disable and disrupted mind and i let go of what i was used to and reclaimed my freedom and my city. and to be here on this slide and we have a couple and from the graphics and a couple of different folks who are in the park and then also an image of one of the pop-up signs that has been placed along the roads and encouraging people to be kind and to share the roads collectively and respectfully of other people. and we also heard from a lot of folks who aren't happy with the current configuration. and like to see substantial changes and so here is --

divide into different buckets and viable for everybody and parking is too expensive. the parking that is there is too far from the places that people want to go. and few people know there is a shuttle in the park. with the with the gravel and

with the bounds and across the entire park and have the image and walked and rolled through the various parts and older adults specifically about particular travel and parking and a number of other accessibility issues. so continuing the mobility move and the vehicle network has added to congestion. and we heard from many people who drive to the park and find the parking situation that is challenging and confusing and as

part of those solutions within the park. we have heard concerns about streets and that cyclists and other faster user cans make other slower moving users feel uncomfortable and less safe. and we have heard concerns about the process and from people who disagree with the overall closure to vehicular traffic have expressed to us that they believe the public process was rushed and insufficient. and with that overview, i will turn it over to lucas who will go into more depth about what we have heard from the disability community and older adults. >> with the outreach that has been done, we have heard a lot from older adults and the disability community. i do want to mention we also

received the report that has been mentioned that the de jong commission from m.i.g. and we are preparing a response to that report, so that will be coming out sometime in the near future. we heard that disability parking and passenger loading needed to be improved. passenger loading is a problem in front of de jong and the academy of sciences. the garage does allow passenger drop offs in the garage. and parking is something that we have been addressing the spots although the spots are not available on infrastructure right now for anybody -- on j.f.k. for anybody to park right now. and we have added five new accessible spots and places around the concourse area which

are in closer proximity to the tea garden and academy of sciences and the botanical gardens. and we are about to break ground on a completely new accessible lot behind the band shell that will provide 20 new spaces and accessible spaces. that should be coming in the next couple of vehicles i believe. that will be breaking ground on that project. and added three new accessible spaces near the tennis center on nancy pelosi and j.f.k. which are close to the conservative of flowers. whatever happens with the future of j.f.k., we will have more accessible parking than we ever have even if the spaces are not available that are on j.f.k.

and closer to some of the major institutions. another thing we have heard is that the path of travel and need to be path of travel improvement and way finding improvements and i will talk more about that in a minute. but those are things that are being looked at and prioritized with what we have received a lot of comments from the public about areas that need improved path of travel. and we're prioritizing those and looking into how those will be addressed. and we heard that the pricing in the parking garage that is the closest accessible parking spaces to the museum and the music concourse area. but people let us know that the prize pricing is a barrier.

and to park for free and pick somebody up and drop somebody off in the garage would be better. and there are access improvements that need to happen in the garage. and we're working with the organization that runs the garage to help make those improvements as well. and we are definitely hearing that, like maddy mentioned, that people are concerned with safety. and along the the closed roads. and conflicts with cyclists and who do often ride really fast on the closed road. and that's something that addressed it and to the extent that we could right away or recently with the signage to educate people about being kind

and sharing the road and being more cognizant of that it is being shared by people going at different speeds. but of course, if the road closures become permanent, that will have to be addressed in more depth. and then one of the most important things is that we have heard that people want to have ongoing communication and accountability from rec and park. and sfmta. and that's -- we've heard about mistrust from the disability community and the senior community. that feeling that there is a lack of communication and i am really happy to say that we are starting to get much more positive feedback from the groups we're engaging with. and we're committed to keeping the communication going and the follow-up with these different

groups. and as somebody whose job it is to respond to complaints, i can say firsthand that it works much better when we're communicating better up front. and so we're seeing some of the rebuild from that with this current project. and can you go to the next slide please, maddy. so we specifically met with, as maddy mentioned, we did a presentation with the california council of the blind and met with frank welte of the lighthouse for the blind and deputy mindale of the ccb. and looked into and talked about both short term and longer term way finding and transportation improvements. and we also did have some people if the shuttle workshop and

design workshop that maddy mentioned who also gave input feedback about the shuttle specifically for people who are blind and low vision. and one of the things that suggested is there need to be path of travel improvements and path of travel that are tactile and clear of destruction and debris and vehicles and things like that. they also suggested that all the maps and brochures should be tactile and available in braille. we do currently have just a small map that is available for people who come to mclaren lodge looking for directions and that is something the map could be improved and making it tactile and is available in braille. that is something that we're going to be looking into in the

short term. they also suggested improved audio and text directions on our website. we had some great suggestions for better audio description for way finding within the park and also for better tours at the institution that are audio described. they suggested that we do ongoing accessibility audits for the website. this is something that we do t a rec and park, but something that definitely needs to be kept up with. and it is not on this slide here and also suggested we provide service animal relief areas in some key spots throughout the park specifically or particularly in the music concourse area. and that's something that we're going to be looking into. go to the next slide please, maddy.

and mentioned a four-hour shuttle design workshop. [please stand by]

>> we will run the shuttle seven days a week in the next couple weeks. we will have two shuttles on weekdays and three on the weekend. that should give us the freak city for the shuttles to be about 15 minutes between shuttles on the weekends and 20 minutes between shuttles on the weekdays. we will see once they are running exactly how if we are able to meet those frequencies or if we need to make other

tweaks to that. to the comments about improved transit connections. we will be adding a spot which came up in the shuttle workshop we had that people want to get to the boathouse. that is a favorite destination. the shuttle will go to the boathouse. we have a couple other spots to make it easier to get to the shuttle from transit and also get to the key destinations like the museum. we are going to add a stop that will be on haight street to connect with three major bus lines to help people to get from transit to the shuttle.

we have done -- we will have temporary signs and benches at the shuttle stops. these have to be temporary for now because we are still going to be in a pilot phase for a little while and getting feedback to see how well the stops work and everything. in order to get things going to make these improvements as quickly as we can. they will be temporary to start out. then become more permanent for the shuttle stops when we are able to do that. right away we have started training the drivers to do things like call out stops, help people, direct them to the destinations they are trying to get to. that is something that came out when we talked to the people

from c cb and the lighthouse that can really help with way finding for people blind and no vision. the image on the slide is a picture of what the new shuttles are going to look like. they are getting new vehicles. the vehicles will be wrapped with colorful image and it will say golden gate park shuttle to make it easier to recognize and see the shuttle. eventually the thing we have really heard and totally understand the current shuttle vehicle is really the common vehicle that you see for sf paratransit and other paratransit agencies. it is readily available for

those kinds of vehicles. it is a vehicle with a lift. this vehicle has the lift on the side towards the back of the vehicle. we know this is not the best vehicle for everybody because it is not a low floor vehicle. the current operator doesn't have low floor vehicles in their fleet. we will be working on a new contract with either the seam provider -- the same provider or new provider. that will be one of the things we work with them on getting low floor vehicles because we really heard those will be better for everybody as well as shelters to making improvements that will help when you are waiting for a shuttle more comfortable and

more accessible. next i am going to turn it over to dan to talk about some of the survey results. >> thanks. i have heard a lot of concerns about the survey. i want to remind all of us that the survey was one tool of dozens of ways the m.t.a. and rec park hope to hear from people. it wasn't a perfect tool. we did our best to make sure we worked in many forms including this one to ensure we heard from all of you. i will take down notes here and put it into the responses and feedback. thank you. i think as many noted in general people identified as having disability on the survey did not favor additional and preferred

the no project alternative. that is the summary of this slide. back to you. >> thanks. i want to make sure we talked about some of the improvements we have been able to put into place. i mentioned some of them already. one is the additional blue zone parking spaces that we have added that are closer to the conservatory of flowers and the botanical center and tea garden. new parking lot built, breaking ground soon within the next couple of weeks. it is to provide 20 new spaces closer to the japanese tea garden. the music concourse.

