please stand by for the san francisco mayor's disability council meeting of september 20, 2024.

>> good afternoon everyone and welcome to the mayor's disability council meeting. friday, september 20, 2024. this is a hybrid and in-person meeting. my name is sherry albers and i'm your chair person for today. this meeting is broadcast to the public on sfgovtv and open captioned and sign language interpreted. if you need any other accommodations, or have difficulty attends this

meeting, please send an e-mail to, mod@sfgov.org. or call--this is a new phone number that i want everybody to know. it is 415-554-6070. i have to get used to it too. again, 415-554-6070. okay. the mayor's disability council holds six public meetings a year. generally on the third friday of the month. for information about past or upcoming meetings, you can visit our website at

www.sfgov.org/mod. or mod. our next regular meeting will be friday october 18, 2024 from 1 to 4 p.m. it will also be a hybrid and in-person meeting, and broadcast on sfgovtv. okay. we thank you for joining us today, and we are glad you are here. our clerk today is alicia contras and i like to ask alicia if you could please conduct the roll call. >> sure, i will. alex madrid, here. sherry albers, i'm present.

orchid sassouni, present. [indiscernible] patricia arack, i'm here. i'm here. cindy fassler, here. jan bonville isn't present today. dr. azulay, here. [indiscernible] back to you cochair sherry albers. >> thank you. clerk, would you please read the agenda for the meeting? >> yes, welcome and roll 2. 2, reading and approval of the agenda. three, general public comment. four, information item, cochair report. number 5, discussion item, valencia street project. we'll have a break after these presentation for 15 minutes. number six, discussion item, updates from the aging and disability

friendly work group. number seven, information item, correspondence. number 8, general public comment. number 9, information item, council member comments and announcements. number 10, action item, adjournment. >> fantastic. thank you so much. council members, do i have a motion to approve the agenda? >> so move. >> this is debbie. before you do that, this is debbie kaplan, acting director of mod participating virtually. the mod director's report was not included in the agenda, and i'm not sure why. obviously nobody caught it, but the director's report should probably be there after the cochair report. >> yes, it absolutely must be there, and so with the correction of

adding the director's report, do i hear a motion to accept the agenda? >> i so move to accept the agenda with the mention correction. >> i second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> all opposed? thank you so much, director kaplan. we will move forward now with the first official item on the agenda. this is going to be general public comments and are clerk, can you please read the instructions? >> of course. 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, which are not on today's meeting agenda. each member of the public may address the council for up to three

minutes, unless the cochair determines that in the interest of time, comments may be limited to a shorter time when there are a large number of public comments. with respect to today's item, specific discussionite items, your opportunity to address the council will be afforded at the conclusion of each discussion item before council discussion begins. reminder, 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. if you would like to respond from the council, please provide your contact information by e-mail message to mdc@sfgov.org. with the subject mdc comment reply request. or call, 415-554-0670. if you join the webinar using

your tablet or smart phone, webex app, click on the three horizontal dots icon and then click on raise hand. we will recognize you when it is your turn. you may also use the q &afeature in webex webinar to make a comment. it is located on the top part of the video after touching the screen. if quou are using a desk top or lap top computer, raise hand and qaicons are at the bottom of the video screen. if you join by phone, dial star 3 to indicate you would like to make a comment. we will prompt you when it is your turn. i will check now if there are any comments on the audience. none. on webex-- i see none. >> i believe there is one.

control, please unmute the participant. >> good afternoon. my name is william railing. commenting on behalf of accessible san francisco, accessible san francisco is a unincorporated non profit association. two comments. one, just on the meeting agenda. in other boards and commission s i participate with, there are often reports attached to the agenda, which are very helpful for preparing for agenda items. the mayor's disability council doesn't typically do that. i want to put that in as a possible suggestion for the future. when there are reports that are

distributed to the members of the commission before the meeting, it would be great to have them available to the public to review as well as attachments to the agenda. second, and i want to make a comment that relates to the upcoming election but want to make it clear, this is a truly non partisan non election comment. so, i was reviewing the various letter local ballot initiative questions, and it is striking how many of them actually have potential impacts, positive or negative depending on your point of view on the community of people with disabilities in san francisco. i just want to encourage anyone, everyone to try to familiarize themselves with the lettered

ballot questions and of course, to vote. i'll last last, just as a practical planning consideration for the mayor's disability council, i'll just mention that, two of the ballot initiatives would result in the elimination of various named city commissions. one of the more dramatically then the other. apparently there are 130 city commissions total. one of them would cut that in half to 65. it is proposition d. the other one would apparently have the cutting [indiscernible] slower process. that's proposition e. i think might be something-- >> you have 30 seconds. >> okay. i hope the commission can start

to consider how it might defend its existence. basically, if either of these initiatives passed, many commissions will be cut and i hate to see disability commission being one of them. just something to start planning about how to--if these initiatives pass, what would be the argument for- >> thank you. your time is up. thank you. >> okay, thank you so much for your comment. does that conclude public comments? >> there are no more comments. >> okay. thank you so much. okay. at this time, we are going to move on to the cochair's report, which i will go ahead and read. okay. so, since our last public meeting, which was june, the mdc had

sent letters to the members of the board of supervisors to express our strong disapproval of the recommendation regarding the elimination of the mayor's disability council, which was the result of the civil grand jury report, which was called, commission impossible. getting the most from san francisco's commissions. so, this is-yes. the next item is that the mdc had held two gatherings in july and august as our retreats, and where we welcomed four recently appointed new members to the mdc.

these four new members are paul bendix, cindy fassler p jan bonville, and dr. azulay. we are very happy about that. the mdc members have agreed to hold six public meetings during the fiscal year 2024-2025. and, the mod staff, mdc members will continue to recruit new individuals to fill the empty seats that still remain on the mdc council. we encourage the public to-if interested to contact us at mdc@sfgov.org. or call, that new phone number,

415-554- 0670. and this now concludes my cochair report for september. and, at this time, it is my honor to turn the podium over to the interim director of mayor's office on disability, debbie kaplan. hey debbie. >> hey, everybody. so, i would like to provide you with a report on what we have been up to. what has been going on with respect to disability policy since the last meeting in june.

we have-we always publish the director's report to the mdc on the mdc website, and that will be published on monday of next week, and we will also distribute this to all the council members. members of the public who wish to engage with any aspect of this report should contact mod. the mod e-mail address, mod@sfgov.org or by calling the number sherry already has given, 415-554-0760. you may also join our distribution list by going to our website landing page and scrolling to the subscribe

button at the bottom of the page or by contacting us and asking to be added. and, as i said, you'll be able to find this report on the mdc website as well. welcome to our hybrid meeting with both in person and virtual attendees. mod provides staff support to the mdc and this meeting and we welcome your feedback on how we might improve the public meeting experience for everybody. in this report, i'll provide you with some legislative updates, both, local, state and federal legislation and also provide a update about some issues that the mayor's office on disability is currently engaged in.

one local legislation before the board of supervisors is file number, 231005 that would amend the building code, and it has to do with the accessible business entrance ordinance, which we discussed in the past, and has been a subject of this report in the past. this particular bill would extend the deadline for businesses to comply with the accessible business ordinance. mod is in conversation with supervisor mandelman's office, the author of this bill, and we are in discussions and i'll discuss this a little later in my report, about how to

incorporate and move forward with some innovative approaches to promote accessibility with the small business community. another board of supervisors resolution that we continue to track is resolution 230269, honoring judy human and the un plaza protests of 1977, which lead to enacting the federal disability rights legislation that is the cornerstone of experienced today. that was authored by supervisor melgar. we are been in contact with supervisor melgar's office in order to connect through them with the department of public works about the location

and design of this important commemoration. we hope that representatives of the disability community and mod collaborate with the department of public works to incorporate universal design principals and create a memorial that reflects the significance of this iconic leader to san francisco and to san francisco's important part of the history of disability rights. regarding state legislation, we continue to be involved in the process at the public utilities commission about autonomous vehicles. wamo currently has a operating permit in san francisco and the public

utilities commission has not taken actions to require and insure that vehicles will be accessible to people with mobility disabilities. we continue to work together with our partners at san francisco mta, and the transit commission on ways to improve the law regarding accessibility of av's and also monitoring state legislation, which you'll hear about in a minute. if you are interested in being

involve in advocating for continued accessibility of av, please contact us. or contact san francisco mta accessible services. at the public utilities commission, we also continue to partner with the mta and the county transportation authority to monitor the proceeding having to do with tmc, transportation network companies, access for all apps, which is in a pilot implementation phase. proceedings are ongoing, and we are currently focused on on-time and reduced wait time performance of tnc's.

