. >> caller: hi, this is barry toronto again. i want to say that i commend all of you for sticking it out these two days. it used to be a one-day affair. i believe that the m.t.a. even bought you a lunch to go along with it. unfortunately, you're going to have to make your own meals or provide your own water during these meetings. at least they broke it up into two days so you had time to go have dinner, rather than to miss out on it or to eat with your family. so i wanted to point out they think that excluding community engagement is a huge mistake. or balancing out the issue of safety or expediency over community engagement is -- it should go hand-in-hand. for example, if a street wants to do r.p.p. parking or put in a speed hump, that is different than blocking an entire street, or eliminating parking completely without the feedback of the city departments or agencies that would be impacted by that, as well as the services that need to have access to the street or access to the neighborhood. so i think that -- i think that the

my name is barry toronto. i am a taxi advocate.'m on the board of the taxi workers alliance and i'mhere today , the instructions on the pdf i got, i got on the agenda were clear . i'm here because the better market plan was, they made some changes due to some financial restraints so as a result of that, taxis were restricted to the access to market street particularly between fifth and eighth streets . as you are aware you are offices at 1155 market street between seventh and eighth street. taxis bringing somebody to the building once it reopens or taking someone away from the building trying to get there to pick someone up has now been restricted. we have to turn starting in a few weeks, we would have to turn rightonto eighth street . that means we could not access the building. as you know people with disabilities need to be dropped off in front of thebuildings. you have lighthouse of the blind and retirement system on the same block .so there's a problem because the only way to access it would behind street. as you know the heav

. >> yes, this is barry toronto. good evening. i appreciate everybody asking great questions. i actually want to side with the parking control officer, i want to say ditto to everything he said. in my e-mail to brit tanner, asking about the infrastructure plan, we wouldn't have known about the changes, and it's sad that the outreach has been horrible. regarding the slow streets, i think they're here to stay, i agree, but they can be tweaked. for example, the one in duboce triangle and noe street, i go through it all the time, all the way to duboce. i violate it all the time because there's no other way for me -- excuse me -- to get to the north part of the city or to continue to where i need to go with the passengers without having to go straight through. [please stand by] >> welcome to the workshop. please call the roll. director borden. >> here. >> brinkman. >> present. >> eaken. >> here. >> heminger. >> here. >> hinze. >> present. >> lai. >> present. >> yekutiel. >> here. >> you have a quorum. the next item is communications. >> we are on sfgovtv. >> we will be on at 2:00.

my name is barry toronto. i am a taxi advocate.'m on the board of the taxi workers alliance and i'mhere today , the instructions on the pdf i got, i got on the agenda were clear . i'm here because the better market plan was, they made some changes due to some financial restraints so as a result of that, taxis were restricted to the access to market street particularly between fifth and eighth streets . as you are aware you are offices at 1155 market street between seventh and eighth street. taxis bringing somebody to the building once it reopens or taking someone away from the building trying to get there to pick someone up has now been restricted. we have to turn starting in a few weeks, we would have to turn rightonto eighth street . that means we could not access the building. as you know people with disabilities need to be dropped off in front of thebuildings. you have lighthouse of the blind and retirement system on the same block .so there's a problem because the only way to access it would behind street. as you know the heav

this is barry toronto. my comments are couched on the decision you made last week to destroy our cap business, especially not being able to cruise down market street. cab. and related to what the presentation we just heard, be great if you started pursuing more federal dollars for subsidized rides for the seniors and disabled. and to try and up the incentive or the compensation for serving the seniors and disabled, because right now they're actually financial losses for me. to be honest with you, i am personally avoiding those trips, because actually, what you told me last week, you don't value my service. you don't value my ability to serve the seniors and disabled and that's the message that the industry got from last week's decision. related to this, i think it's important that we are able to serve the seniors and disabled and compensate us properly for that by at least giving us close to the wage that you pay the paratransit van drivers. so we don't -- it's at least going to be another year or two befor

this is barry toronto. i made sure i woke up in time because i'm a night driver, normally a night schedule. but i made sure i got up in time. i want to thank, first, commissioner hain haney for bringing these issues to the forefront because they'll continue to be ignored if we don't get proper answers. so thank you. first about enforcement, yes, particularly in the nighttime hours, there is not compliance. i did see one officer stop a private car once, but i don't know what was the purpose on market street. but enforcement is so lackadaisical, and the drivers totally ignore the signs, even though they are glaring. regarding access, as you know, between 7th and 8th streets, there is a lot of need for disabled access. and ms. tanner keeps mentioning we have access. yes, if we go all the way up to mccallister and golden gate, adding $4 or $5 to our taxi fare in order to pick someone up there. that is not an economically viable solution for us. so taxi service to the disabled people will be non-existent in that

this is barrie toronto. i'm calling to first wish my condolences for terry fry as well. she was really a good advocate for social justice issues and even though we were never facebook friends, i respected everything she did. i also would like to say a shout out to roger morenko the head of the transit operators union and he had a baby boy. he and pete wilson from the union participated in transit equity day last week and honor of rosa parks. so we also want to say that it was alerted to me and the retirement board is at 1145 market street and the board on january 19 just made it very difficult for us to drop off and pick up passengers from that building which is between seventh and eighth. we have to turn off eighth street. i would have to go to a route to get there and costing them more money and time if they had to make their appoint manies. i want to say that the mta board just made it a lot harder for us to serve as the seniors and disabled and we'll be hearing a lot more from us in the future as taxi drivers. and last but not least, it would be great if we help make

