minded business owners with last week products and want to get on the ground floor a no-brainer for us when you you, you buying local goods made locally our supporting small business those are not created an, an sprinkle scale with all the machines and one person procreating them people are making them by hand as a result more interesting and can't get that of minor or anywhere else and san francisco a hot bed for local manufacturing in support that is what keeps your city vibrant we'll make a compelling place to live and visit i think that local business is the lifeblood of san francisco and a vibrant community

>> hello everybody and happy anniversary to the cable cars! [applause] >> i'm rick recollect the president of non profit market street rail way. we advocate for the cable cars and historic street cars on market street. we work with sfmta to enhance their operation and do it without any government money. this year, we partnered with numerous history and business groups and sfmta to celebrate 150 years of cable cars. [applause] one of the celebration partners union square alliance contributed wonderful banners behind us you see. melissa rodriguez, if you are here, stick your hand up. they are all here somewhere. she's the ceo. another partner, the flood building which is overlooked this turn table since 1904 is gifting

you folks with these great flowers passed around here. they work with the alliance to decorate this cable car. will the flood sisters please put their hands up? [applause] we really miss jim flood. sorry he cant be here. he's here--that's right. china town merchants, fisherman whafer, downtown san francisco parthnership all contributed to help us bring you cable car history. mike fips and don (indiscernible) cable car mew museum are here and should be inside the circle and if they are not, they should make their way up. when you say cable car you see temporary photos on the side windows. we did these to teach a little cable car history to everybody who sees the car and rides them this year.

many of the photos come from the wonderful and i mean wonderful, sfmta archive and show the san francisco fast decades these cable cars operated in. jeremy (indiscernible) is the photographer. he is busy working. there he is. i knew you would be front and center. thank you jeremy. rather then run down cable car history, we summarized critical things on handout cards that should be available over there. take a look, pick up a program next to the banners over there. thank you. thank you anton. turn up your hearing aid. that might help. tony subella, another san francisco family. pick up the program and you'll see there--somebody is giving us feedback. thank you. i have professional

audio people here. so, there is all kinds of special cable car history on the website we put together. sfcablecars.org. you can type that in or scan your phone on any of these pictures and you will be taken right to it. now, let's get to the important speakers here, starting with someone i knew a huge cable car lover, working so hard for san francisco every single day, our mayor, the honorable london breed. [applause] >> maybe this might work a little bit better. [applause] alright! alright, let's celebrate 150 years of cable cars in san francisco! [applause] let me tell you why that is important. because san francisco is a city of firsts. not only was the cable

car invented here and other fallowed in other cities around the entire world, right now the cable car only exists in the city and county of san francisco. let me tell you why. because of women. [applause] yes! yes, a man invented the cable car and we named holiday plaza after him, so he is credited with that, but it was women who stepped up to make sure that this amazing cable car continued to be a part of the fabric of san francisco for 150 years. i know that we acknowledge all the amazing flood women who are joining us here today. so great to see you. [applause] but it was freeda clauseman who saved the cable cars in 1947 when everyone wanted to start

to automade san francisco and use san francisco. people love technology and love to get somewhere quick, she stepped up, fought hard, put a measure on the ballots and passed to not only save the cable cars in san francisco, but to allow them to continue. another woman who stepped up to help make sure that the cable cars continued was our former mayor, diane feinstein. [applause] in the late 1970 needed a complete over-haul. we needed to make sure it continued to run and it was safe, so she raised money in the private sector to allow for an opportunity to make investments in the cable car to maintain and keep the system running. the other woman who was instrumental in the success of the cable cars, the conductors are pretty amazing. they do a

lot of great work. they got to be strong. 25 years ago (indiscernible) barnes [applause] the first woman to lay hands on the equipment, to run the cable car system. to make it work and to make people feel welcome to san francisco. this woman was a trail-blazer and we are so glad to have you here. that's your mama! [applause] her whole family is here, because we are honoring you and your legacy and are everything you did to make the cars so successful. thank you mrs. barnes, so great to have you here. women do it all. but we also know san francisco is a special place, and so many people again talk about the firsts. the first to invent the cable car. the first to