federal legislation, there is not a lot up now in federal legislation, but we do continue to monitor the air carrier access amendments act of 2023. there are two bills, one in the senate, that is 545, and one in the house of representatives, hr1267 that would require the department of transportation to seek consultation from the access board to redefine minimum accessibility requirements related to boarding and planing equipment, seating accommodations, captions, and audio descriptions of in-flight entertainment and communications. individual video displays, visual and

tactile announcement and appropriate storage for devices to prevent damage. this bill would do a lot. this bill will also insure the accessibility of all gates, ticketing areas, customer service desks as well as kiosks, software applications and websites. there is a sample letter of support addressing issues specific to the deaf community that may be found at the national association of the deaf website and the council may consider drafting a support letter. san francisco initiatives, i'll go back to the accessible business entrance initiative. in addition to extending the deadline for businesses to come into

compliance, supervisor mandelman had invited mod, department of building inspection and the office of small business to consult with representatives of the distability community on how san francisco can foster a cooperative relationship between small businesses, and the disability community to address accessibility and inclusion of people with many different types of disabilities. several mdc members have participated and thank you. your participation has been extremely important. supervisor mandelman will soon announce a partnership between several city departments, including mod, disability organizations and business groups who

identify and promote best practices and specific steps business can take to fully include customers with disabilities. the department of building inspection will be required to increase staff expertise on accessibility and activities to incorporate accessibility even more into its operations. the goals are to broaden the focus on accessibility beyond the front entrance, and to consider access needs of people with many different types of disabilities, and develop a collaborative relationship between small businesses and people with disabilities. in addition, regarding the ballot initiatives that were discussed a

little earlier, proposition b and e as been said on the november 2024 ballot would require major reductions in the number of boards and commissions. as also has been described, prop d would establish a maximum number of 65 for the total number of boards and commissions. the city attorney has advised that the mdc is not subject to the prop d commission cap, because it is not an appointed board or commission as defined in the measure, so there mdc would not be effected by prop d if it is passed. and that concludes my report and i welcome your interest in all

these issues. thank you. >> thank you director kaplan. that was a very extensive report. thank you so much. okay. we are moving on to our first discussion item of the agenda. this is the valencia street project. i have a summary here, the project team will give a overview of the quick build project and talk about its accessibility aspects, including accessible parking and loading, accessible design for "floating" parklets, and buffer widths impact on accessible path travel.

this is going to be presented by paul stanis from the metropolitan transportation commission. the mtc. paul, are you here? >> i am here. >> hi. >> i'm ready. >> welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> sure. >> i'm the project manager for the valencia bikeway project. one point of clarification, i am with the sf mta and not the mtc. still very much transportation related. >> okay. >> i have all my contact information on the first slide. if there is anyone who would like follow-up information at some point, that is the best way to get a hold of me. paul.stanis@sf mta.com. 415-646-2784.

>> paul, canned you-646 what? >> 646-2784. >> thank you so much. >> great. yes, i'm here today to talk about valencia street. a very-been a very public project with a lot of opinions and a lot of changes over the past few years. i did want to give a little bit of project background in how we got to this point today. i also wanted to talk about the center running bikeway pilot that is currently on the street right now. i also want to talk about plans to change that center running bikeway design into side running bikeway design and talk about the elements that would be included with that project. and then close out with where we are in the overall project schedule and what we see happening for the rest of the year and early 2025.

so, the big question is, why are we talking about valencia? we seem to talk about it a lot. especially when it comes to active transportation and bicycle network. valencia is one of the major north/south bike routes in that area of the city and especially in the mission. it has been a bike route in various city plans for a number of decades. valencia is interesting in that area of the mission, because it is one of the flatter streets. we have a image here that shows avalencia and how it compares to other streets surrounding it. if you look at the west of valencia, those streets are more hilly, so debois and [indiscernible] have grade changes. the streets to the east are transit focuses or don't connect cesar chavez to market street. south van ness is very

auto-focused and some of the streets like capp and shotwell don't connect through. pooprovide a direct correction between downtown, mission and outer mission and people also really like valencia, restaurants, bar and shops so if there were no bikeway it would still be very popular with cyclists to go to those places we all like. so, when we are thinking about valencia, we always keep our three project goals in mind. one is improve safety for everyone traveling along the corridor. the next is to preserve the economic vitality of the shops and businesses on valencia. and the third is making sure that goods and people can move through the corridor with an element of ease. so, a few years ago we noticed there was some big issues on valencia.

previously there was a bikeway next to a row of parked vehicles. that bikeway essentially functioned as a second parking and loading lane, so if you were trying to ride a bike in the bike lane on valencia, you were experiencing side swipes, cars cutting you off to pull into the bike lanes and unload people. there was a deesen amount of dooring as well. people opening their doors into the bike lane. and we did a parking loading analysis and noticed that before the pandemic, 2/3 of all loading activity wasn't happening at the sidewalk and curb, it was happening in the bike lane or double parking. 40 percent of all the loading was occurring in the bike lane. if you are trying to ride a bike, it was very challenging in those conditions. if you are riding a bike you are constantly having the bike lane blocked like mentioned. potential side swipes, cut off, things like that, so rather unpleasant.

when we were coming out of the pandemic, the city wanted to upgade the bike facilities. side running bike lanes. when we came back from the pandemic we realized that wasn't necessarily going to work. there were 70 curbside parklets along valencia, which were a huge economic lifeline for businesses along the corridor, and trying to fit in a curb side bike lane wouldn't have worked with that many parklets. so, we decided to move forward with a somewhat new design to san francisco and that's a center running bikeway design where you put the bikeway in the middle of the street and we did that for a few reasons. one was to provide an upgraded bike facility for cyclists using the corridor.

we also realized that if we put the bikeway in the middle of the streets, we could retain higher percentage of parking and loading and also make sure that those 70 parklets were still at the curb and available for businesses and customers. so, when we did move forward with the center running bikeway design, there were three elements. one is bikeway down the middle of the road. the next were pedestrian improvements so removing parking at alleys and intersections so turning vehicles as they are turning have a better visual of people crossing the street in the crosswalk. and finally was rebalancing the parking and loading along the corridor. so, businesses come and go, the characteristics of a corridor change, so we wanted to correctly fit the white zones, the yellow, blue, green zones, the general parking to the needs of the corridor at the time. these are two images that show the current condition of the center

running bikeway down valencia. that is overhead view looking from above and the one below that is perspective if you are walking down the middle of the street. you see the bikeway in the middle, vehicle travel lanes on either side and parking against the curb. so, that center runic bikeway went over a year akbroe ago and heard a lot of opinions right away. some felt it was more confusing and challenging to navigate. having a bickway in the middle of the road is different from any other street in san francisco, so there was adjustment to that. we also introduced left turn restrictions at all the intersections so if you are trying to make a left turn that was restricted and not able to do that. center runner bikeway did not allow for double parking for passing a stopped vehicle, so you have to sit behind a stopped vehicle, wait for the stopped vehicle to move and then you would be able to continue driving.

for some people that backed up traffic. lead to more honking and aggression on the street. there was a sense it wasn't quite working for the corridor. so, about half a year ago, we started investigating a more traditional side running curbside bikeway. it is a more traditional bikeway, protected by lane in san francisco. there is a example farther on valencia between 15th and market. you can see the bikeways are against the sidewalks and not the middle of the street. we also have a lot of those type of bike facilities in soma. folsom, howard, 7th and 8th had those curbside bikeways all most 10 years now. under the bikeway is between the sidewalk and floating parking. we update the parking and

loading layout. one thing interesting that we had to spend a lot of time on this summer is, speaking with parklet owners. couple years ago there were 70 parklets. now that is down to 26 so seems more manageable. we talked to all the different parklet owners. do they have a preference keeping the parklet against the curb where it is now or like it removed or like it to move away from the curb to a floating position. that was a personal decision for business and parklet owners and we wanted to make sure that we had that preference incorporated in the design. we are looking at more parking removal at alleys and intersections. possible opportunities for landscaping as well. and then we have been working closely with our fire department, the police department and our different accessible services groups in the city to make sure we are talking about

access and emergency response. one additional thing that we are proposing as part of the project is to keep the left turn restrictions, so making sure that vehicles or keeping the restriction vehicles can not make left turns off valencia. i want to spend a few minutes talking about the close work we have done with accessible services groups and the first item would be blue zones. we worked within the sf mta to look for opportunities to add additional blue zones on the project corridor, so we will be including a blue zone on every single block of the project. we are not only looking at valencia, but side streets, so total 19 new and existing blue zones will be present for the safe block section of