one thing that i wanted to point out is that after orchids comment with the last presentation we made that there was confusion whether paratransit vehicles were permitted to drive on closed roads. we clarified. that we want to make sure everybody understands and we made this clear. paratransit vans are permitted to drive on closed roads. they also are permitted to use bus only entrance at eighth avenue to make it more convene yet to get people to locations like the dejong museum and music concourse locations. i mentioned shuttle improvement to seven days each week. two shuttles on the weekdays. we are planning every 20 minutes. three shuttles on the weekends

every 15 minutes. we will be providing benches and signage. it will be temporary until we make the shuttle stops more permanent. those improvements for the shuttle are regardless to what happens with jfk. there will definitely be more accessibility improvements to come. we really want to come to thembc today to make sure that we had the chance to update you all and get your feedback before any final decisions are made about jfk. one thing that i wanted to make sure to mention is that while

the blue zones are an additional 350 feet from jfk to the dejong museum, the blue zones we added because a lot of people are comments they are not as close as the jfk spaces. there are additional 350 feet to the dejong museum and 400 feet closer to the cal academy doors and the closest blue zones are in the garage, although they are not free. with jfk closed it has lost parking for everyone. we are committed to making sure there is access to all of the important locations in the park that people need to get to for

everyone. that is something that we are going to make sure happens no matter what happens with the future of jfk. just to make sure i describe the images on this slide. first the top image is sf paratransit vehicles parked just to illustrate that we are all clear that sf paratransit vehicles can drive on the closed road. the image on the bottom shows the new accessible spaces close to the tennis center at nancy pelosi drive and jfk across from the conservatory of flowers. this is an image of tiffany u getting ready to go on a ride at

the bike share the same day we were doing an outreach. tiffany i hope you are okay with us using that picture. i want to mention we are talking to the board right now about continuing that bike share program and making improvements to it. just wanted to say that we are expecting the public hearings in the coming weeks about the future of jfk and we are really excited like we wanted to come here and update and get your feedback. we will we having a joint session hopefully within the coming -- in the spring, march or april. we hope to be heard by the board

of supervisors and want to make sure we got your feedback before that happened. thank you everyone for your time today. and for letting us present. >> any comments from the council members at this time? alex and tiffany and helen. >> i want to congratulate you

for the presentation. going back home there is so much that i want to make but the main portion. [indiscernable]

the second portion. it seems like on the bus there is a lot of confusion where the bus stops. did you guys figure that out yet? i believe we had a couple of times in the past to put signage

where the buses are at accessibility not only low vision but all kinds of disabilities. the last question i have did i hear you correctly some of your parking zones are paid parking.

can you clarify that? that is my question. >> yes, sorry if i wasn't clear, alex. the only paid parking is the parking that is in the garage underneath the music concourse, and we have heard feedback that it is expensive for people to park there. that is something we are trying to work with the garage operator on what to do about the cost of the parking there. those are forgetting to the museum. those are the closes parking places. your request about the signage, wayfinding signage and confusion. that is something that we did talk about last time we were at

the mdc and something that we heard we need to improve signage around that area. some is complicated because since if it is something affected by the road closures and since we don't know if that is permanent yet it is hard to do any permanent signage. we hear loud and clear that people need better signage right away. that is what we are doing with the signage for the shuttle to make sure that we have got good signage. even though it is temporary at first. some of the feedback we got from the blind and low vision community about better way finding and signage in the park that you also mentioned. it is something that we are going to work on in the short

term. >> more signage? >> yes, we definitely should. there have been improvements in the park general over the last couple years. we do, you know, that is something that we are definitely hearing there is more work to be done in that area answer also things that, you know, because things have changed it is really important that signage is kept up-to-date. >> the last comment was how. [indiscernable]

what did you guys come up within solution or discussion on this? >> yeah, the director level there is a lot of communication and discussion. as far as the director of recreation and parks and the directors of the cal academy and deyoung museum. they definitely have been in close communication and also with the operators like i mentioned before with the garage because that is a separate nonprofit that runs the garage. there has been a lot of communication about how to address the closure of jfk and what to do about that.

>> thank you. >> i have a question. i recognize tiffany u as the next speaker. your hand is raised. did you have a question or comment? >> this is tiffany. i was in the presentation. i just was reflecting on this. i want to thank our presenters. i know this is a really complex topic. what i was reflecting on is i am someone who has benefited from the closure of jfk drive and the adaptive biking program. one comment i want to add in here. as disabled people we are great at adapting. we saw san francisco as a city that is resilient in the

pandemic. i hope that whatever we doen up deciding to reflect on this i want to center disabled people's experiences because when we center disabled people's experiences we end up making our city better for everyone. i wanted to add that in. we have a lot of public comment. i want to make sure we are centering our community because especially those of us with physical disabilities will benefit from whatever is decided for jfk drive. thank you. >> thank you so much, tiffany. i see helen has her hand up. >> thank you for the

presentation and for all of your obvious hard work with the outreach and talking with folks. it is a contentious and complicated issue and one where reasonable and well meaning people can disagree. i want to acknowledge that. i also acknowledge that i believe both of you are allies to the disability community and people of good faith working on this. you have worked, you have both worked with the council on other issues over the years. i wanted to remind our respective communities of that and thank you for that. i would just ask that rec and park and s.f.m.t.a. and other

governing city bodies remember that the disability and older adult community may not be able to be as vocal and coordinated in their organizing as they would like to be. i hope our voices and concerns are still heard. i think tiffany made a great comment about centering the disability community's voice and it benefits all of us. the parent with the stroller pushing her child or his child up the curb ramp on the sidewalk as well as the person in the wheelchair. just my last point being a lot of important civil rights advances were made even though a majority of the electorate may have disagreed. for example gay marriage. i am a lesbian married to a

woman. if it was put up to a vote nationwide we still wouldn't have it. it wouldn't be legal. racial begration of public schools. -- integration of public schools. i don't want a majority of voices or louder voices to control the outcome here. and that was a reminder. with that and again thank you both. >> i appreciate that. i think you are right. that absolutely that it is not just what the majority things. people with disabilities have specific needs that people not disabled don't understand or don't prioritize. we know that it is our job to center those needs, as tiffany said. i think we wouldn't have the

americans with disabilities act if it was just based on majority opinion. we know how important the ada is. i want to affirm we aren't just looking at the specific perspective across the city. we are specifically looking at the feedback we receive from the disability community and older adults. >> this is other kid. thank you, helen for your comments. i am going to comment as a council member. i live in district 9 and drive through district 1. using highway 19 and there is a ton of traffic there. i have a son who has 10 different be things in district 1. thinking about getting through

golden gate park. i run into issues with the road closures there. golden gate park we need to keep it open. we need to have it as a thoroughfare for daily traffic. there are so many limited areas where traffic can flow and they are impacted now. thinking about that entire area. getting through is very challenging. then you think about the cost of gas at this point and extra expense in your car. unnecessarily when you have to navigate that. i think we are going to figure out reasonable solution and continue working through this, but i do think getting through golden gate park is important. accessible parking is important. we also include signage that has that is visually accessible for deaf people. i haven't seen any deaf or asl

signage or anything to service the deaf-blind community. considering other places and important recreational activities for marginalized communities like deaf communities in golden gate park would be important to consider in design. we have an opportunity here. remember when the museum was new and everyone hated the design of the dejong museum. it has grown on folks. i think that we need to continue to open doors and think about -- i would rather there was a door made accessible for people with disabilities. that has actually impacted people's transit in and out of the museum. we need to continue to make that an important place that people can come in and out rather than going the long way around.

it is important to consider cyclists needs and thoroughfares to allow people to move around on bikes. there are so many other people that use the park, pedestrians, there are different areas of the park. horses and the ferris wheel as well. i am thinking about the different things set up over time. i think that the music and concerts. it is just not a good idea to close jfk altogether. i think that we have seen with the pandemic and the changes in the pandemic life is resuming back to some degree. that is an important thoroughfare for morning and evening commute. we need to think about uses of

the park and who is going there as well as folks coming from the east bay. [please stand by]

>> just a moment. calls for the interpretation. there has been a lot of work that has been going on. we still need to start over and completely redesign the path of travel separate from the parking garage so the cyclists have a separate place to access apart from the pedestrian and car traffic. and just to clarify that, cyclists do ride very quickly. i ride a bike myself and they should not be on pedestrian paths. there have been multiple, you know, impacts or injuries related to cyclist collisions. it gets worse every year. just thinking of how bad it has

been, you know, when cyclists are riding on the path on a pedestrian path of travel and not in the streets. i just want to put that out there for your consideration as well. thank you so much. i believe, jumping back into my cochair roll, comments from staff is the last item on the list -- on the next item on the list. >> apologies. comments from staff, do you mean you would like us to respond to the comments you just heard or comments from nicole and debbie? do you want us to respond? >> if you would like. i was just putting these out for your consideration. i noticed a lot of comments and a lot of perspective to respond to.

if you have something you want to say, sure. >> i guess i would just thank everyone on the council further comments and we really appreciate that you have shared a lot a very helpful information. as you said, we have been working to make accessibility improvements, including at has been -- as has been said, improvements that will happen regardless what happens with jfk. it is important to keep working together to make sure those accessibility plans move forward so the park is more accessible for everybody. >> thank you, everybody. i was asking if there were any other comments from the staff right now. if not, we can go to public comment.