invent television. did you all know that? and the first to invent the clap on here in san francisco which actually opened the door for all the technology advancements we are seeing today. it is no wonder people want to be here. it is no wonder many folks who left san francisco have decided to come back and start their business and open the door to new technology, new industries, because every time you think about some of the amazing things that happen in the world, it all starts here and the cable car is a important tribute to san francisco's resilience, its history and its legacy. last but not least, today we are going to dedicate a cable car in honor of someone who symbolizes the love for san francisco. the person who talked about what it means to ride the cable car on our

rolling hills and to all most touch the stars. a person who loved the city and county of san francisco, mr. tony bennett. [applause] that amazing tribute, i left my heart in san francisco. performed at the farmont hotel in the vunesia room for the first time. that has been a true ballot and contribution to san francisco that is like no other song that exists. today as we recognize him and his legacy and his love for san francisco, we will honor him by dedicating a cable car named for tony bennett. [applause] thank you again for everyone who is joining, those who live here, those who work here, those who visit here. those who got dressed in outfits that represent san

francisco's history early on, but also the movement. the first birthday in 1970 was here in san francisco in golden gate park and it set off a movement for environmental change, environmental justice and a number of things. i can go on and on about how great san francisco is, but i know you will experience it for yourself on this cable car, so thank you all so much for being here and i want to turn it back over to rick. [applause] >> thank you madam mayor. do we have women leaders in this town or what? we always-we have even more now, and now we are going to have a very special leader. one who set a new standard in this country of dignity, of smarts, of

resilience, and it is my as they used to say in washington, it is my high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the speaker emeritus of the u.s. house of representatives, the honorable nancy pelosi. [applause] >> thank you rick. thank you very much rick and-thank you madam mayor. honored to be here with you always. let me just say to rick, thank you for your leadership. the private sector and non profit sector and public sector who have been a real champion for san francisco. thank you rick. honor to be with you. karen flood, oh my gosh-- family. what a special day

this is. imagine-you want me to hold it higher? imagine it has been this many years. this many years. the market street railway has been something that has been a model to the country. has been a symbol of san francisco's spirit of invasion right from the start, and i want to recognize mayor london breed for her tremendous tremendous leadership of our city. thank you very much madam mayor. honor to be with you. i know how important this occasion is to you, in terms of what it stands for historically, and what it means for the future. aaron peskin, thank you honor to be with you. bill ting, assemblyman with us here. we have representation of federal, state and local

government. again, most importantly, woo we have each and every one of you representatives of the community. jeff tumlin thank you for your leadership and fanny may barnes, the first female cable car (indiscernible) >> one and only! >> the first and foremost. so, here we are and again i want to mention senator feinstein. she was such an advocate for the cable cars. some times we would have our moments together because she would be praising some republicans in congress who had helped with the cable cars and some republicans did then and i said why are you are praising them, we are trying to defeat them, but she was always about san francisco and she was always about the cable

cars, and she even-the cable cares that again started our city invasion and with tony bennett and are diane nighting with him on the cable cars, taking us to the stars. to a brilliant brilliant future. i won't sing. i won't sing, but not only tony bennett, but mia anglo 15 years old set her sights working as a conductor aboard the street cars. think of all these incredible connections. it is my honor b to here with all of you. there is so much to be said about the families, about the sense of community, about the businesses, about the entrepreneurship, about the invasion of san francisco, but it is also a moment for us to take pride in our past. i say a third time, a past

about invasion for the future. congratulations to all of us on this. madam may, i know you take great pride being mayor of san francisco every minute of every day, but isn't it exciting today? >> yes! [applause] >> very special, very special. now it is my privilege to yield back to rick. rick, thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. thank you for your leadership- >> (indiscernible) >> thank you for your leadership of our nation as well as our city. we owe you. [applause] tough act to follow, but the guy i will introduce is up to it. there are 11 members of the board of superrisers in san francisco, but only one president. there are 11 members of the board of