valencia. a lot of them will be on valencia and some located on cross-streets or parallel streets like guerrero. we also took a opportunity to look at loading zones and curb cuts, facilitating movement from the sidewalk to the floating parking spaces, so we will add additional 6 curb cuts to passenger loading zones throughout those 8 blocks with the project. we are also adding loading zones at areas where we know there is high paratransit usage and thej and add additional passenger loading zones throughout those 8 blocks. something we have spent a little of time considering is the buffer width, so that is the space between a bikeway and the floating parking. if you get out of your vehicle you don't want to step directly into the bikeway. we have a striped area between 3 and 5 feet wide, and that allows you to get

out of your car more comfortably, get your groceries out, have space to maneuver, get your children out of the car seat and that allows people to exit and enter their vehicles without standing in that bikeway. sometimes it can be used as a accessible path of travel to get to a curb ramp farther down the street. valencia is very narrow in some areas, so if you are familiar with there corridor, there is one section that constructed wider sidewalks about 15 years ogo. for those 4 blocks everything is more constrained rchlt vehicle travel lanes, the bike lanes are more constrained and the buffers are more constrained. for those four blocks, we can't get a 4 or 5 foot buffer and we are the minimum at 3 feet, but everybody is feeling the

pinch and crunch for those 4 blocks. something that i mentioned a few slides ago was the idea of a floating parklet. i do want to spend few minutes on that and just discussing what that actually means. there are 26 existing parklets on this 8 block stretch of valencia. three of those parklet owners would like to move their parklet away from a curb to a floating location. what does that actually mean? it mean weez have do consider how people get from the sidewalk, across the bikeway, across the buffer and to this floating parklet. there are few examples of this type of design throughout the city. new york has dozens of them. oakland specifically telegraph avenue, they have a decent amount as well. we spoke to those two peer cities just to get a sense of what their design

looks like, what their standards are, and what is working and not working and we were able to take those ideas, take the best from oakland and from new york and then try to elevate it and standardize the design for use in san francisco and on valencia street. these three photos show the examples that we know about. the first picture is a example of new york city. that shows the parklet away from the sidewalk. there is a buffer, there is a bikeway, but no raised crossing. if you are trying to access that parklet you have to step off the curb into the bikeway and get across. the second one is from oakland. oakland does have a raised crossing at some of their parklets, but not all of them. this one provides a level crossing from the sidewalk to the parklet and

also makes cyclists ramp up to this raised crossing and then ramp down. the hope is they are slowing down and prioritizing pedestrians at that point. and then the third picture is one out of medford oregon. this combined elements of the first two pictures. you have a single point of access to the parklet. it isn't a open face where anyone can step off any point. it does have a raised crossing as well, which is great, because it prioritizes pedestrians, hopefully lets cyclists know to slow down, and then it also has a level crossing to the sidewalk as well. so, we are taking the elements of what we see already now deployed in oakland, new york, up in oregon and trying to elevate it and get one plan we think would work on valencia.

we have been doing a lot of design work over the past few months. as we head into fall we have a couple open houses next week, so we have two on the corridor. the first one is on monday and that one will be at mission housing community room at 390 valencia. it is between 4 and 6 p.m. and the second open house is on wednesday, so that will be september 25 and that will be at the city college of san francisco at their mission campus at 1125 valencia. that will also be between 4 and 6 p.m. after we get through those open houses, we will be at our board of directors presentation and hopeful approval we think mid-nrfb november and we think construction should start early january.

one thing we heard is to avoid the warm months so that would be summer through the fall. and then also avoid the winter holiday shopping season, so that leaves correction to begin in early january. we think construction should last 2 to 3 months, but because it is the rainy season, there is a change that implementation and construction could be delayed, especially if it is a wet and cold winter this year. i'm open to questions and discussion. thank you. >> thank you paul. so, at this time, we are going to open the floor to public comment. so, clerk, could you please read the instructions for public comment?

>> [microphone not on. unable to hear speaker] 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 which are not on today's meeting agenda. each member of the public may address the council for up to three minutes, unless the cochair determines that in the interest of time comments may be limited to a shorter time when there are a large number of public comment. with respect to today's item, specific discussion items your opportunity to address the council will be afforded at the conclusion of each discussion item before council discussions begin. the brown act forbids the council taking action or discussing item not on

the agenda including those at public comment. provide your contact information to mdc@sfgov.org. with the subject mdc comment reply request. call 415-554-0670. if you joined the webinar using your tablet or smart phone webex, click on the three horizontal dots icon and then click on raise hand. we will recognize you when it is your turn. you may also use the qa feature. to make a comment. it is located on the top of the video after touching the screen. if you are using a desk top or lap top computer, raise your hand and q &a icons are at the bottom of the

video screen. joining by phone, dial star 3 to indicate you would like to make a comment. we will prompt when it is your turn. we'll start with audience in the room. is there any comments on the item in the room? i see no comments. no hands up. let's see on webex. three participants, but so far no hands up. >> okay. thank you so much. at this time, it is-council members opportunity to make comments. i am going to recognize council member madrid. >> [microphone not on] thanks for coming. i have a lot of questions.

i will try my best to do it one by one. one, when it comes to--i just want to understand the reasoning is to insure that this project is accessible to all disability, correct? >> yes, that's right. >> okay. thank you. with that, when it comes to the bike lane, the bike lanes there is some kind of boundaries making sure that

people identify those are not lanes? >> can you clarify? >> so, meaning, let's say going up and down to valencia and without me knowing, i ended up in the middle of a street. how can i know if that's in the middle of the street is a bike lane, or just a street? >> so, there are few things

that we have done in the past. sometimes we paint the bike lanes green so there is a visual queue that there is a difference between the buffer where usually people if you have-in a wheelchair you can usually the buffer as a lane of travel to get to your vehicle. but typically we paint bike lanes green just to provide another visual. >> for someone that is not visible, blind and low vision folks, how would they identify if they are the middle of the bike lane? >> that is a great question, and to be honest and haven't thought about that in the past. i know that we-- >> something to think about. >> something to think about, for sure.

we have the design that i'm talking about, we have it throughout the city, and-- >> there is an issue? >> yeah, i'm glad you raised that, because i had not thought that in the past, but because even though we it throughout the city it is something we have to consider. >> yeah. >> i will take that back with our engineers because it may not necessarily be a valencia question, but that is a city wide. >> exactly. i am just concerned when it comes to again, accessibility wise, when

it comes to sidewalk to--when it comes to curbs. --take a look in new york, berkeley, whatever city that has it when it comes to accessibility and when it comes to--i know you mentioned that someone has to step from the sidewalk into a floating--again, accessibility wise is the number one concern that i

have. >> yeah, and that's something that we asked new york about, because they have so many floating parklets and they don't have the requirement to have a curb-cut for a level cross ing. often times someone in a wheelchair or someone who can't step off a curb has to go all the way to the crosswalk and twravl travel down the buffer. sometimes that happens. we also heard sometimes if quou are in a wheelchair and need assistance, employees at the restaurant help that person off the curb in the bike lane and bake up to the floating parklet. that is not acceptable to us, so that is why we are proposing the raise crossing which provides a flat and level space for people to travel from

the sidewalk-- >> or something to consider, a pilot or a business has a ramp in front of the business and--go into those floating things. the last thing i--the last thing is that, when you say it is very narrow sidewalk, as you know, san francisco has a lot of homeless population and sometimes it is blocking the sidewalk and how do you mitigate when it

comes to accessibility? wheelchairs, people who have low visibility and blind, things like that? >> yeah, that is a very big question. that is one that is a little outside my expertise because i think that is a broader policy question in san francisco. >> something to consider. >> absolutely. >> thank you. >> thank you alex. now i like to turn the attention to council member orchid. >> hello. hi, good afternoon and my name is orchid sassouni. i live in district 9.

i do cycle myself frequently in that-around the city, and i have positive and negative experiences and i also lived in new york and just thinking about how those experiences can impact me. some have been quite scary. i am thinking about the electric and e-bikes used, especially the delivery services. both folks are trying to get food to customers very quickly, and i think that they are often using the bike lanes and impacting traffic there, which is you know, they are traveling at very high speeds and using --they are all most pacing cars at that level, versus a bike going 5 miles per hour. there is quite a difference between the two different speeds, especially with you are considering three components of a cyclist with a regular bicycle, e-bike and car traffic.