>> usually when we hear from mod staff. >> that is correct. >> thank you. >> presenters, i think we can move right along to public comment. >> okay. this is him on. i will be opening the public comment. i just want to make an announcement, specifically for our interpreters. i would like to ask that the interpreters coordinate among your language care so that one of you can leave the meeting and rejoined to make sure you are in the main meeting room so you can help us effectively interpret any language comments that come in at this time. so, while you are doing that, i

will go ahead and start with public comment. we did receive a number of public comments by e-mail, which constituents asked us to read during the meeting. i will start with three of those comments, and then take comments through the zoom platform and over the phone. our first comment is from roy scott. it says, dear members of the mayor's disability council. more power to you in crafting a solution that matches our access to the resources of golden gate park for a wide spectrum of users, including the senior and disabled community. although i am now in my eighties, i was an early member of the san francisco bicycle coalition. in the early nineties, we struggled in taking our daughter down market street on friday

evenings. in those days, those commuting and recreational bike riders had equal access to roads and respect for motor vehicle drivers. we did not seek to ban motor vehicles from public rights-of-way. the pendulum seems to have shifted in the other direction. you need to bear in mind that cyclists can share the road and we can still reach the many wonderful destinations in the park, but the larger and more economically and publicly disadvantage population cannot if jfk drive is closed. please advocate for a solution that is fair to all. that was one public comment that we received by e-mail. and other public comment we received by e-mail is from howard and it says, hello, all. i am -- respected access firm was hired by the museum to investigate the impacts of

closing the eastern part of jfk drive two cars, and the resulting removal of the principal parking spaces on disability access to the museum. the november 2020 report concludes that by removing free accessible parking into the immediate vicinity of the museum and not providing free parking within a reasonable travel distance to the museum, the city is introducing public access and is not meeting its application. alternative methods of accessing the museum, including passenger drop-off areas, the park shows that there are identified barriers to disability and do not negate the need for full parking spaces. and he provides the link to the main website. please consider this e-mail. as a note to the public, the

attachment has been provided and has also been posted on the website. the next comment that came by e-mail will be read at this time. it is from and henderson. as a handicapped senior and a long time museum and member. i am very impacted by the closure of jfk. the only way for me to get in is to drive on jfk to one of the handicap spots and enter from the side entrance. i cannot walk from the street, even if i can find parking, and make it all the way to the museum or any other attraction. and all the times i have been over to the park, i have never seen that. we will now go back to taking comments within the platform. as a reminder to all, if you are a member of the public who wants

to make public comment at this time and you are using the zoom platform, you can press the raised hand icon to raise your hand and when it is your turn, you will be prompted to unmute. you can do this by pressing the microphone icon. if you are joining by phone, you can dial star nine to raise your hand and when it is your turn to comment, you will be prompted. you can dial star sticks to unmute. okay, so, our first commenter, you have been permitted to unmute. [speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ] [speaking foreign language ]

[ indiscernible ] >> if the interpreter is able to interpret at this time in the main room, please do so. okay. we apologize for that technical difficulty. we will work with the interpreter.

please continue. okay. i'm not hearing the interpreter. i'm assuming the council members can also not hear the interpreter at this time. so we will continue to coordinate with her to make sure we can get that comment interpreted. in the meantime, we will go on to our next call or. >> also, this is orchid. i think in the meantime we could ask the interpreter or the

individual who is making the comment to type it and post it in the chat or in the question area and we can have it translated a little bit later. >> okay. okay. >> let's go ahead with the next speaker. >> okay. our next commenter is ken. you have been permitted to unmute. >> hi, hello. [speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ] >> i am a caregiver and i need to take care of an elderly person. she is 90 years old.

and before i always drove this person to go to the park, but now, since jfk has closed, it is very challenging for us to go there. just consider, i am a caregiver and i have to push the wheelchair for an elderly person and if the road is closed, it makes it very difficult and very hard for us. as a caregiver during the pandemic, it is already very difficult for us, but now the road is closed. it is even more challenging and even more difficult for us.

and also, on the other hand, i wish the committee and the city, they can, because i feel like some of the road in golden gate park is not wide enough. it is narrow. so, i wish the committee can widen the road and also make the park more green for an elderly person and for a disability person when we are around inside the park, it makes it more relaxing. i appreciate that you gave me the opportunity to speak here. thank you very much.

>> thank you so much. do we have anymore comments? >> yes. the vietnamese interpreter is going to provide us with the interpretation of the last vietnamese comment. >> and this is the vietnamese interpreter. this is the comment from hallie that you just hurt. i have lived in san francisco for the last 20 years. my mother lost her life and she was paralyzed. she often asked me to give her a ride, together with her elderly friends to go to the park so she can see the street and exercise. we want to jfk drive to not be closed. if it is, then it is not easy for my mother and her elderly friends to go there every day to enjoy some fresh air, and also to change the scenery.

everyone of us is opposed to the closure of jfk and also there is a comment from another vietnamese speaker in the chat. where is it? she says i live in richmond. my family and my neighbors often have to pick up our kids to school and we drive through the jfk drive because of the pandemic. this road has been closed and it caused a lot of traffic jams. my neighbors and my family are strongly opposed to the closure of jfk. that is all. >> thank you. our next commenter, eva, you have been permitted to unmute.

you have been permitted to unmute. >> hello? >> yes. >> hi. [speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ] [speaking foreign language ] >> i am a restaurant owner and my restaurant is near golden gate park. now that jfk has closed, it has affected my business very much. it has affected my business very much. most of my customers come to my

restaurant by car. not riding public transportation, not riding a bike. most of them is driving a car to pick up a business here. i oppose to close jfk because it will have a big impact on my business. so not only impacting my businesses, it will impact other business persons overall. i oppose to closed the jfk road.

that is all my opinion. thank you. >> thank you so much. next commenter? very important comments. >> you have been permitted to unmute.

you have been permitted to unmute. okay, we will try again later. they could be having technical difficulties. the next commenter is but a. i am so sorry for my pronunciation. you have been permitted to unmute.

okay. once again, we will try again in a little bit. maybe there are some technical issues. our next speaker, you have been permitted to unmute. >> hi. >> hello. >> hi. [speaking foreign language ] [speaking foreign language ] [speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ] [speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ] >> okay.

i want to express -- [ indiscernible ]. >> hello? [speaking foreign language ] [please standby]

up >> caller: the traffic is really bad and a lot of people they need to come through to other areas in the city through the golden gate park for myself i live in sunset, but i need to take my kids to school and also

my elderly family member to other areas through the colden gate park, but since golden -- since the jfk is closed, it makes it very challenging every day on traffic. and also i didn't -- the data from the outreach from the group of outreach, that data is not representative of the general public and the data is very limited they surveyed 70% of people. they agreed to close jfk permanently, but i don't think so. yeah because the people, they

talk to and they are the ones that use the golden gate park, but how about other people. they don't have the chance to access to the golden gate park. all those people are being forgotten. yeah. so i think the outreach, the committee, the data they used is not generally represent the general public. so i oppose to close the golden -- jfk road permanently. thank you very much. >> clerk: okay. i am seeing some notes in the chat that some people are having difficulty hearing the translated audio. i'm wondering if one of the

m.d.c. members or another panelist can confirm if you hear any audio in the main room? >> we heard the last interpreter. >> clerk: okay. and so if people are having problems hearing the english audio, if you're an attendee, i would ask that you double check that you are in the main room and didn't enter into an interpretation room. it seems like my audio is back, so hopefully the next time an interpreter is being used everyone will also be able to hear them. we thank you for your patience and working through all of these new changes as they come. and so our next commenter is richard scaff.