. >> yes, this is barry toronto. good evening. i appreciate everybody asking great questions. i actually want to side with the parking control officer, i want to say ditto to everything he said. in my e-mail to brit tanner, asking about the infrastructure plan, we wouldn't have known about the changes, and it's sad that the outreach has been horrible. regarding the slow streets, i think they're here to stay, i agree, but they can be tweaked. for example, the one in duboce triangle and noe street, i go through it all the time, all the way to duboce. i violate it all the time because there's no other way for me -- excuse me -- to get to the north part of the city or to continue to where i need to go with the passengers without having to go straight through. [please stand by] >> this is the regular meeting of the commission on community investment and infrastructure for tuesday, february 2, 2021. i would like to welcome the members of the public streaming live or listening to us and if staff who will be presenting in towed's meeting. following the guidelines set forth by local an

this is barry toronto.y comments are couched on the decision you made last week to destroy our cap business, especially not being able to cruise down market street. cab. and related to what the presentation we just heard, be great if you started pursuing more federal dollars for subsidized rides for the seniors and disabled. and to try and up the incentive or the compensation for serving the seniors and disabled, because right now they're actually financial losses for me. to be honest with you, i am personally avoiding those trips, because actually, what you told me last week, you don't value my service. you don't value my ability to serve the seniors and disabled and that's the message that the industry got from last week's decision. related to this, i think it's important that we are able to serve the seniors and disabled and compensate us properly for that by at least giving us close to the wage that you pay the paratransit van drivers. so we don't -- it's at least going to be another year or two before

. >> caller: hi, this is barry toronto again. i want to say that i commend all of you for sticking it out these two days. it used to be a one-day affair. i believe that the m.t.a. even bought you a lunch to go along with it. unfortunately, you're going to have to make your own meals or provide your own water during these meetings. at least they broke it up into two days so you had time to go have dinner, rather than to miss out on it or to eat with your family. so i wanted to point out they think that excluding community engagement is a huge mistake. or balancing out the issue of safety or expediency over community engagement is -- it should go hand-in-hand. for example, if a street wants to do r.p.p. parking or put in a speed hump, that is different than blocking an entire street, or eliminating parking completely without the feedback of the city departments or agencies that would be impacted by that, as well as the services that need to have access to the street or access to the neighborhood. so i think that -- i think that the

this is barrie toronto. i'm calling to first wish my condolences for terry fry as well. she was really a good advocate for social justice issues and even though we were never facebook friends, i respected everything she did. i also would like to say a shout out to roger morenko the head of the transit operators union and he had a baby boy. he and pete wilson from the union participated in transit equity day last week and honor of rosa parks. so we also want to say that it was alerted to me and the retirement board is at 1145 market street and the board on january 19 just made it very difficult for us to drop off and pick up passengers from that building which is between seventh and eighth. we have to turn off eighth street. i would have to go to a route to get there and costing them more money and time if they had to make their appoint manies. i want to say that the mta board just made it a lot harder for us to serve as the seniors and disabled and we'll be hearing a lot more from us in the future as taxi drivers. and last but not least, it would be great if we help make

this is barry toronto. i made sure i woke up in time because i'm a night driver, normally a night schedule. but i made sure i got up in time. i want to thank, first, commissioner hain haney for bringing these issues to the forefront because they'll continue to be ignored if we don't get proper answers. so thank you. first about enforcement, yes, particularly in the nighttime hours, there is not compliance. i did see one officer stop a private car once, but i don't know what was the purpose on market street. but enforcement is so lackadaisical, and the drivers totally ignore the signs, even though they are glaring. regarding access, as you know, between 7th and 8th streets, there is a lot of need for disabled access. and ms. tanner keeps mentioning we have access. yes, if we go all the way up to mccallister and golden gate, adding $4 or $5 to our taxi fare in order to pick someone up there. that is not an economically viable solution for us. so taxi service to the disabled people will be non-existent in that

this is barry toronto.y comments are couched on the decision you made last week to destroy our cap business, especially not being able to cruise down market street. cab. and related to what the presentation we just heard, be great if you started pursuing more federal dollars for subsidized rides for the seniors and disabled. and to try and up the incentive or the compensation for serving the seniors and disabled, because right now they're actually financial losses for me. to be honest with you, i am personally avoiding those trips, because actually, what you told me last week, you don't value my service. you don't value my ability to serve the seniors and disabled and that's the message that the industry got from last week's decision. related to this, i think it's important that we are able to serve the seniors and disabled and compensate us properly for that by at least giving us close to the wage that you pay the paratransit van drivers. so we don't -- it's at least going to be another year or two before

this is barry toronto.ted to address the issue of the service on market street and i would like to echo what david peelpal said. i think if you are ending the service at 8:30, and then putting everybody above ground and i want to say that is not safe on market street downtown at night. and you are waiting and i drove my cab along market street with a few fares and when the legislation comes into effect, i won't be able to do that anymore. and waiting a long time. and to address the frequency of the issues above market street. there are very few buses along market street. and i think that is a problem. and also the speed limit, lowering it to 20, i clock buses going faster than 20 miles per hour. what you want to do and you have to force them to sit at every light. and you are not saving any time by putting them all in the bus lane and keeping the taxis out of there. and which is a problem, too, because you also have your retirement system, and in the area that we can't get to by cab anymore. and so i want t