i think i like to also emphasize 5 miles per hour is important as a rule to be enforced in the bike lane, and if you are thinking of the space between the curb and the whatever the next barrier is, be a parklet or a floating curb, i think a good approach would be if people were to be able to pull over in the designated area. often times there is not enough time for bikes to react for safety, and drivers are not often paying attention to the right side of their vehicle when they are dropping passengers off. they just get people out of the car. my main thought is how to pedestrians get out of the car, how do bikes mitigate the traffic from vehicles, so those are a few considerations.

thinking about the period of time with the bike lane moving to the center of the street. i thought that was a great design, because you were only dealing with cycling traffic as you were coming in both lanes as you were coming head-on, only dealing with cyclists facing you, versus a car to your left. thinking about the signals that also helped navigate traffic in the center lanes for the cyclists, that was also helpful. one exception, when there was a driver present. i think that left turn on dubois street is tricky. there is a area there that needs to be evaluated because people are trying to make left turns there and they are going to try and--the signal--they try to make left turns and that signal is a tricky one, because of the residents that live in that area, so it

will be a tricky one to navigate. and we need to have a left turn permitted in that area. that is a important component. and i'm specifically talking about dubois, and maybe that intersection of --where you go up and over--i'm not recalling the name of the street. the one right after-where you come off market. there is just a block there. that area where you are under the freeway, under the overpass is a very dangerous area. so, i think we do need access, the drivers need to be able to turn left and there is no way to make a left from that point, so all though it is a good idea, people have to drive several blocks and do a round trip coming around and it is a very busy

intersection with quite a bit of traffic, so just something to think about. e-bikes specifically going back to that point, i wonder if there is a way to make them slow down the speed. if they--i think if they were built after certain time period, maybe they could have a safety component that allowed them only to go up to certain miles per hour. thinking of new york city as a example. i have seen things they have done with that. they have actually have set up rules and regulations about slowing down e-bikes there. i think it is something that is worth trying here and that's just that one issue, because when the e-bikes are using the bike lane, they are just speeding down the street. okay, i think those are my

points. thank you. >> thank you orchid. i now give the- >> i saw council member patricia raising her hand. just double checking. >> i think-- >> i can respond. i think the question about e-bikes or point about e-bikes we hear that a lot. that is one thing we heard very frequently is that e-bikes just are able to travel at such a higher rate of speed. the bike lanes that we typically have are used by all types of riders. they are used by people who are just starting out. occasionally we see children in them which is heart-warming. they are used by hard core commuters, people very confident in their riding. if you are very confident rider

or traveling at higher rate of speed you can always ride in the vehicle lane where you are traveling at a higher rate, probably closer to what a vehicle travels on valencia-f our design would not preclude that. you are still able to ride against the curb or in the vehicle travel lane as well. i'm a little unfamiliar with the left turn question at dubois so if you have my contact information, i with like to talk about that little bit more if possible. we can--okay. good. thank you. perfect. i think-- and then, i think you also had a point about vehicles traveling in the current center running lane, and that is also something we heard from people as very startling and uncomfortable. you is a space upgraded and supposed to be protected and all a sudden

you have a motorist traveling high rate of speed, emergency response vehicles trarfbling there and something we heard about is dirt bikes, motorcycles and 4 wheelers. i have been out there, it is very unnerving and startling and uncomfortable. this new design probably would not allow that activity to occur. >> okay, thank you paul. >> regarding that point, i am thinking about adding one more suggestion. i think the 5 mile per hour rule is helpful. it will reduce accidents. i heard accidents are frequent in that area and people are traveling at such a high rate of speed. some people are killed, some

are just hit. that speed can make such a difference, so that is one of the things. 5 mile per hour and now turns. i think those two would reduce the impact on that specific area. right, correct, no u-turns. >> thank you. >> someone would like to speak. >> hold on a second. patricia, i'll get to you in a minute. we have council member paul bendix first. >> paul, thank you for your presentation. very clear. so, at points along the route worst case or best case, there would be-there is it sidewalk and a bike lane, then a buffer zone, then a parklet and there are two lanes of traffic and

then another buffer zone? okay. this will put a tremendous squeeze on vehicular traffic. you will get a lot of push-back. you know that? okay. i notice i have been there several nights, i think friday nights when there are pedestrianized events where there are no cars and they have been very popular. please keep on doing that. i think it is a great way to build public support. the vibes are good. it is just kind of a win win, so a great way to set the stage for this. hope you continue doing it, and good luck. >> thank you. >> thank you. okay, i like to pass the mic to council member arack. patricia. >> thank you. thank you for your presentation, paul.

first, can we have access to your slide slow? i don't know, maybe it was sent as a attachment, but if not, would that be possible so we could look at it again? >> sure. >> it was sent patricia. >> it was? >> yeah. >> i'll check my-- >> let us know and we'll send it back to you. >> okay. and, i was [indiscernible] floating parklet idea. if it is not against the curb, and it moves-it looked like 10 feet away, isn't it in the path of traffic? >> not quite. it would be in the row of parking and loading. you would take out one parking space, and put in a parklet in its

place. does that clarify? >> the parking space is against the curb, isn't it? >> in some streets in san francisco, yes. in our design, the bike lane would be against the curb then you have a striped buffer, then you have a row of parking and loading away from the curb. >> and then the path of travel? >> yes, then you have a lane of vehicle travel after the row of parking and loading. >> okay. i didn't get that initially. thank you for that. >> sure. >> and the open houses on the 23 and 25, are those going to be online or just for in-house discuzs? discussion. ? >> there is no virtual option but we'll have everything uploaded to project

website, sf mta.com/valencia. everything we show at the open houses monday and wednesday next week will be on our website as well. >> okay. as for accessibility, i think you need to have a raised ramp from the curb into the area where they can get to the parklet, because hopping off a curb for a abled body person is nothing. for someone who is disabled like myself, i use a walker, it is like a chasm that is going to cause you to fall down, because you are not strong enough to step off a curb. that applies to a lot of people using a cane or walker or whatever. it's really a barrier to access

every single curb is a barrier to any kind of access, and we do have cut-outs which are great at the end of the block and so forth, but if you are going to have a parklet, you need to have a ramp for a disabled person to access that. i agree completely with orchid about the speed. a disabled person cannot get out of the way of a guy or woman on a bike coming at them at the speed of a car. that is a recipe for absolute disaster. i think 5 miles an hour is absolutely warranted. it should be part of the plan. just in general, i think you are trying to cram way too much to into a

very vibrant economic corridor and all over san francisco small businesses have suffered because of the loss of parking and catering to the population that rides a bike. i just feel that it is just way too much for these businesses to thrive, and for them not to go out of business. so many people have gone out of business. why not use guerrero? guerrero is one block away and does have some elevation, but nothing like dolores. anyway, that is my two cents. thank you for your presentation. >> thank you so much patricia. i am notified that council member madrid has one more comment and then i

would like to conclude with my comment. yes, alex. >> thank you. just want to--valencia has bike lane? >> which lane? >> [indiscernible] >> no, it doesn't. >> did you say there is only-- >> so, we did the first 4 blocks from market to 15th in 2019, and then the next 8 blocks, so 15th to 23 is what we are talking about today. >> so, are there anything that

you see fwraum from south of market and see what is the positive things when it comes to accessibility? >> so, some things we have seen from the first stretch between market and 15th, we removed a lot of parking close to intersections, and alley ways, so that improves sidelines if you are a motorist you can see a pedestrian traveling across the alley or intersection, so that is positive. there are two schools on either side of valencia where we constructed concrete islands that allow for drop-off for people, kids, anyone who needs access to the curb. that was a new thing in san

francisco. we did about 5 years ago. this concrete median where people can use very easily step out of the car on to this concrete island and then walk down the ramp and then cross the street at a curb-cut. sounds confusing, but it made sure people had a safe path of travel from their car to a single point of access to get across it to the sidewalk, rather then having a long 60 or 80 foot stretch, kids or people dropped off are constantly going back and forkt. forkt. what we learned, having a single pont for people to cross is really predictable. >>-- >> i have to speak with the project manager to see if she heard

anything. >> or see anything. >> i have seen unsafe behavior all the time. if somebody parks in one of those zones where we removed parking to allow for better visual for people crossing the someone parking in that space or parking across a driveway or parking across a alley, that is really frustrating for us because they areviting the space we created to make it safer. off the top of my head, i cant think of anything else right now, but we know that the wide open space for the 8 blocks where there is the center running bikeway now, i mentioned before but that invites higher vehicle speeds and invites people riding dirt bikes or 4 wheelers and we don't want that to happen. we dont want that disruptive

nature or activity. >> thank you. >> thank you alex. so, this is sherry, and i just want to say that, i understand the center lane bike path is not going to work for bike safety. i myself knowing what i know about how people ride in the bike lanes as orchid was describing with electric bicycles, and how fast they go and how treacherous that can be, if i were to go to a restaurant and sit in their floating parklet thing, this is my scenario. i get there, i get on the-zoom

across with my friends or whatever, make it across the bike lane, get to the parklet, have my dinner, so i'm done with dinner and here's the scenario. i get up, i step off however it is, out of my seat, i'm putting on my coat, getting my purse and getting my food left overs whatever it is, taking my time, but then i to worry about oh, no, i am in a bike lane! not being able to see who is coming at me at whatever miles an hour or whatever and it just sounds like frightening to me. it is all most like i hate to say it, but a establishment i would probably not want to go to.