richard, you've been permitted to unmute. >> caller: hello. give me just one second. i have to pull up what i want to say if you don't mind. okay. my name is richard scaff. executive director of designing accessible communities. why is it that sfmda and rec and park shows that your broad support while surveys and reports from others showed just the opposite? i'll speak to that more further down in my comments. as a newly appointed member to the u.s. access board how can you support a proposal that will clearly reduce access to buildings and facilities for a substantial, buildings, facilities and programs for a substantial number of

vulnerable seniors and persons with disabilities. relatively saying one of the streets are open and closed. nothing has been said by sfmta rec and park staff about the dangers from bicyclists who don't pay attention to stop signs or pedestrians in crosswalks threatening the safety of vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities. i never got support from rec and park or sfmta. i ask that the park police test the system using john f. kennedy drive from the west end downtown because i actually tracked some and they were doing 30 miles an hour not stopping at stop signs crossing

over crosswalks while pedestrians were walking by at 30 miles an hour. nothing has been done about it shuttles every 20 minutes and 15 minutes on weekdays, what if it's raining? and what if shuttles show up full? we're supposed to wait another 15, 20 minutes. how many vehicles? i believe there are two. what are the operating hours? i talked to said she went to an event at the ban show. what happened? that event was at night. the shuttle stops at 8:00 p.m. the event went until 10:00 p.m. great access.

accident analysis of parks and city streets. if it's too dangerous for bike use in the park, could that be the same problem that exists on other city streets: what analysis has been done across all of san francisco. do we have that analysis about accidents for bicyclists? should we close all city streets to vehicles? what are you proposing for those events specifically intended for people with disabilities like the [ indiscernible ] event for people with disabilities when they have an opening of the dejeoung with interpreters and others -- disabilities to come in and see the park display. there may be a large number of

disabilities waiting for the shuttle. are they just going to be told, i'm sorry, this shuttle's full, you'll have to wait another 15 or 20 minutes? >> clerk: sir, the time has elapsed. >> caller: can i just take a minute or two just to take a little bit. >> chairman: you can have 30 seconds. >> caller: has there been a traffic analysis, traffic on local neighborhoods. i did a recent trip to the zoo with the grandsons with my wife from marin count. we had to drive through the sunset district residential streets because the ocean beach street closure. there was a substantial amount of traffic that day on neighborhood streets.

this has so many problems that it can't be implemented and i want to suggest to m.o.d., to the board of supervisors, to mayor breed that if this is implemented, i'm going to do everything i'm legally able to do to make sure it is immediately ended. thank you. >> clerk: okay. our next commenter is caller ending in 3004, you've been permitted to unmute. as a reminder, you can unmute

on the phone by dialling star six. >> caller: hello. i'm a long time outer sunset. >> clerk: it may be helpful if you mute the audio of the meeting while you're giving comment if you're on two devices. >> caller: is this better? hello, can you hear me? okay. so i'm a long time outer sunset

for over 40 years and i'm a care giver. i think all the improvements mentioned are great and important and they should be done, but this does not keep our roads closed to vehicles. there's independence when you can drive yourself around and come and go on your own schedule. many people, disabled seniors, whoever, don't want to give that up even if there is a viable alternative any kind of public transportation that does take longer is unacceptable because of issues of fatigue and other health factors there's a lot of minutes added to a round trip and 350' away

from an entrance is a lot of feet away. one of the great pleasures of my family is that we take scenic rides with my family which includes driving on the upper great highway. all comments to be temporary due to shelter in place which are still ongoing until april 2020 all remain closed, it's no longer possible for my family and me to do this. the streets parallel to jfk and the upper great highway are now filled with speed bumps and streets filled with dozens of vehicles which include big rigs, huge delivery trucks, flat bed trucks filled with cars or construction equipment diverted onto the great highway and are all stopping and going through intersections throughout the neighborhoods. this makes it dangerous and extremely unpleasant to drive

in san francisco especially with disabled passengers. my relatives are unable to see any of the exhibits or go to the museums which we all have memberships to. the great highway has heavy traffic out of our neighborhoods all night every night -- so close to the homes in accordances living nearby. there are bike lines and parking spaces and plenty of room for everyone to be able to share jfk. we must promote policies allowing our roads to be shared with drivers as well as bicyclists and pedestrians. san francisco is not car-free and making it harder to drive and park around the city will not accomplish this nor will it accomplish our vision 0 goals. you don't have a first class public transportation system and those elderly and disabled

will not use what we do have. we have a lack of transparency regarding the details of the message they used to count pedestrians walking and rolling. and there's bias and specifically targeted to those in favor of closure. i like the idea that there's a place just for bikes away from cars and walkers and i think it's a great idea, but it's not -- should not be instead of banning, it should not lead to ban drivers from our streets as well. thank you very much for this opportunity to talk. >> clerk: this is nicole speaking. i just want to remind folks that the time allowed for public comment is three minutes. if you hear the beep sound or that's identified through the interpreting, that does mean your time is up. we appreciate your comments.

thank you. >> clerk: yes. we have 20 more members of the public with their hands raised to make public comment and so, next caller, call-in user 1, you've been permitted to unmute. you can unmute by dialling star 6. >> caller: linda chapman. as a former officer of the federal executive board's disabled opportunity council and a person who dealt in training and enforcing a.d.a. issues there's no question that what you're doing violates the a.d.a. and you don't get to take votes about whether nondisabled people want to violate the ada or not.

i know they were planning to do a.d.a. complaints. i would also mention that where the city receives funding, for example, for streets and roads if it does or for parks and recreation, then complaints can go to the department and the result of noncompliance is that you lose the funding. as a person who used to also deal with conflict resolution was trained in that, the way to resolve the situation that you have is conflict is to deal with the west end of the park. you don't have to close the entire west end of the park. but there will be some roads there that will be closed. the point is that you try to separate people from their position and look at what they really need. not just what they want, but what they need. people have said we want to have jfk closed, but what they

need, they say is to have access for skating and bicycling and so on on safe roads without cars. that can be done on the west end of the park without denying access to people who need access to the institutions that they stand. after all, they're not just the museum. we're talking about the children's playground, the conservetor of flowers and numerous area there is. my mother was a polio survivor there. and if it hasn't been for that, the little girls would not have gotten to the children's playground. i cannot use it to get to the park. i tried to go to peacock meadows. i bid $38 this year for the cab driver who tried to get new me

somewhere and then he had a back problem and he could not walk in. last year, i wanted to go to the arboretum. i took the bus out there. i had to walk in. then, the gate was closed. i had to walk around to the south end of the entry. by the time i got there, i was just begging, hoping, praying. all i could do was sit. >> your time is up. can you finish your comment really quickly. >> caller: yes. all i could do was to call a cab to get me home. you cannot deny access to the hundreds of thousands of people who are disabled or who are old or have an impairment that increases with old age. thank you. >> chairman: thank you for

your comment. next comment, please. >> clerk: okay. vicky, you've been permitted to unmute. vicky brukner you've been permitted to unmute. you can do so by clicking on the mute icon. >> caller: i did. can you hear me now? >> clerk: yes. >> caller: okay. i also filed written comments. i wonder if you received them. my name is victoria bruckner. i'm departing from those written comments hopefully you already have them. i want to speak directly to maddie and lucas, thank you for your presentation. but i want to make a mega-comment about the whole

planning process for the future of jfk drive and golden gate park in general. if the lead planner for sfmta on this project is the past president of the bicycle coalition full stop, okay. so i believe what is happening here with all due respect, maddie and lucas, is catching up to the reality that you're violating federal and state laws. not only title two of the a.d.a., but sections of the california vehicle code. of course, those things can be done on an emergency basis, but once the emergency is over and once public facilities and programs are open, the roads need to be open too if you don't want to remove access. i have a great deal of concern about the level of knowledge at

r.p.d. in particular, but also at m.t.a. about a.d.a. requirements for access. i don't think it's steep enough and i don't think the knowledge of the needs of the population of people with disabilities in the bay area is deep enough either. case in point. the slides that you presented of the new blue parking space next to the tennis courts, i did not in looking at them see a curb ramp. hello. um, also, your outreach efforts were commendable, but as a person who used to be able to ride muni to the park when i was young with my mobility disability and can no longer do so because of my age, i could not get to the park for any of those events. i have been effectively banned

from the most popular destinations and public programs in golden gate park that are along jfk drive for the rest of my life unless this ban is lifted and, lucas, i wrote to you regarding communication access at the alter verse evening event happening in december and you did not provide any information about how to request a sign language interpreter within sf poetry reading. please explain, thank you. >> chairman: thank you for your comments. >> clerk: okay. next commenter is bill bruckner, you've been permitted to unmute.