supervisors but there is only one who has every cable car in his district. ladies and gentlemen, president aaron peskin. [applause] >> thank you rick and thank you to the market street railway for your stewardship. thank you to twu local 258 and fanny barnes and all her colleagues before, during and since. much is made of the symbol of rezilancy, the phoenix rising from the ashes, but i suggest to all of us san franciscans that the real symbol of resiliency is our cable car. a cable car that survived not one, but two pandemics. that survived the city burning to the ground. that survived two great earthquakes. that survived mayors who wanted to rip them out. this is the symbol of the city

that knows how knew how and continues to know how. god bless these cable cars. [applause] let's put this in a monetary context. i think mr. hal day raised $27 thousand to build the first 5300 feet of track along clay street. it took diane feinstein in her efforts 110 years later, $60 million to refurbish it. i are want to thank and acknowledge the sfmta that has kept it in a good state of repair every since. [applause] but these cable cars are linked to the economic success of san francisco. not only because they attract tourists from around the world, but because they continue to deliver our people to work each and every day before pandemics, during pandemics, after

pandemics and i will leave you with this remaining thought, if you ever want to run for supervisor of district 3, i never revealed this until now, the best place tocome pain is the cable car in the morning when everybody who is commuting to work from district 3 to jobs in district 3 is available to receive your fliers even though i think technically you are not supposed to do that on the cable car. congratulations on 150 years! [applause] rick >> thank you aaron. thank you. so glad telegraph hill is represented here. such a core part of the city. most people dont recognize how unusual our transportation agency is. besides transit they oversee taxies, bike infrastructure, parking street scapes and a lot more. leading that agency is a huge job and a tough one never tougher then the past

three years through pandemic, fiscal threats and city recovery. so glad it has been in the very capable hands of director of transportation jeff tumlin. >> thank you rick! [applause] >> i'm jeff, san francisco director of transportation and there is a reason the phoenix rising from the flames is on the flag of the great city of san francisco. when andrew hal day and father immigrated to california from scotland, they failed at mining gold but they reinvented themselves by reinventing a way of making wire rope and then having the completely crazy idea of taking mining ore car technology and applying it to san francisco's equally crazy topography. 4 a.m. on august 2, 1873, andrew had to be the one to trial the first run of the cable

car, because no one else wanted to do it because they thought it was a crazy idea. it is here in san francisco that crazy technological ideas come to life, and every 10 to 15 years this city transitions from a bus to a boom economy by once again reinventing technology and figuring out what is next. but even thinking bet the future, san francisco continues to hold on to its core, its heart. it holds to the core values, particularly civility and (indiscernible) nothing exlempifys both creativity and technology, but also civily and joy at the same time better then san francisco's cable cars and i am humbled to be here for my short-term being a steward of these incredible resources. we couldn't do this

without strong support from our federal, our state, our local policy makers, even our own board of directors and lydia so our newest board member, the steward of the cable car system. the people who make the cable cars work are staff. alfred butler, earny hanson, (indiscernible) and we have folks including (indiscernible) and derrick johnson who will be taking us on this inaugural run. we also remember our history here, including the incredible history of our staff. i like to now bring up the speaker and mayor to honor the fanny may barnes, the first (indiscernible)

[cheering and applause] >> would you lake to say a few words? >> yes. so happy to be here, and very happy about being the first female on the cable car. growing up in a small town in georgia, my mom told me you can do exactly what you want to do, you just have to put in the work. that is exactly what i did. that's what my mom told me to do. i put in the work and (indiscernible) i did it at age 52. absolutely unheard of. [applause] >> thank you so much. i'll bring back rick and offer equal thanks to phenomenal volunteers at market street

railway. [bell] that's a bell for fanny may. >> a treasure for our city, and a real (indiscernible) we appreciate that. we must not leave out sacramento. we depend on our representatives in the state capital to fight fight fight for more transit funding, and more funding of other kinds the cities needs to survive. we have a great team of legislators and one of them assembly member ting, matt haney and scott wiener with a resolution. we will present it to jeff. >> thank you rick. come on up jeff. you heard how important the cable cars, not just are to san franciscans but everything who thinks about san francisco. to me, this is city that is a beacon, a light where