i'm sitting having my meal and what if i have to visit the restroom and i have to wait for the staff to come out and look both ways for me to cross the bike lane to go wherever, and it just something--i need to avoid a certain situations that i feel are going to be unnecessarily dangerous to me if i have other options. unfortunately that is the situation i face looking at that scenario. it is bad enough crossing the street. you know, i use the training that i received as when i have my orientation and mobility training, but that cannot be used when crossing a bike

lane in this aspect. that is my concern as a blind person. thank you. >> thanks. i would say that we wanted to make sure that we were considering as many users and types of users as possible and thinking about design for floating parklet. sense of safety and level of comfort is really important is and that is why we spoke to our peer cities in new york and oakland. one thing we are including in our design that i have not seen any other of those cities is a setback from the bikeway. we are proposing a 3 or 4 foot setback from the edge of the floating parklet to the edge of the bike lane, so if you step out of the parklet, you still have

a little bit of space to make sure you are in a good place to cross and make yourself visible to the cyclists. what i have seen in oakland and new york is, you step out of the parklet and you are in the bike lane. so, we want to make sure that that is not the scenario on valencia. you can step out of the parklet and have your own space as a pedestrian and someone trying to cross. >> okay. good, thank you so much. >> thanks. >> okay. and now we are moving on to mod staff for any comments that you may have. no comments? i don't see-- >> this is debbie kaplan. especially the last comment that was

made by sherry. i wonder how feasible it is to put in the kind of-i forget what they are called--in the bike lane, the slow bikes down? bumps or whatever, and maybe signage. in this section you can't go fast. it is just be prepared, because there is--what do they call where they put them in? cars to slow cars down. >> rumble strips. >> yeah, i think there has to be some more consideration of the risk to pedestrians from this kind of

design, especially with a raised parklet where somebody is--people should be able to use that busy a area with lots of shops and a lot of different kinds of people and vehicles all sharing the same space with a understanding that everybody has to accommodate everybody else and that means bicycles just are not physically able to go very fast. >> i appreciate that and our project team has appreciated that as well, and

the-you are coming up with all the ideas we thought about. you all may be taking our jobs because this is what we are thinking about as well. we will include advanced signage letting cyclist know this is a raised crossing where pedestrians are prioritized, and then the idea about having bike rum ble strips or speed bumps, i heard people suggest that as well. we are considering that in our design as well, because i agree, it would be a new condition in san francisco and we want to make sure that we are considering all options and making sure that it's as comfortable as it can be. >> okay, great. thank you so much. paul again for your presentation. we look forward to hearing more about this. >> great. thank you so much. >> debbie, thank you for your comment and at this time, everyone we

are going to take a 15 minute break. we seem to be running on schedule, so we are going to reconvene at 2:41. thank you all. [15 minute recess]

[meeting reconvened] >> again, this is the mayor's disability council meeting september 20, 2024. my name is sherry albers your chair for today. we are continuing with our second discussion item for the day, and this is up dates from the aging and disability frndly work group. this topic will talk about the department of disability and aging services, who will join us in presenting up dates on the progress of the age and disability friendly

work plan. this will be presented by maceo persson. i hope i didn't get your department wrong, but you are with the human services agency of the city and county of san francisco. welcome maceo. >> thank you so much. good afternoon council members. very excited to be here. i am with hsaand department of disability and aging and serve as the special projethmanager. i use, he, him pronouns and a staff person that supports theadf work group. and i'm standing here. i have a blue grayish blazer, blue tie, white button up, blue slacks and short brown hair and a beard.

and, on the first interdeckz slide i want to name there is a hsa logo on the top left corning and next to it there is text that reads, human services agency. san francisco human services agency department of disability and aging services. and then throughout the powerpoint there are hyper-links that will be available in the document later on when it is published on the mdc website that will take you to the resources or websites named in the hyper-link. and, i would like to introduce one of an amazing cochair for age and disability friendly work group. eileen who is here with me. >> hi, council. wonderful to be here with you all today. my name is eileen norman, pronouns are she, her. i am a woman of short stachier,

white woman with brown hair and black and white polka dot shirt and very happy to be here to help present. asked me to share a few words how and who why i came to joinadf in this role. in 2021, we had a little of a staffing change, so when that staffing change happened, i dpot to step into the role of cochair. filling that role now with kelly dearman, director of das, and me and kelly worked together before. very happy to work together with her again, and i was also very happy to step into this role as someone who grew up in the bay area my whole life and third generation san franciscan on my mother's side, and so being a person with a disability and being able to give back to my community in

order to improve access and advocacy for the disability community means a lot to me. >> can you please tell us what department do you work for? >> of course. so, outside of my role of i'm executive drckter director in home service. i'm proud to have alex madrid as a governing body member we work with. >> thanks alex for being on public authority governing body. a little bit about age and disability friendly work group we have. it is a global network. it is a global network called age friendly network, and it was stebed

established by world health organization in 20 twen for the vision of making communities a great place to grow older in and the global network is called age friendly cities or age friendly of global local communities. here in san francisco we wanted to recognize the link between older adult and disability communities both the contribution the communities provide and the issues and needs that arise that are common. local san francisco community leaders joined with late mayor ed lee and das to become a member for san francisco to become a member of this global network that we decided to add disability to the name. so, we are age and disability friendly work group opposed to age friendly work group. that's when it started. it had its first work plan from 2018 to 2021.

after that, we have now developed this other work plan. just quick reference, we meet the first friday of on a quarterly basis at 10 a.m. virtually, so anyone can join and there is no strict membership, so if interested in joining, understanding more what is going on, getting updates, you can please e-mail me. my e-mail address is also on this power point, but it is maceo. persson@sfgov.org. i can send an invitation for the nrfb meeting if you want to join. as noted, kelly is our cochair of the group, and the current adf work

plan that we have now that we started in the beginning of 2023 works on 4 different domains like issue areas. the four different domains are communication information and technology is one. engagement and inclusion is another. outdoor spaces and buildings is one. and transportation is another we work on. under those, there are 10 different recommendations that work group members, they can be community members, community leaders, they could be part of non profits, they could be people coming from other city departments to help drive these recommendation forward. and, again like there are links to the das website where you can learn more information. you can read minutes from the previous meetings. you can know when the next meeting is happening and access the link

whether it teams or zoom. now it is teams, maybe some day we'll return to zoom. whether those links will be there too, so you can join there, and there is a copy of the current work plan with all of the recommendations that the work group is working on. and, in the interest of time, i am pulling out sort of the status of three very exciting projects that is part that work plan. the first one a really big one is the disability cultural center. the work that we have all done together. it has been a long time coming by advocacy of community members. work a lot more and also now with das, we have opened the disability cultural center. i know a month or two ago, you got to meet emily who is one of the three cochairs of the disaty cultural center. there are two others.

one is [indiscernible] brown and the other is [indiscernible] bush and they just launched a programming in july for disability pride month on july 12. so, with that, with the program with the [indiscernible] to celebrate the beauty creativity and disability culture. also hosted a in-person event where people could take photographs and portraits at the museum and have them featured there. they also have a lot of different virtual programming. since july going throughout the year now ranging from a conversation about care working academia, and event called cafe [indiscernible] they had a cooking class and then they are also hosting the film festival as well.

and then you can catch more of their programming on their website, which is also in a hyper-link. it is hyper-link in there. the website is www.disabilityculturalcenter.org . we are very happy tay got to have that. that is a very exciting project that launched. the brick and mortar is scheduled to open some time in the spring of 2025. i learned after i turned in the slides, but i did want to do a plug. the brick and mortar will be housed out of the kelsey civic center. that is on van ness and grove on that corner next to the dph building and a brand new building being constructed

with disability affordable housing provided in the community. and that's built and managed by both the kelsey and mercy housing. the thing i think is important that i want to let people know is next tuesday the kelsey is having information sessions about how to get into the lottery and apply for that to get to those units. and then the next thing, this one, the next piece is adding the a. i want eileen to talk about adding the a and what it means. >> one objective we had is around creating a campaign of fighting ableism or anti-ableism. as you can imagine, such a large lofty goal, it was a little bit tough to figure where to start.