bill, you've been permitted to unmute. >> caller: can you hear me now? >> clerk: yes. >> caller: great. thank you. my name is bill bruckner. i've been a resident of san francisco since 1981. i also was on the original mayor's disability council way back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. i was going to read my public comment, but rather i'd like to respond to some of the comments that have been raised earlier. it does not matter if the sfmta and rec and park can find some individuals with disabilities who prefer having the road closed. it makes no difference just like when the a.d.a. was being navigated through congress in 1980s and 1990s.

it doesn't matter if there were individuals with disabilities who said i don't need this floor. i don't need a ramp into my public library even though i use a wheelchair because i can and i enjoy pushing myself up the ten stairs. what the a.d.a. did and continues to do is to provide protection to all people with disabilities regardless of their limitations and abilities. and the closure of the eastern section of jfk drive is a clear violation of title two of the a.d.a. the closure of the eastern section of jfk drive results in the explosion of a whole class of people. individuals with disabilities who require the use of cars, vans, and other motor vehicles in order to enjoy the numerous public facilities and public programs that are alongside and reached by this road. regardless of the intent of

this closure, the results are the same, this is discrimination. this closure is in violation of both the spirit and the letter of the americans with disabilities act. i would like to say and i'd like to refer to the late marilyn golden who was one of my heroes, a monumental leader in the disability rights movement, she was my friend and my colleague in the effort to pass the a.d.a., she said in an interview published on june 21st, 2021, the real question it quotes, the real question is why does anyone take heed of disability access. nobody handed out civil rights laws on a disability platter. like marilyn, i hope i'm not giving up on protecting the rights of all people regardless of their type of disability and people who don't have

disabilities. the disability rights movement is committed to creating a society that is inclusive of everyone. thank you. >> clerk: thank you so much for your comments. next commenter. it's called public. you've been permitted to unmute. >> caller: hello. can you hear me? >> clerk: yes. >> caller: thanks. yes. i appreciate you taking my comment. there has been 0 legitimacy in the process so far and certainly there can be any results that come of it as long as phil ginsburg and jeff actuallin are in charge of data analysis and recommendations. both have made it crystal clear

that their agenda is to close roads come hell or high water. they don't care about any negative impacts of the closures of the roads in san francisco and this is no secret throughout city hall or the public. everybody knows it. talk to any supervisor staff or anybody themselves, talk to the mayor's staff, they'll tell you. mr. ginsburg and mr. tumlin want the roads closed. there's no question that both have engaged in an intentional effort to advance their agenda, this road closure agenda using misleading and even flat out false data and information. they have knowingly, you know, put forth user data that's corrupted that they know is corrupted in terms of user data of the closed roads. they've knowingly used false

data on the safety impact that san francisco experiences when these roads are closed. they've essentially cheated on surveys and the like sending out questions having, you know, extreme surveyor bias in them. the surveys themselves having serious validity and -- i'm sorry i thought i heard somebody interrupt me. and it's clear they acted in collusion in sending out these surveys in order to help get the results in our agenda. and this is all provable. if you want to talk to the museums who aren't here today, talk to a group like open the great highway alliance. they'll make a presentation for you. and they will show you all this false information that

mr. tumlin and mr. ginsburg are putting out there with documents. it exists. it can be proven -- most significantly the [ indiscernible ] >> clerk: sorry. the interpreter, the sign language interpreter can't hear the commentary. >> caller: okay. can i talk. >> just through the clerk, i think we have a chinese interpreter in the main room. we'll work on switching you back into your room and then, public, please continue. >> caller: yeah. i got thrown because somebody was talking at the same time as me. the sunshine ordinance task force recently unanimous nee found that mr. ginsburg had willfully violated the law in connection with his obligation to turn over documents related to his efforts in connection

with road closures. a willful violation is official misconduct under san francisco city charter. [please stand by]

why he's plans not going to work? let me tell you. let's have a reality check. i'm telling you what it is trying to do to the disabled. you are in a deep abiding fear of falling down every day. every day, if you do too much, you are extremely fatigued. let me what a shuttle -- let me tell you what it is like to take the shuttle. if i get to the pickup point, no parking, what will i do? let's say i find a place to park and there is a shuttle pickup. i have to go in a lift or a

ramp, then i have to sit on a bench. we can't get up off of a bench. the normal height of the seat is 18 inches. i have a five. i can't sit down. i have to stand. then you will get to the museum or wherever you are going, then i am running out of time. i can't finish this in three minutes. i am telling you, the exhaustion of having to get in and out of the vehicle six times, as opposed to being able to drive up on jfk to a point where it is 200 feet from the museum entrance, and you just have to get in and out of your vehicle twice, there is no comparison. the mandate, the laws mandate

that the access for disabled must be substantially equivalent or greater accessibility than normal people. accessible parking, serving a building must be on the shortest accessible route. none of these plans that have been presented today meet the ada requirement. parking in the garage and having to pay that fee is a taxation on my disability. that is a disability tax. we can't get from the museum to the conservatory. there is no way. i am asking the disability -- disability council, please take care of disabled people in san francisco and visitors and tell them that you do not agree with the closure of jfk. you will be discriminating against disabled people.

>> your time is up. thank you for your comments. next caller, please. >> next commenter or caller ending in 7629. you have been permitted to unmute. >> hello. my name is richard rossman. i was very, very disappointed in this presentation, especially about the garage. i have been working in and have been interested in this issue for over a year. i hear staff saying they haven't solved the problem. they are still talking.

when are they going to solve the problem? i don't think the problem can be solved. they told him to come up with $44 million. that is the only way. the city charter said that the city cannot subsidize the garage because it was built with private money. and talking to the garage management, they cannot reduce surprises because they have to pay off the bond. i don't know, you know, i'm very disappointed in this presentation. as far as the ada parking by the tennis court, that is absolutely unacceptable. one is so close to the barrier. when i went there, they were all taken up. i imagine people who park and to go to the tennis court park there and then they have to walk across the roadway to get to the

curve -- conservancy of flowers. people should be able to drive by the conservancy of flowers. i was expecting to see a detailed plan. i learned nothing new today. the only good thing i have seen is they are making the ada parking behind the bench or and they are repaving the road. they are going to add more ada parking. that is good. i want to see a better plan. so from what i heard today, and i know these people and i think, you know, i have respect for them, but i am not happy with the plan here. i hope this is not the plan that will be presented in two weeks. they need to come up with the garage plan and i think they need to share the roadway. that is the answer. or else encourage the cyclists and walkers to ride on mlk.

that is all free there. they can ride and bike and walk and there's no museums there. there are hardly any cars there. so why don't you make mlk and encourage people to ride there instead of riding in from the museums were people want to go and see the museums. i think that is a better solution to use mlk and then used at the western -- western end of the park and cyclists so they can all walk there. we all need to share the park. thank you for letting me talk. >> thank you for your comments. next comment, please? >> our next commenter, tony, you have been permitted to unmute.

>> okay. hi. i am born and raised in san francisco. i grew up in the richmond district. i wrote a bike up to 4,000 miles a year up until 15 years ago. i was a member of the bike coalition for over 20 years and never had a problem with cars. i have advocated bike lanes and that was fine. but what i find the biggest jerk of this whole meeting is if this is the mayor's council, where is the mayor? where is phil ginsberg? this is golden gate park. you know where they are? somewhere else. you know why? because they don't care. let's face it. they don't care. and what are you all doing here? you are solving a problem that didn't exist three years ago. you created the problems yourselves. ginsberg created the problem. we didn't have a problem three

or four years ago. suddenly we have a problem for spending millions of dollars trying to figure out how to solve the problem that didn't exist before. how stupid can you be? and look at all the panels of the city. look at all the city employees. they are all under 16 years old. only 20% of san francisco population is over 60 years old. so we are underrepresented. everybody just wants to do what they want. they don't care about the older population here. they don't care about what's on the table. [ indiscernible ] >> they are only doing things to satisfy themselves. let's face it. you are going to have 20 parking spaces behind the bandstand for placard people? i have a placard myself.

that one in eight californians have a placard. what do you think 20 spaces is going to do? absolutely nothing. i will bet you anything that you go outside and you go on jfk drive, somewhere between crossover drive and the museum, i will bet you hardly see anybody there. i will bet you anything. right now i am looking at the great highway. i see several cars on the lower great highway and i see three people on the upper great highway where 3,000 people allegedly a day are using the great highway. they are all bogus facts. i heard earlier that all of these surveys and everything that you guys have come up with, it is bs and you know it. don't try to ramp these street closures for the good of all down our throats. forget it. you are making a mess of things. it wasn't a mess before.

you created the mess and you are spending millions wasting our taxpayer money. >> okay. our next commenter, candy, you have been permitted to unmute. >> before we go to the next caller, i would just ask my fellow members, why don't you share this -- [ indiscernible ] why don't you do that?