people come to san francisco. people want to be tourists here, people want to live here, people want to make their way here or find a better life here and there is no better symbol. there are two symbol the golden gate bridge and the cable car. a symbol of inclusion, welcoming. how important it is when you ride the cars. you heard from the supervisor talk about the san francisco residents getting to work running their errands. everything that is part of their day and then you have our amazing tourists who come to line up at this turn around to enjoy it. to me this symbol is precious, we have to preserve it and make sure we are doing everything possible to make sure that we can maintain it. that's one reason why work very very hard at the state level to do more funding for transit this year. $5 billion across the state. part is to make sure that muni, bart,

ac transit can keep operating. very very critical services, absolutely needed and making sure these cable cares keep running is at the top of the list. again, congratulations jeff on behalf of senator wiener, assembly member haney, just appreciate you and your staff for all the hard work. woo ehad a couple rough years with the pandemic and still getting through it but appreciate you, all the operators who showed up every day, rain or shine no matter what happens, make sure the system and cars are running. making sure that we don't forget our amazing cable cars on market street railway so thank you. appreciate it. [applause] >> well, okay. cable cares can take you half way to the stars, we all know that. today they can take you 150 years into the

past as well. at least that is true of the distinguished past san franciscans who have time traveled to be here with. edward norton is here. [applause] let me introduce you to someone who we wouldn't be here today without the inventor of the cable car, mr. andrew haliday. [applause] this is a microphone. you talk into it and-- >> amazing. i want to thank professor brown for bringing many of us here on this delorian time machine. you know, that very first day we were going up the clay street hill and the man i hired panicked who he saw down below and he ran away, so i had to take the grip myself. i was

sure the grip will stay on theer -car, right? it will, yes. so, today we are looking at cable car number one. looking just like the original cars on the powell street line, which began to operate in 1888. isn't she a beauty? i personally want to thank all the workers, the carpenters, the painters, the iron workers who lovingly restored and rebuilt and refurbished these cars with skilled hands and dedicated hearts. i also want to thank the gripman and conductors and power plant operators who maintain this system that all sorts of weather, day and night. i think they are to be congratulated for their hard work. [applause] and i also want to thank the city for continuing to fund the cable cars, and i hope you will keep the fares at 5 cents. [laughter] i invite all of you,

the residents, our dear residents and our dear visitors to ride the cable cars, enjoy the journey, enjoy the views, and know you are riding one of the treasures of san francisco where they continue to run for another 150 years. [applause] >> thank you so much mr. haliday, honor to have you here. turn up the delorian to 1873 when you go back. i want to do a quick shout out to the crew on this cable car. they are all special, they are all hard workers. (indiscernible) also a noted cable car historian. (indiscernible) he is wonderful guy. we appreciate him very much. derrick johnson, our conductor today. he is a great conductor. he is also active in local 250a and i want to shout out to all

organized labor represented in all the crafts of cable car. that shows you what union work can do. [applause] the quality is unbelievable and never been better then today. so, we had great support from the san francisco historical society and steve and his reenactors, steve johnson andrew -done a great job rounding all the people up. we have people from every era here. dona hugens is here as a person of the 60's i guess. you never know. and all the folks from the art deco society and all the groups who have come. i know i will miss some people. we all know how valuable our cable cars are to san francisco, but i thought it was time to get a

professional assessment, so who better to do that then our city and county assessor? i wanted to ask you professionally, how valuable do you think the cable cars are? >> we are lucky because there is no taxable value of the cars, the values are immeasurable in the benefit to the city and county of san francisco. the memories they make, the workers they employ, experiences provided to san franciscans and visitors to enjoy the city. heading to union scare, swenson to the other side of the hill to see the bay. those are the memories in san francisco and that's the value. >> swenson (indiscernible) since 1948. locally owned business. the cable cars actually do provide economic value that you can assess through all these small businesses and other places that benefit from their value, is that right?