adf worked alongside community alliance of disability advocates. try toog figure what that campaign can look like, and through several conversations, we had this idea where what if throughout san francisco when we see many of the dei statements or many dei promises or commitments, that it also always made sure to include a for accessibility. there is no true dei inclusion without disability and without accessibility. so, we started having conversation what that looks like. unfortunately, hsa was wanting to be the leader of the department to

make that happen, so through conversations with the deib team atsa the team became the deiba team. they worked on informing their staff of this change. lunch and learn event. putting on together a-what was the- >> now [indiscernible] they will have events for employees around different issues. they had some for black history month around black histories and learning more about the programming or right now it is latino latina latinx heritage month. it is a period so they will have events right now for employees around

latino latina events. part that will include things around disability. that did happen. we made the announcement during disability pride month. >> so, that was a great successful start to making this campaign happen, and we hope to continue to reach out to other city departments to work with them to have them join on in this effort, and have their deiba staff join to make sure accessibility is the mission of part of the department. >> eileen and kelly had a great talk why adding the a is important. now in october, another example of how they are thinking about it and trying to incorporate it more in our

employee engagement events is that, it is both disability employment month, as well as like a--it is like gender based violence. domestic violence awareness month, so they are having an office here-the city and county of san francisco come in and talk and sort of talk both about the intersections around domestic violence, sexual violence and people with disabilities. wanting to incorporate the conversation around disability and ableism in more employees events. the other piece i think is important is at das specifically, our goal is to start incorporating more disability awareness etiquette training across staff as well. and then the next item that is moving forward in the transportation

domain is, mta is doing a lot of work around accessibility so i want to highlight this piece. they have accessibility strategy survey just come out, and that's part of a greater strategic plan both in the broader strategic plan they have accessibility measures in order to insure they meet the diverse transportation needs of older adults and adults with disabilities. but they also as a part of not just the overall strategic plan, they created a accessibility strategic plan and it is developed by a group called the accessibility services group, and again, you can find out more information on the sf mta website around that. when the meetings are and also sort of here are the links to the website s and documents they have. and so they have the sf mta

accessibility strategy website. last week the sf mta published a needs assessment for the accessibility strategy, and it is pretty broad. it has a lot of different topics on it, and so now the mta is seeking community input to identify the focus areas for the next 5 years of what they should prioritize in that. the topics include, street capital projects, street policy and planning, muni capital projects, muni service planning and policy, paratransit mobility management, paratransit capital. paratransit financial, which is fare

policy and fare system. eligibility and enrollment. service performance and taxies. that is a lot of subjects in the assessment itself. there is a lot of text to go into that you can read on, but they need to learn from the community of what they really need to prioritize. so, the survey where the link is again included in the powerpoint is available online. you can take it online. it is available in english, spanish, chinese, simplified and tradition, russian, vietnamese, filipino and spanish and again, it will help them identify top priorities to work on disability and aging communities. wanting to encourage people to take the survey. let your organizations and community members to know to take the survey. they will go out as well in the community. at community events to talk to people face to face around taking the survey and having people take the

survey there. tomorrow they will be at [indiscernible] to talk about it. i think that's it for me now around the three big things happening. i don't know if there is anything else you wanted to add? just a pleasure to give you these updates and happy to answer more questions. >> okay, thank you so much. so, thank you very much. we will open the floor for public comment. can you please read the instructions? >> 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, which are not on

today's agenda. each member may address the council up to three minutes unless the cochair determines that in the interest of time comments may be limited to a shorter time when there are a large number of public comments. reminder that the brown act forbids the council from taking action on discuss items not on the posted agenda, including those items raised at public comment. if you like to respond please provide your contact information by e-mail message to mdc@sfgov with the subject, mdc comment reply request or call 415- 554-0670. i will check if there is anyone in the audience here. no comments from the audience.

i would like to add also that if you are using a desktop or laptop raise your hand and q &a icons are at thebatim. bottom or joining by webex, dial star 3 to indicate you like to make a comment. we'll prompt you when it your turn. i will see if there is any comments on webex. i don't see any hands up. there are no more public comments. >> okay, thank you so much. at this time we'll move to council member comments and i like to recognize council member madrid. >> thank you. thank you. i have a lot of questions. let's start with the basic.

--what they are supposed to do and what -- do for the city. >> i think the most important thing we want to do working together is making sure that everyone knows that of the adf and what our goals are. of course, as with everything, it only work s when we have strong participation, so-- >> eileen, sorry to interrupt.

-- give us--what is it you guys do. >> i think that it is a people right now. every i say-i believe 3 or 4 years there is a different work plan that gets implemented with sort of recommendations about what the city should do to improve to become more age and disability friendly. >> okay. >> they can be all kinds of recommendations and sometimes this specific work plan has been a bit more on city departments to do work, but not only and so, one example in the

technology domain is we have-advocate for city wide digital accessibility is one. one of the recommendations. and that is to help insure that the city has a city wide digital accessibility inclusion standards. with that one, that one like coit and digital services worked really hard to insure there is a published now city wide digital inclusion standards on sf.gov. also, they have been trying to move most if not all, but most city departments on to sf.gov from the previous older website to a standardized more accessible format. that is one example that more department heavy. another one that is in here too around outdoor areas is to make sidewalks across san francisco more accessible, and that's been sort of a

shared combined one where department of rec and park participated and particularly focused on making golden gate park more accessible and they will come to the group and they will report back on the work they have done, what areas of golden gate park they have worked on, and pathways they made more accessible so that is one piece, also say community living campaign also have been doing a lot of work on making sidewalks accessible and they also come to work group meetings to report back and say what they are doing. the different recommendations will have various goals along those lines, and they will be leads on those different-- >> okay. >> organizations like mod come and have been supporting a lot of different recommendations and also like the technology piece around it. will come and report back on

the work they have been doing, or if there is a action item but they are look ing for community members. also last meeting we had, like mta was there to talk about the survey that is coming up. wanting to make sure people take it particularly people with disabilities and older adults are taking the survey so they could be better informed. >> thank you. my next question i have is when it comes to what you described regarding inclusion and disability workforce between the departments. is the group going to expand that to

the public and educate the public how important inclusion and disability is? i know that the city in particular, it is good that you guys started meeting with the department, but i think it is good to go out to different organizations, or to the public. be aware that this is happening. >> yeah. >> absolutely. i think we kind of in that whole process of where we start, how do we get this out there, how do we make sure that we are launching anti-ableism efforts throughout the city, we wanted to make sure that san francisco as a

city within itself was supporting that, and so our systems and departments and the whole structure that our city relies on is first starting to set the path and the example of showing their commitment in this work, and so, the thought is working to start and once we have a really good foundation within the city of those commitments, then branching out from there and working more in the community in the public sphere of getting it out there first. or getting out there second. >> is there any particular departments that you guys targeted, or--meaning, you guys identified the need

for more education when it comes to disability inclusion? >> those are the fun convursations next on the agenda. with hsa setting a great example what that looks like, we have that as a place to refer back for the other departments what they did and how awesome it was and how much the staff really-- >> let me ask point blank directly, if the group has any particularly targeted department within the city that has more education when it comes to disability and inclusion?

>> we haven't had a opportunity to get that list together. i want to make sure that we are consulting with theadf task force group. i want to make sure everyone has input before saying that list and--yeah. >> so, no targeted? >> no. i will say no. >> i think it would be good to have some kind of goal of how many departments needed to be done.

when it comes to hiring and asking an organization, hint, hint. >> thank you for your suggestion alex. >> something to think about. >> thank you. i really appreciate that. definitely will take that back. >> thank you alex. this is sherry. i have two questions. so, just real quick about the kelsey at the dcc. when they have their open house, you said they will have that soon? >> it is like a q &a it is information session and it is-so people can learn how to apply for the lottery system. >> alright. are they go ing to have units open for people to have--to see the units and what they are like and different models and things like that? are they ready for that yet?