>> sure, alex. this is helen. i am happy to. >> thank you. >> please proceed. >> candy, you have been permitted to unmute. [speaking foreign language ] [speaking foreign language ]

>> i am a san francisco resident and i have three kids. i used to bring my kids to the golden gate park airfield, but since jfk is closed, it is very hard for me to bring -- [speaking foreign language ] >> it sounds like we may have another interpreter in the main room. we will work to get you back into your main room. if the chinese interpreter could continue, go ahead. >> since jfk has closed, it makes us -- it makes it very hard to bring my kids to go to golden gate park anymore. so i will oppose to close the jfk drive because this is unfair

to us and makes us very inconvenient. that is all my opinion. thank you. >> thank you. our next commenter is howard. you have been permitted to unmute. howard, you have been permitted to unmute.

>> can you hear me now? >> yes. >> thank you. i don't think there is anything i can add to the comments describing, in great detail, how it is unfair, unkind, stupid, so i just want to say a few things. first of all, i want to thank the vietnamese and chinese speakers for being here today and sharing your perspective with your fellow audience members and with the council and with mod staff, it is really important that you be heard. i would invite you to join us -- [speaking foreign language ] -- i invite you to join us in

fighting for our rights. a few things need to be done. go to ada dot geo v. that is the u.s. department of justice ada website. there is a form that is easy to fill out where you can make a complaint about this. the d.o.j. will investigate. it may take a while, but the more complaints there are, the better. also, i put it in the chat, but i will say it again. we have a petition on change.org. just go to change.org. if you go there and search jfk drive, it would come up. i think we are at about a little bit more than 4,000 signatures at this point. i would also ask the mod to make

a transcript and a recording, including the chat transcript, of this whole meeting. not only of the jfk segment, because, in general, there were a couple of people who commented on jfk drive. all of whom were opposed to the closing. if you could make the transcript and recording and chat of this entire meeting available to the mayor, the mayor's transportation person, the mayor's chief of staff, all of the supervisors, the recreation and park board, m.t.a. board, and others. thank you, all. >> thank you for your comments. next. >> our next commenter is.

you have been permitted to unmute. [speaking foreign language ] >> since jfk closed right now, so i have to reroute and go to h avenue and get through golden gate park.

it makes it very difficult for us. it is wasting time and it is a waste of gas. that is all. >> thank you so much. to the chair, this is nicole speaking again. as a matter of access, we have had a request that we take a brief break to give our interpreters, who are providing the american sign language, a break. i would like to suggest that we break. we have interpreting available today and captioning until 5:45 pm. i would like to ask the interpreters what kind of a break is appropriate for you. >> this is jenny speaking from the interpreter team.

we are going to go ahead and keep going. >> okay. thank you for the check in. we can proceed with the next caller, please. [ indiscernible ] >> every public meeting we have, it is recorded and captioned and put on the mod website. please proceed to the next caller. >> okay. the next commenter, you have been permitted to unmute.

you are now on muted. feel free to start your comments. >> if you don't mind -- [ indiscernible ] >> okay. the next commenter, you have been permitted to unmute. >> hello. i actually bike quite a bit in san francisco, and i bike into golden gate park. i volunteer, along with

everybody else who works in the dahlia bell. my father, who recently passed away at the age of 92 was severely disabled and very frail and was unable to do any transferring from one vehicle to another. other people have mentioned the fatigue and the danger of doing a transfer. one of our great pleasures was being able to drive on the eastern end of jfk and seeing the dahlia bell up close. because if you go onto pompeo, you can see the beautiful flowers really close without having to get out of the car. i know there are lots of nursing homes, daycare centers for seniors, skilled nursing facilities that make that special scenic drive to the

eastern part of jfk drive. some other people have suggested moving any closure to a less used, less vital part of the city, and i support that idea. i know there are lots of kids who want to learn how to ride bikes and families who want to do biking in the big wide space, and i know there are other places. but to pick the eastern side of jfk is so unfair and that is my comment. thank you very much. >> okay. our next commenter is jessica. you have been permitted to unmute.

jessica, you have been permitted to unmute. okay. we can try and come back to jessica. our next commenter his she let. you have been permitted to unmute. >> hi, thank you, good afternoon. thank you, councilmembers. my name is sheila presley. as director of education at the museum and the san francisco residents, i very much oppose the closure of jfk drive. i am also troubled that young representatives were not invited to present today.

i will do my best in under three minutes. if -- many callers have pointed out how the proposals resented violate ada laws. in addition to following the critically important laws, i also urge recreation and park to have compassion for the needs of people with disabilities. as we have heard, the replacement parking option suggested by recreation and park are all located further away than the ada spots on jfk. it is reducing accessibility for those who need it. the garage is not owned or controlled by the museum. the garage also does not meet the current guidelines. the parking lot behind is not closed and there are serious issues with passing travel.

in the noncovid and nonjfk closure years, the museum provides free, on-site educational programs for over 250,000 students, teachers, families, people with disabilities, and those attending talks and classes. in addition, visitors with disabilities and those receiving medi-cal benefits are always granted free admission. we also offer free general admission for all residents of the san francisco bay area, all nine bay area counties every saturday of the year. i want to thank the mayor's disability council for protecting the needs of those who want to utilize the forces of the museum in golden gate park. all san franciscans pay taxes to support these institutions and they do not deserve to have the access for these publicly held

jewels to be reduced or denied. >> thank you for your comments. >> thank you. next commenter. >> our next commenter, we will go back to jessica. you have been allowed to unmute. >> hello. thank you so much. i apologize for the problems. my name is jessica and i'm the executive director of senior and disability action. we have had a long time concerns with pedestrian safety throughout the city of san francisco and access of all kinds. we have always had concerns that cars pose a great risk to people with disabilities and older people in terms of injury and death. there are a lot of serious concerns among people with disabilities about potential closures of jfk drive and we are

challenged by looking at different issues and we have to acknowledge that sometimes these are conflicting access needs among different people with disabilities and older people. and for people who have cars, it can be very difficult to replace that mode of travel. there are also many disabled people and seniors who are not able to afford it -- [speaking foreign language ] >> sorry. one moment. it looks like we have a vietnamese interpreter in the room. we will work on getting that sorted in the back. these continue. >> thank you. there are a lot of people who are not able to afford driving or don't drive for many reasons. they can benefit greatly from improved public transit and improved transit access. we need transit access and bus show -- bus shelters for people

to make it out of the rain. we are glad to see a lot of access changes that we have needed for a long time regardless of what happens here. there is no easy answer. fda hasn't taking -- taken a position. i just wanted to share some of the issues and acknowledge the challenges that we are permitted to work with to come up with the best solution possible. we have a long-term goal of creating a community that is safe, that is sustainable for our planet and our communities and allows everyone to get around in multiple ways. it keeps people connected to each other. we can all work together. we need to listen and consider how we can meet conflicting access needs as well as possible. thank you. >> great.

our next comment will be from janet. you have been permitted to unmute. >> thank you so much to everyone. i appreciate everyone's thoughts on this. it definitely is a difficult situation. but i have spent the last 35 years of my professional career as the executive director for nonprofits that have advocated for the disadvantaged and disabled. and yet, until you, yourself, are in the situation, you don't fully realize how important it is to have access and have it easily accessible. the pain that often people go through just to access their car

from the museum, our access to the museum, asking people to get on and off shuttles is just not fair. i hope that the mayor and the board take all of this into consideration. thank you. >> okay. our next commenter, you have been permitted to unmute. >> just a moment, i have a comment. this is orchid here. i just want to let everyone know that tiffany and helen will be taking over the responsibilities of cochair as alex and i both have to leave the meeting at this time. we will let the comments continue and let them take over responsibilities. thank you.

>> thank you. our next commenter is how. you have been permitted to unmute. you can make your comments. [speaking foreign language ]

do we have an interpreter in the main room who can interpret that for us? >> i oppose to close.