>> the best part is you can just huv off the train and visit each neighborhood along the way filled with diverse vibrant small businesses that make our city shine. >> thank you joaquin. >> thank you so much rick. >> joaquin represents the next generation of city leadership and we are in really good hands with folks like joaquin. also i went to college with his father art. art owes me now. that is not true, joaquin is a great leader of our town. our cable cars are still with us because of the work of thousands of san franciscans as said here who built operated and maintained them, and because of special cable car heroes who created them, saved them, rebuilt thement, senator feinstein we are thinking of you, and who celebrated them to the entire world. we lost one of those heroes 10 day

ago, but the gift he gave to the cable cars will live on through the enduring populearity became his song that enticed millions from free mont, oakland and paris and china and all over the world. to feel the fog he sang about and to ride those little cable cars half way to the stars. we have requested and so glad to hear the mayor say what she said today, a cable care dedicated to tony bennett. we will have a party when that happens and we'll be here for that, and let's remember him. is don nealy here? don nealy is a wonderful san franciscans and wave your hand don. musician, musician. there he

is. don, can you play for us? you know what we need. don nealy. nope. we will have to sing it by ourselves. [singing i left my heart in san francisco]

[applause] >> thank you all!

>> my name is andrea, i work as a coordinator for the city attorney's office in san francisco. a lot of it is working with the public and trying to address their public records request and trying to get the information for their office. i double majored in political science and always tried to combine both of those majors. i ended up doing a combination of doing a lot of

communication for government. i thought it would connect both of my studies and what was i was interested in and show case some of the work that government is doing. >> i work for the transportation agency known as muni and i'm a senior work supervisor. >> i first started as a non-profit and came to san francisco and started to work and i realized i needed to work with people. this opportunity came up by way of an executive fellowship. they had a program at mta to work in workforce development type project and i definitely jumped on that. i didn't know this was something that i wanted to do. all i knew is that i wanted to help people and i wanted to empower others. >> the environment that i grew up that a lot of women were just

stay-at-home moms. it wasn't that they didn't have work, but it was cheaper to stay home and watch the kids instead of paying pricey day care centers. >> my mom came from el salvador during the civil war. she worked very hard. when she came here and limited in english, she had to do a service job. when i was born and she had other kids, it was difficult for her to work because it was more expensive for her to be able to continue to work in a job that didn't pay well instead of staying at home and being able to take care of us. >> there isn't much support or advocacy for black women to come in and help them do their jobs. there also aren't very many role models and it

can be very intimidating and sometimes you feel uncomfortable and unsure of yourself and those are the reasons exactly why you need to do it. when i first had the opportunity, i thought that's not for me. my previous role was a project manager for a biotech start up. i thought how do i go from technology to working in government. thinking i didn't know about my skills, how am i going to fit in and doing that kind of work. thinking you have to know everything is not what people expect have you, but they expect you to ask questions when you don't know and that's important. >> my mom was diagnosed with cancer. that was really difficult. she encouraged me to go to school because in case anything happened i would be able to protect myself. i wanted to be in oncology.

i thought going to school it would set me for the trajectory and prepare me for my life. >> we need the hardships to some of the things that are going to ultimately be your strength in the future. there is no way to map that out and no way to tell those things. you have to do things on your own and you have to experience and figure out life. >> you don't have to know what you are going to do for the rest of your life when you are in college or high school because there are so many things to do. i would encourage you to try to do everything that you are remotely interested. it's the best time to do it. being a young woman with so many opportunities, just go for it and try everything.