>> that i dont know. >> i can say a little bit about that. -- one of the things that we do, we help people--and information. there is one more for non english folks to learn about those units

available. studio, 1 and 2 bedrooms, so it is very disability forward building. most of them are accessible and some of them is going to be 30 percent of the income. 30 percent and 60 percent,ami. don't quote me on that, but it -how to sign up for those and how to sign up for if you have someone has a

disability, you can talk to golden gate and they can help and assist. >> please. you know more then me. i wanted to just make sure people knew it was happening and to look up information on the kelsey to learn more about the process. >> okay. thank you. also, about the anti-ableism training. i think as you want to incorporate it, accessibility into dei. anyway, first, can you--i don't know if it was stated in the slide, but i couldn't read it. what exactly does deiba stand

for? >> it is diversity, equity, inclusion-belonging and accessibility. diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, accessibility. >> okay. so, the b is also new to me. okay. >> yes. >> okay. >> there is a lot of different versions out there. >> okay. so, within that, you want to include not just--because accessibility is different from in my mind anti-ableism. so, i'm just wondering-it is

all most to me like a two-prong strategy. you mentioned having awareness month for whatever black history month and asian american inclusion, but i didn't really specifically hear any plans for anti-ableism training. >> no, for das, we are looking into doing that for our staff, and so that will be part of our plan and within das. that may not be happening at a specific month, however, the office will be speaking about and continuing to incorporate disability pride month in their programming and also what i mentioned earlier, in october disability employment month and figure

also how to make our programming intersectional and those programs are thinking through both sort of department wide, organizational change, culture trainings, have that and also there is does that around racial equity for hsa, but they also on top that do that-do cultural events for employees. they are not necessarily a formal training per se, but like, a celebration around latinx history month, or celebration around black history month. that's on top of potential more formalized training. >> all of the work we did as a lunch and learn and the community building

event or hsa event happened in the month of october, which all us know is disability pride month. >> july. >> sorry! sorry, other groups in october. anyway. okay. disability pride month. my confusion came from october dwarfism pride month. i wear two hats. it happened in july and we honored celebrating the anniversary of the ada passage with one of those events. so, there is some that being rooted there in that celebration. i definitely-chair, to go to your point council sherry, i remember that yes, there definitely is adding the

a and anti-ableism. not 100 percent tied together, but making sure and this is part of what the conversations were, making sure that accessibility is integrated into everybody's work and making sure that people are staying cognisant and aware that our work and impacts we have definitely need to make sure that we are including the disability community within that, making sure that people with disabilities are able to access services and resources and everything the city has to offer, and then with that, that helps to set the good foundation of fighting ableism. >> okay, i like that statement better, but celebrating a culture-someone's culture is not a disability and

whatever and that's not an ableism thing. so, i'm just trying to make sure that you understand- >> the connection? >> yeah, or the lack of connection. >> okay. >> i really like eileen what you stated. >> part of what we talked about a lot in the effort was intersectionality and making sure that we are talking about disability when we are talking about other cultures, when we are talking about other demographic groups, because as we all know, disability cuts across everyone and every group. >> it does, but standing alone-african american culture is not a disability. celebrating it does not to me fall under an accessibility discussion or--you know. that is the point i'm trying to make. >> okay. >> i'll wondering if that is part of the diversity concept the first

part of the initials. if maybe that is where the balance is coming in terms of making sure equity for diversity versus disability. i think that might be-- >> yeah. because all of the work falls within the deibaoffice. they had done the work and we are adding the a, accessibility and making sure that now is interwovenen to all the work they are doing. for that intersectionality component. thank you. >> thank you. alright. any other council members? dr.awould you like to coin? continue? >> i had a question if regard if you are thinking about the disabilities that deal more with cognition, mental health, in terms of integrating those kind of non-physical presentations of

disability often overlooked? >> how we will be integrating-- >> people can cognitive disabilities affording accessibility to opportunities to work, opportunities to be part of other elements with those cognitive challenges being part of the consideration. sure, sorry. sounds clear? you need me to repeat? >> i think you all making sure we consider and include like cognitive disabilities in sort of programming, in education or training of staff and that isn't left out? >> that's right. >> yes, correct. no, thank you. i appreciate that. >> i think with all of the

initiatives we have, the goals of the plan we always want to make sure that that-those goals across disability focused and so for example, with the tech council and making sure tech is accessible, those are part of the conversations. it is not just blind and low vision, it is all the things that we have to be considering to making sure tech is accessible with all across disability world. there is definitely conversations that happen within each of those objectives. >> thank you. what i was looking for more of for example, some things my patients have difficulty with is remembering information, so having for example a printed out set of directions is often very helpful to getting to the next space. if they have appointments or a

process going to get to shelter or sro, they never make it because they don't center have the type of information they need. go to the left and be there at 2 o'clock doesn't help them get there. that is what i was look toog see if there is a bit more that support. >> i think that we have started the process of adding the a and part of the journey now is really developing and what that looks like and i think that is part of why we focus on hsa and das because we want to make sure we understand how we roll this out, and so that we can support--be a part of the conversation with other departments to support other departments rolling it out. it is a big project as you can see there it is a huge project. there is a lot of considerations and there is a lot to think about, especially when you are talking a big department and to insure people are not excluded or left out as well.

again, this is beginning stages, beginning work. we are excited about this development and there is so much for us to do, and so much to go. it isn't a final destination. >> thank you. >> thank you. now i like to turn to council member sassouni. >> yes, hi. i have-i thank you both. i just want to thinking about dei, we is been missing the ba. dei has been standardized in the vernacular in the last bit of time job training but there is a component missing, so i'm pleased to hear you bring that up here with the b and a. for example, deiba fwr example

in a movie theater, or public park, there is things missing. theaters don't have captioning and often i heard that deaf people, non signers, but are not able to hear aspects of movies theater sound, so captioning isn't necessarily a fit for them. they want to rely on hearing, so they there are aspects people with stuck with and people are fighting for different type of coordination and can get sticky to access and issues related to access. when you ask for it sometime youz get turned down rchlt people say sorry the movie doesn't provide this, and hearing people can access things but not deaf people or people with hearing loss. sometimes visual spaces for those who rely on sight in a public park area in the city can be difficult with access

as well. if you are thinking about bringing deiba and applying to different businesses and thinking about entertainment for example, if things are listed in programming, how would that look across the city for various businesses? that is a starting point. just thinking of all the directions this could go in and would that become policy and how people consider things ongoing? is that something that would be need approval, but adding those two letters to any of these decisions is really going to enhance everything. >> thank you orchid. so, i would like to see

if-patricia did you is a comment? >> yes, i do. >> we need to include the interpreting bubble. we need our interpreter bubble. are we back? okay, go ahead. >> you mentioned the belonging as a new identifier. is this the same thing as inclusion and if it isn't could you explain the difference? because both inclusion and belonging would relate to anti-ableism, which is ableism is a problem in san francisco. not because of any malicious

intent, but just ignorance. i think it would be a good idea that we have disabled person on all important commissions and boards like the board of supervisors. a disabled person on the board of supervisor would not be a bad idea, and i really commend you for your work in this area, because it's definitely needed in san francisco. if you can address the difference between belonging and inclusion, i like to hear what you have to say. >> i think this could be a whole graduate program degree right here. i am probably not going to do justice of making sure that i have the right definitions for these, but--the way i understand it and i-again, please don't

quote me on this. we all probably need to consult google or chat gpt. inclusion is the act of one person insuring everybody is included. belonging is the act of one person feeling like they have been included. good, i'm getting head nods. i got it. so, inclusion comes from others, and belonging comes from a sense of one's self--so making sure that we are both being the good allies and inclusive and making sure we ourselves are recognizing that we belong in that space. >> that's kind of what i thought it meant. i get it. two different perspectives on the same issue. >> thank you. >> thank you patricia and

eileen for the distinction there. alright. we have another follow-up question from council member madrid. >> thank you. i just want to--the distinction on accessibility when it comes to the a aspects, because someone can be -- have you considered that, adding to that accessibility, or is that going to

be adding a a. >> for comidation? accommodation? >> yeah? >> we haven't had that conversation but it is one i'm willing to take. >> something to think about. >> yeah. >> accessibility is a different thing. as you know, some disabilities are or most disabilities and any kind of disability, or-- need accommodation and sometimes people get confused on accessibility with accommodation. i just want to make that clear on it that and there should be--