>> okay. and our next commenter is sophia. you have been permitted to unmute. >> can you hear me? >> yes. [speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ] >> i am a sunset resident. and due to the nature of the park, it creates a lot of inconvenience for me because for me to go through different places, i need to make a long trip in order to get to my destination. and also, because of the closure of the jfk, it even creates more traffic to other areas and other streets. and also for me, i like to take my kids to the museum, to the park, and because of that, the

closure is very limited access. and also, i will speak to a group of my middle school kids' parents. they all find the same thing about the boundaries and the inconvenience with the closure of jfk. and also, parking is also inconvenient as well. i want the city -- the council to be more considerate. not just to certain people who like to walk or live close to the park, but to the equity and we need to be well-rounded for everyone to have access to the park, not just one-sided. it would be more considerate to the whole community, especially

to elderly and people who need access to jfk. the main thing is to be more considerable and more equity for the whole public. thank you. >> thank you. our next caller is mike. you have been permitted to unmute. >> hi, can you hear me? thank you for letting me get my 2 cents in. they have been trying to clothe this -- close this road and i went to the voters in 2,069% of the voters said no. we don't want to closed, but here we are again. i am so sick of this group trying to close this road, we need to get back tomorrow. and all of the streets will be

able to open. they have zero credibility with the public. the surveys they have conducted have been shown to be many -- manipulative and staged. these comments are continuing to be ignored by sfmta. they have their marching orders for the bike coalition and they just don't care about the majority of the people in the city, let alone the disabled. we need to eliminate these and use the special interest groups were hell-bent on closing the streets for their own personal use. they have done no outreach to me and i am a senior. i only found out about these issues through the open and great highway website. i keep hearing about all of the issues we are attempting to mitigate. all you need to do is open the road. all you have to do is to continue to push your agenda. it does not mitigate the opening. a recent new york times article about vehicle related deaths, which is inexcusably use all the time, and says the stress levels

are due to the road closures and has an impact on road safety. there's a tremendous psychological need to return as many things as possible to prepandemic standards. people need to be retaught not to play in this great -- in the streets. thank you for your time. >> thank you. our next commenter, you have been permitted to unmute. >> hi. [speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ] [speaking foreign language ]

[speaking foreign language ] >> i have been a long-time resident in san francisco. i rely on my vehicle to go to work and run other errands. my question, i am wondering why, does the -- why does the closure of the jfk equate to extra boundaries to so many people, especially those who depend on the motor vehicle? and also, because of that, the traffic it creates traffic jams. especially around areas like 19h avenue. i oppose the closure of the jfk and i want it to be more

feasible to everyone. not just to certain people. especially to the senior who relies on and wants to get access to the jfk park. but because of the closure, people whose families want to drop them off are unable to. i am here to oppose and have the council to reconsider the accessibility to everybody. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. our next commenter, you have been permitted to unmute. >> thank you so much. good morning, councilmembers. i am here to speak on behalf of the fine arts museum of san francisco, which includes the legion of honor museum. she was heard earlier in this meeting, the museums were not

engaged or included as equal shareholders throughout the process or in this proposal planning. it is the fine arts museum's responsibility to make sure the museum is accessible underneath this ship -- city charter and the s. -- on the san francisco park code. these were commissioned by the museum and conducted by mig. the report details how the city is reducing program access and is not meeting its obligations under title ii of the ada. i attended several department outreach events that they put together, including one of their access stores. every person who was at that access to tour event was able-bodied. the feedback that he heard from other events from people with disabilities was vehemently against closure, simple giving multiple presentations does not equate support. there was never even a question asking about disabilities. i am grateful to hear the comments from members of the community throughout the meeting. we have spoken to many people

during the period, hundreds of him who have written letters explaining their frustrations with the road closure and the city neglecting their needs and rights to access. we serve a diverse audience at our museum. many are elderly and/or have disabilities. we offer free admission to people with disabilities. it is fully accessible and has a variety of access programming to serve people with different kinds of disabilities. there are not a whole a lot of other places that can offer that and that is being taken away from so many. the museum attendance is down nearly 15% from precovid. when compared to the legion of honor museum which is also located in the richmond, attendance is only down 18% due to the impact. there is a huge impact between our tenants of the huge museum because of the jfk road closure. people are struggling to get here with these closures. the conservatory and the academy and the various gardens are all impacted. there are multiple art and cultural institutions in this and the park belong to

everyone. thank you. >> thank you. our next commenter is caller ending in 3979. you have been permitted to unmute. >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you, everyone, for being here and thank you commissioners for listening to us. i would like to request that, number 1, that all the members of the mayor's disability council strongly take a resolution and vote that the road must be immediately reopened because all of these mitigations that have been described are, in the future, they are a promise, but anything

that has been discussed, the only thing i have heard is about a shuttle. the road needs to be reopened immediately because, the suffering that it is causing, it has caused for two years. it cannot be described because only someone who has wanted to go and see the live show at the conservatory in the winter has not been able to go or it is someone who wanted to see the enchanted garden and wasn't able to go. and those of us who want to go to any of the other amenities along jfk drive, other than the museums, have strictly being denied because we can't walk there. so it is causing a lot of pain. you can stop it if you take a strong and firm stance and say, in defence of the communities with disabilities, stop it. reopened the road immediately. you are talking and doing all of

this. in the meantime, reopen the road immediately. there is no decent reason that this should remain closed. this proposal is a solution in search of a problem. there was no problem that we had. everyone was sharing the road. the able-bodied had their driving path and the bicycle path and we had our cars so we could just drive up, park, and walk a short distance to the museum or to the garden or whatever we needed to go. it is up to you, disability council, to stand up for us and to say, no, we don't approve of this proposal. there is no equity in this. they have another road they could use, the middle road. if it is really about recreation, just crowed -- just close little drive. it is smooth and it has been repaved. let that be the road that is closed.

it even has a pond. it has a little late. it is lovely. is on the other side of transfers drive. it is in golden gate park. but to close this one piece of real estate, why? there must be malice in the intent. millions of people use this road to have access. and there's people from throughout the world and the state and the city who need to take a car to get to jfk drive and there's communities -- their whole family needs to come and they need to use a car to bring the entire all three generations into the car together. everybody needs free access. we need equity and for it to be open to all vehicles and all people. i don't know why this goes off on my time isn't up yet, but please stick up for us, disability council. you are our line of defence. you are the ones who can say, no, this is the wrong. reopened the road immediately.

take a stand. when you have a chance, say open jfk drive immediately and permanently. thank you very much. i am trusting in your courage and integrity. thank you. >> okay. our next commenter, you have been permitted to unmute. [speaking foreign language ] >> i usually take bus 29 to go to chinatown, and also i take my

grandchild and go to school, but now jfk drive is closed. it is very inconvenient for us, and also not only do i take my grandchild to school, sometimes i the park, and also i go through the park and go to chinatown for dim sum, but since the road is closed, it makes it very hard for us to access all this area. i strongly opposed to close jfk drive. thank you. >> okay. our next commenter, you have been permitted to unmute.

[speaking foreign language ] >> okay. i oppose to close the jfk drive because i need to take my son to see his grandmother, so i need

to use jfk drive, but now it is closed. so my grandson cannot access and visit his grandmother. i strongly opposed to close jfk drive. >> thank you. our next commenter, patricia, you have been permitted to unmute. >> hi. i just want to reiterate what everyone is saying that our fate is in your hands. i am just asking you to please do the right thing and do not agree with m.t.a. the best thing to do for the majority of san franciscans is to close jfk drive. i would also like to say something about the survey.

most of the respondents, 65% were white, and these people made between $100,200,000 a year, and most of them lived around the park. there were absolutely no respondents at all from the southeast portion of san francisco, only to .6% were black and only five-point one% were hispanic. i want to caution you on putting these on the surveys because we know that they are skewed in favor of members of the bike coalition because the bike coalition is given advanced information about the survey,

and they are skewed and unfair. it gives everyone the false assumption that the majority of san franciscans want all of these roads closed, like jfk. also, let's say i did and i was able to get onto jfk with my walker. the bicycle riders are not, in any way, monitored by the police, and they do not obey stop signs. they are going, like the caller said, 30 miles an hour. they are rude and arrogant. the yellow people to get out of the way. that is another problem for disabled people. also, the parking. the only way that parking can be equitable is if jfk drive is open. all i have to do is walk 200 feet if jfk is open.