>> [inaudible] i'm a illustrator by day and a [inaudible] composition teacher. right now i'm practice by

transscribing [inaudible] that is what i have been doing the past couple years, teaching myself. california college of the arts, illustration there has really great teachers. robert hunt, vance story taught me a lot. what i'm working on is a portfolio [inaudible] riding a donkey unicorn in the process. >> my name is dawn richardson and musician, drummer and drum teacher. i guess i would say i started my professional path quh i started playing in bands and teaching drum lesson when i was in college. they were definitely not that many women that would do what is doing. in 198 8 i graduated from cal state los ang and studied

mostly classical percussion and music education but at the same time i was in hollywood so played at night in rock bands so was doing two different things. >> the reason i'm [inaudible] the people. there is a extremely vibrant art community especially arounds the red poppy art house [inaudible] as a artist in the past 2 or 3 years there is a event called the [inaudible] every 3 months a free art music festival that i usually play at and just met so many people. >> i was teaching a little bit and doing odd jobs like waitressing and going at night and playing in bands and meeting a lot of people. i chss in ban that had cool break jz get parts on tv shows or things like that. a

friend of mine, we had mutual friends that got signed to a record deal in san francisco called 4 nonblaunds and i addition frd the bands and moved to the bay area. i think things are different now than 30 years ago, the world evolved a lot. it could be a challenge but have to know how to negotiate everything and sometimeatize is [inaudible] it was great to get to a point where i was just treated like another one of the people, a musician not a female musician and that is always what [inaudible] >> you don't hear stuff on the radio [inaudible] i need to write music [inaudible] be more conscious in their decisions and somehow make that poetic so they will be convinced. i

think i will do that. [singing in backgrounds] drawing and writing music since i was a really little kid and fortunate enough to have a good education in art and parentss who supported me. i hope my life will continue to allow me to do both. >> for me now having all male, female girls, boys students it shows the world has changed a lot and people areope toon open to a lot more than they were in the past. you can get a deep satisfaction from responding a lot of year practicing in one thing and becoming really good at something. sometimes i think that it is better to get lost. you have to practice and become good at what you do, so if you have everything together then go out in the world and do what you do

and then i think people weal accept that. >> you are watching san francisco rising. today's special guest is jeff tomlin. >> hi. you are watching san francisco rising. to show that is focused on restarting, rebuilding, and reimagining our city.

our guest today is the director transportation of the sfmta and he's with us to talk about the agency's 23-24 budget with the muni equity strategy and new projects across the city. welcome to the show. >> thank you it is good to be here. >> i see the sfmta's budget for 2023 and 2024 has been approved. how will it help provide a strong recovery during the next few years for our riders, operators and staff? >> it has been a challenging couple of years. covid wiped out the basic finances. our agency is funded primarily from transit fares, parking fees and a fixed set aside for a general fund and covid has meant we have lost more than half of our parking and transit for revenue. we are not expected to recover them until 2027. this budget takes a one-time federal release funding and spreads that out between now and

2025. and our task is to rebuild trust with the voters that sfmta can actually deliver on their goals and that includes things like making muni faster, more frequent, and more reliable. includes making our streets safer and making everyone feel safe riding the bus. it means taking advantage of the amount of change we're going to experience in order to advance equity so that we invents -- invest the most amount of money in communities that need our services the most. it also means supporting san francisco in its larger economic recovery. basically two years between now and 2024 in order to build trust with the voters and figure out how are we going to find muni moving forward because it is in 2024 and 2025 when the one-time federal release fund went out.

>> are you planning on starting up? >> as a result of covid, we have 1,000 vacancies in the organization. that is why muni service is not fully recovered. this budget allows us to fully staff through 2024, which means we can restore muni service, invest in safety, and invest in other programs in order to make the transportation system work better for everyone. >> can you talk about the mooney service equity strategies? as you move out of the pandemic, how has that plan been updated? i have heard there are elevator upgrades in progress. >> we have been working a lot on equity during muni's recovery. we have been basing our work on the muni equity strategy. this is the plan we update every two years that looks at the changing demographics of san francisco and helps us direct our transit resources where people need it the most. that means people with low