>> it is one of the conversation we did have with the office. especially when launching adding the a in july. it was being conscious people might spark, where do i go to get accommodations. like how do i access things i need for my work, and while the office-i say the office is both-when i say culture and mean employee culture, like culture within the department broadly, but i think the office is really like striving to insure that all of our workforce understand more to serve people who experience barriers in different ways. disparities. it is really trying to address our workforce both like feeling affirmed and the fact the disparities we face every day are understood, and acknowledged, and or that also

disparities of the people we are serving are understood and acknowledged. >> i want to make it clear, that if we going to include a in plain language becomes to any type of information that we have--that simple part on accessibility and sometimes --people who may have--

plain language and identify different accessibility accommodations. >> i agree. plain language is critical, especially in external communication. >> thank you. >> thank you alex. any other council members have comments? if not, we will move to mod staff for any comments. debbie. >> only that, mod really enjoys being part of the adf. there are many different goals that are a part of the adf agenda that

are also part of what mod is working on, and that one of the values of having the adf work group from our perspective is that, it is a organized effort to bring a lot of different parties together, and focus on specific goals. that just insures accountability to those issues across all the different people and organizations that are part of adf. when you have to report on something on a regular basis and say what you've done to contribute towards a shared goal, it is just more likely to happen.

it is a way for a lot of different parties, a lot of different parts of the city to be accountable around accessibility and very specific ways. >> thank you debbie. that was well said. >> can i ask a question? what is kelsey? >> the kelsey. what we talked about earlier. they are a organization that helps provide like disability forward housing and so the kelsey is working with mercy housing right now and it is--i'm bad at spelling. >> is that a acronym? >> no, it is a name. >> it is spelled kelsey.

it is named-the founder of the kelsey organization named it after a relative of hers. >> okay. >> it is a non profit. you can find the website is thekelsey.org. kelsey.org. >> thank you. >> they are the ones and working with mercy housing on this--either 112 correct, yes. disability forward affordable housing that will be on the corner of van ness and grove and that's where the

disability cultural center will be housed on the ground floor. so, that's really exciting and very tied and connected to community in a area that is very meaningful. >> okay, thank you. >> thanks so much. maceo. this is a great presentation. we look forward to hearing from you again, and thanks everyone for your comments. very well thought out. thanks for coming. >> thank you so much for having us and thank you for all your questions and comments. thought provokes and very good, so thank you. >> thank you council. >> thank you. okay. we are going to move on to the next item on the agenda, which is

hearing from mod deputy director interim director debbie kaplan. debbie, did we have correspondence this month or the last couple months i would say since our last meeting? >> thank you. actually i delegated to the clerk, alicia. >> here is correspondence received. number 1, closing great highway to vehicle traffic/removal or disabled access. that's the topic. hello, i am writing to express my view about the broposed closure of the great highway to make a park. on behalf of a disabled person, my daughter. we oppose the closure which is a removal of the disabled access by car to a very scenic part of the city. there are few comforts or joys

in my daughter life but one is scenic drive down it grite highway. for many disabled people, this is painful due to [indiscernible] and a sight-seeing drive is small temporary relief and joy. it is sad that there is a removing vehicle access to parts of san francisco, because this greatly impacts the disabled. it is especially hard for those too sick to wheel around in a transport van or other public alternatives proposed to make up for the loss of vehicle access. i am third generation san franciscan and what i see going on in this city is not compassion for the disabled, but passion for the abled body. to get more and more car free recreation as expense of the disabled and elderly residents.

thank you. that was sonia [indiscernible] number two, the topic is out of control loitering issue. i am summarizing the following letter because it is too long. it came from mr. allen jones. he sent a message to mdc with a recommendation that he has provided to the police chief for how to reduce loitering in the tenderloin ck that is using heat wagons on the back of large truck s to make the area too uncomfortable for loitering. there is third letter, and the topic is, please improve a city wide no-turn red policy with proposed implementation plan at the next sf mta board meeting.

mod received 157 additional e-mails supporting the proposal for a no turn red policy, which the shared at the mdc public meeting last september. the letter 4 is in regard to [indiscernible] to whom it may concern, alex copied here and i are working together it make sure local jurisdictions are aware of enforcing ab662 which requires public facilities and project to include adult changing spaces. alex and i are advocating for such facilities on behalf of her daughter and all those with disabilities. please see attached for details. we would really appreciate your help in insuring that all eligible projects in

san francisco include these facilities going forward. many thanks for any help you can provide. julia knight. the link will be on our website when this video is available for the public. back to you, cochair sherry albers. >> thank you so much. okay, at this time, i am turning the attention back to council members to see if any members have any announcements that they would like to share. >> i do. i just want to say, i'm so happy to see this board room full and i would like to say, welcome to the new

members and i hope we work together a long time and i-- can you hear me now? do you want me to say that again? i hope we will work together for a long time. welcome. >> thank you. >> great. council member bendix. >> thank you. just a quick shout out to the disability right education defense fund which last night at the annual fund razor and celebration alike, made a special board to getting images. getting images is an

international business based in london that provides stock photos and videos to advertising agencies around the world and they have gone out of their way to include images of people with disabilities and i just thought this is a strategic move, it goes back to the point patricia made turning up and being visible, and it just reminds that the more we can make our presence felt, the more we can do good stuff. >> here, here. okay. anybody else? okay. well, at this point in our meeting, i am asking for a motion to adjourn. >> motion to adjourn. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> okay, with that, i am going to

call adjourned. thank you so much. we'll see you in october. [meeting adjourned] book. than

you. >> (music). >> my name is orlando i'm the owner and operator of sf pizza. >> pizza is my expansion growing up i loved pizza and loved to cook and been in corporate banking jobs my that whole life wanted to own a pizza or and moved to san francisco 45 years ago and couldn't find pizza i like so one day of saving and trying to figure out what i would like to do to fulfill my dream and to

literally must be that i went out on my own toes an interesting things skills i again have to working on the slight changes to find the right product and came up with something i enjoy and continue it. so the positive important thing in years and years and years of trying to get it where i like it is for the sauce i use a unique sauce to bring out the flavors have to mats and capital improvement plan any and using use a high quality of cheese the products work together more important to me have a high quality of pizza and made with love and what i try to keep it to be a comfortable foods or

food and that's what i try to over and offers so having a really bus illegal day in the community and rile appeal to me and that's what i was trying to accomplish i have thought when i got into pizza the main thing if i can, make a great cheese pizza he can do anything like growing up that's what i brought to to and now called san francisco [music] san francisco emergency home program is a safety net for sustableable commuters if you

bike, walk, take public transit or shares mobility you are eligible for a free and safe roadway home the city will reimburse you up to $150 dlrs in an event of an emergency. to learn more how to submit a reimbursement visit sferh. >> my name is marta i'm the management here with public works. it is found in the upon 1997. it is the only public access glass studio in san francisco. we give access to everybody. you don't have to be an experienced artist to take classes we offer beginning level

programming. events. fund raisers, it is about giving everyone who is interested in the opportunity to try glass to work with glass and experience mediums. >> i'm linda i'm part owner and manager of the paper tree in japantownful i'm hope to create a destination. not only do we have our huge selection of origami paper and book but a museum everybody can enjoy that and see what can be done by folding paper >> good to see amazing origami. a selection of paper. got wonderful gifts from japan and great customer service. >> i'm holly and i am the owner of [inaudible] in san francisco. >> we offer classes. and open studio access. workshops lead by local artists that you can see here we have a

[inaudible]. and people should expect to join the community and just learn about local bay area artists in the process. >> [music] what's this for?

i will have nile firefighter friends bring me a bench to explain the cool things. joy want to see. >> this is cool marbles up here. a, appliance and hose and this is a y >> why? >> why is it called a y, that's a great question this . is a y. you see it looks like a y. we use it for yellow in the fight we use it to take 2 different hoses from one hose. that way in a big building like a high rise, and we have a large piece of hose connect here, we are able to take two more hoses in different directions to help put a fire out in a floor that is well above the street level. >> okay. >> fire engines carry 4 firefighters and firefighter paramedics. firefighters should not be

considered strangers. firefighters are your friends. >> uh-huh. >> you are in need of help you need to make sure it is okay to go up to the firefighter. firefighters utilize many of the tools we discuss in the a fire engine. such as a fire extinguisher >> what's that for. >> they can be used to put out fires the size. a waste basket and squirts water. >> oh , >> that is cool. >> yea! >> we have other tools a chain saw. they help us get through the many obstacles we encounter while we are trialing to put out a fire or save somebody's life. >> nice >> that is cool if you see a firefighter like this in a fire the firefighters are friends and this firefighter will save your life. it is okay to go to the firefighter. >> hum. good to know. [music] ♪♪

>> okay. good evening and welcome to the september 11, 24 meeting of the board of appeals. president lopez will be the officer tonight and joined by commissioner swig, trasvina and eppler. present is city attorney he or she who will provide legal advice. i'm julie rosenburg execute ever director. we'll be joined by representative from thes c