it is far -- the distance is far too far for a disabled person who is weak and lacks stamina and energy and is afraid of falling. please do not agree with this. the right and honorable decision is for you to say to these people who lead with jfk, keep jfk open. thank you. >> to the chair, this is nicole speaking. we have 15 minutes remaining in our meeting. it is my understanding that we have seven callers in the q. and a video comment. we must and the meeting, unfortunately at 5:45 pm because we need to break our

interpreters and our caption nurse, who have been working really hard since 1:00 pm this afternoon. we will continue until 5:45 pm. if you have a comment that you feel has not been heard after that time, please submit your comment to us via e-mail, if possible. or you can call us. with that, we will continue with public comment. >> okay. we currently have three members of the public still in the queue to make the comment. john kennedy, you have been permitted to unmute. >> hi, can you hear me? >> yes. >> great. my name is john kennedy.

i wanted to call in to set the record straight about my legacy. my road with my name on it. i am encouraged to hear so many passionate voices talking about the best way to enjoy my smooth paved surface and i am particularly encouraged that some these fine san franciscans have decided to speak publicly about equal access. 's only people have called in to protect the city they love. i am, however concerned that with all this discourse, we, as a city, as a society, may have forgotten our core and fundamental sentence -- sensibilities when it comes to public service. public service. the highest form of love in the highest standard of ethics comes when we serve others selflessly. i recall seeing congress in 1961 in my state of the union address where i have pledged myself and my colleagues to a continuous encouragement of initiative, responsibility, and energy in serving the public interest.

i'm glad that my road has served folks so well for so long, but is that what we have now? with the people that are presenting this plan? is that what we have here with my road, in this city? are we witnessing public-service or personal agenda? as i seem to recall, i was billed for the public to be used by the public. and yet, we seem to be discussing how or whether to restrict public access. this is not the way. i hope that those of you who have been proponents of restricting my access to some, instead of sharing with all will reflect carefully on motives. their desires and their intent. ask yourselves why so many people have been raising their voices and ask yourselves whether this plan to restrict public access advances the public need to share public resource. ask yourself if you are working in the public interest as a public servant. finally, when you are finished reflecting, take a long look in the mayor and ask yourself, why

on earth you would want to prevent a handicapped person from accessing and enjoying a museum or a park? at that point, if you still want to close the road, then there is really only one last question to ask yourself. what the fuck is wrong with you? you should be ashamed. what the fuck is wrong with you? >> okay, thank you. >> what the fuck is wrong with you? >> our next caller is public. you have been permitted to unmute.

>> hi. [speaking foreign language ] >> i am a retired person, even though i am retired, but i use golden gate park a lot. i always go to golden gate park with my friends and also use golden gate park to purses -- participate in activities and i sometimes go to golden gate park

to go to the other area for dim sum, also for grocery shopping. so jfk is very convenient for me, but now if jfk drive is closed, it makes it very inconvenient. i oppose to close jfk. thank you. >> thank you for your comment. to the chair, how many more public comments remain, please? >> we have one more public comment in the queue. >> i do believe we have correspondence as well on the remaining part of the agenda. i would like to suggest that we continue with the remaining public comment and then correspondence will be provided to council as part of the

meeting after the meeting if we run out of time today. thank you. >> okay. walter, you have been permitted to unmute. >> thank you very much. i would like to thank the commission for allowing this public testimony today. it has been a very democratic process after what seems to be a couple of years of fairly undemocratic process. this is a very much that mtc and recreation and parks started with a conclusion and raced through some details and then announced the conclusion. i agree with them that fossil burning, single occupancy vehicles are killing the planet, killing san francisco, they are bad for the park, but to start off by then closing the main thoroughfare, the main attractions to the park, doesn't

-- a long-term exhibit, and people with disabilities and families who live in the neighborhood and families who live all around the city and around the world want to use is a very bad plan. the surveys have been involved -- debunked adequately at this point. it seems to me that the place to start in this is not the place where they started. the place to start is with an accessible mobility plan for golden gate park. golden gate park is not a byway, it is not a trail in the woods. it is a huge national facility. we need a way to get around within the park that works for everybody, and a single shuttle with a single mode or even a couple of modes is not going to do it. it can be done. of course, it can be done. we need to plan that access within the park from one point of the park to another.

we need to connect that to the immediate neighborhood in easy ways. i don't had a car. i probably had a car about half of my adult years. i am on public transit. i spend more time waiting for public transit making the transfer than i do actually on the bus. that is a horrible situation. we need to have a plan that works for the park and the transfers who work for people with disabilities, vision disabilities, of all the kinds of limitations. we need to connect to the arms of san francisco. we need to be able to get easily. it takes money and it takes attention. the way this was done reminds me of ronald reagan's wonderful plan to de- institutionalize people with disabilities by shutting down all the institutions. okay, we moved everybody off. there is no plan for how to deal

with that closure. we wound up with millions of people on the streets, with no facilities. they were moved back to the community, but there were no community services. that is kind of what we are trying to do by shutting down jfk drive. you don't shut it down first and then work it out later. this just needs to be worked out in the beginning. thank you. >> thank you. we have another caller who wants to make public comment. caller ending in 2080. you have been permitted to unmute. perfect. >> hello. thank you for having this meeting. i have been listening to the last hour or two in the comments. it really emphasizes how we, the

city, us, the community, everyone has failed to address an issue that has been going on for years at golden gate park. the issue is, the park has not been accessible. many people ended up using -- [ indiscernible ] -- to solve the issue. at the same time, a car, as a sensibility issue, is also one of the most hazardous things to do for everybody. it creates -- it injures people, it creates pollution, but that was the only way to have it. if the park was made accessible, and there's many ways to make it accessible to everybody then closing down jfk. it wouldn't be such a bad idea. because of this, for many, many years, we have people who have

to drive no matter what. and then we have others to close it down and really don't address the accessibility issue if you do close it down. we have learned, i hope we have learned, and right now the city, recreation and park, m.t.a., it has been reaching out. they don't have a plan right now. it is not finalized. they are looking at how to make it successful for everybody. it actually has a ramp in front of it so it is easy to go in and out. have taxis allowed to pick up people in the park. have paratransit actually go down jfk. have them away signed to go out. have designated parking and

designated pickups. extend the free parking at the garage so it is easy to drop off people and go out for free. and there are many other ways to do this. and they are looking at that and they are trying to make it so it is accessible so we are not getting into the car. it is creating an accessibility problem in the long run which is why we have 500 entries a year. we have over 30 deaths per year due to cars. we need to sit back, look at what the plan is, and also communicate with the city and the city needs to communicate with us on how to make jfk accessible to everybody so we don't have to use something like

a car that causes so much damage. physically, emotionally, and to the environment. please, patients on both sides. that is all i am asking. thank you. >> okay. that is the final public comment. >> i am a councilmember with the mayor's disability council and interim cochair. i wanted to thank everyone for giving public comment. mod, i might need some support on knowing what the next item on the agenda is. is it to close off the meeting? >> the next section on the agenda is a correspondence and open public comment, however, as i mentioned, we unfortunately need to close the meeting in four minutes. what i would like to suggest for consideration is that we provide

any remaining public comment to the councilmembers following the meeting that we receive. i will give the e-mail address for the mayor's office on disability again. mod@sfgo.org, so that we have all the information from the meeting in one place. this meeting is also archived on san francisco government t.v. with that, you can determine how

you would like to proceed. that is my advice. thank you. >> thank you, nicole. thank you to our presenters and for everyone who tuned in over the last almost five hours. as nicole suggested, i will take her comments and go with them. we will take all correspondence and provide that to the councilmembers and nicole also provided an e-mail and the phone number if anyone else has any additional comments. 's indexing i can do to close at the meeting? to adjourn the meeting? >> that is correct. >> with that, i would like to adjourn the meeting. i don't know if i have a motion or a second motion to adjourn the meeting as well. >> i motion that, yeah. >> thank you, helen. with that, we will adjourn the

meeting. thank you, everyone. >> thank you, everyone.

>> good morning everyone. i am mayor london breed. i want to welcome you today to talk about the election last night and the results as well as talk about today being the first day that we have lifted some restrictions as it relates to indoor masking. last night, during the race the voters sent a clear message, a clear message as it relates to the school board and the need to begin the process to refocus on our children and on what is most important in their liv