income, people of color, seniors, people with disability, children, all the folks who have the fewest choices. during covid, when we had to strip back the transit system, 13 quarters of the workforce were in quarantine, we directed all of the agency's resources to the equity neighborhoods. places like the bayview, chinatown, the mission, the valley, and even through our recovery, we have continued to deliver the best muni service's so -- to the neighborhoods that need it the most. right now we are still operating more frequent service in core lines in equity neighborhoods than we did precovid. and the result of that is extraordinarily high ridership. we are finding, for example, by investing in the frequency and reliability on lines like the 22 fillmore, that we are getting 133% of precovid ridership, even

when the overall system is only at about half of the ridership recovery. that is 133%. that is on weekends. we are at about 96% of precovid ridership on our main equity lines on weekdays. we're also investing a whole variety of infrastructure projects aimed at making transit work better, particularly for people with disabilities. on the market street corridor, our elevators to the subway station date back to the 1970s and need significant renovation. right now we are busy working on renovating the elevators at the station. we have completed the elevator upgrade for the eastbound platform. we are now working on the westbound platform. that will modernize the elevators and make them a lot more reliable, and make sure that we can continue to prioritize people with the fewest mobility choices. >> that's great. changing topics slightly, i understand the improvement

project is halfway completed. have shared spaces made the product -- project more complicated? >> yes. lots of things have made the terminal project more complicated, including things like covid and supply chain issues. we learned a lot on the first phase of the terra vale project, which rebuilt the street from sunset boulevard to the zoo, including rebuilding all the infrastructure of the streets, the underground utilities, to modernize all that infrastructure and make it more resilient, and make sure that we do not have to rebuild the street, hopefully in any of our lifetimes. we also learned about the importance of collaborating, particularly with neighborhood businesses and residents. we want to make sure that we are constructing the city's infrastructure in a time that the city is suffering and we are not adding to suffering. we're doing things like partnering with the mayor's

office of economic workforce development to support neighborhood businesses through programming during this time. we are also making sure that businesses that create shared spaces in the parking lane, some of those need to be moved out of the way while the utility work is done underneath them. we are making sure that we will either move those platforms and outdoor eating areas back as they were, or help local merchants rebuild them so that we are not adding to the burden of local businesses and that we help everyone recover in this challenging time. >> quite right. finally, many of the sfmta vision zero quick build projects have been well received. can you talk about the evans street project? >> one of the things we did during covid was dramatically expand the rate of what we call quick build projects, which are fast-moving projects using simple and cheap materials in order to redesign streets and

test out new ideas and see how they work, as well as get a lot of feedback from community before moving into a larger capital project that converts all of that plastic stuff into concrete and trees and, you know, curb extensions. what we have been finding is that our quick build safety projects are able to cut severe injury and fatalities between 25 and 75%, depending upon the location on the techniques that we use. so we are targeting streets that have the highest rate of traffic crashes, particularly injury crashes and fatalities. we focused on evans, which is really important connector for all modes of transportation between the bayview and the central neighborhoods of san francisco. also a street with a terrible track record of severe crashes. on evans, what we are doing,

again using paint and plastic posts for the time being, is taking the lanes that are out there right now, and converting them to one lane in each direction plus turn pockets. what we found on streets like valencia or south bend this, or -- south van nass, is a street with one lane in each direction plus a term pocket can move just as much traffic as a street with two lanes in each direction. left turning vehicles mean the two lanes of traffic are never really available for through traffic. these road diets that we do have been tremendously effective for improving safety outcomes for all road users, without exacerbating traffic. they do make all cars slow down to the speed of the most prudent driver. this week we are getting started in partnership with the department of public works on work to restripe all of evans

between third and cesar chavez, and as part of this work will be collecting a lot of data, talking to industrial users in the industrial district and talking to folks in the bayview commercial district and in the mission about how it is working. we will make some adjustments along the way and if it is successful, then we will start another project that is more capital-intensive to make it permanent. if it is not successful, we will turn it back the way that it was, having spent very little money. >> thank you so much. i really appreciate you coming on the show. thank you for the time you have given us today. >> it has been great being here. thank you so much. >> that is it for this episode. we will be back shortly. you have been watching san francisco rising. thank you for watching. [♪♪♪]