why don't we hear from commissioner oka. thank you for being here, commissioner. i do want to thank you for your tireless efforts to protect the ridership of the m.t.a. and for not being afraid to call it as you see it even if it is a little controversial at times. >> thank you very much for the comment. those who know me know that i do speak my mind. and frankly i am kind of knowing that people will say that the board does only what mayor newsom tells us to do. the mayor and i have agreed on very few issues when it comes to muni or the riders of muni. i'm a person with disability. i ride wheelchair. i'm out there all shifts. i'm out there not just in the daytime. i'm out there at night and out there doing my job. i'm the only full-time director that they have. i know what's out there. i know from a rider perspective that we look out for people who work at night who are gone due to budgetary concerns. i want to put those back in place. and hopefully with the full board as soon as possible. i'm looking forward to working with cheryl. believe me we will get the job

. >> oka. director oka: present. >> director nolan. chairman nolan: present. >> you have a quorum present. the ringing of and use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. any personal responsible for one going off may be removed. please be advised that cell phones on vibrate will cause static. approval minutes of the july sfmta. chairman nolan: is there mokes to a-- a motion to approve. >> second. >> minutes of the march 2, 2010, parking authority regular commission. chairman nolan: is there a motion. >> second. chairman nolan: those in favor say aye. >> aye. >> item five, communications. i know of none, mr. chairman. chairman nolan: ok. new unfinished business. ok. that's not me. ms. boomer. excuse me. ok. thank you. a couple of announcements, communications. we have a special order in today's agenda and that's at 1:00 this afternoon or as soon as possible thereafter but not before. the board secretary will call item 11 about the taxi issue. and if the board has another agen

some members here today, commissioner bruce oka, commissioner knollen and others for prioritizing pedestrian safety. i think we're ready to take it to the next level in expanding and improving pedestrian environment in san francisco. as someone that walked to work down van ness most days i can attest to most recent improvements and on-going challenges where the need to have pedestrian countdown signals on high traffic intersections or issues of the quality of pavement in cross walks or clarity of the cross walks themselves so i'm excited to be here today and be part toichl improvements and then on behalf of mayor newsom and administration we're excited to support the m.t.a's work of this. i'll give you 30 seconds of context and why pedestrian matters to ten environment in san francisco we focus and contextize most of our work around climate change and protection. when you look at greenhouse gas pollution generateed san francisco, just half are related. 51 percent come from vehicles and breaking that down thur there. one percent of city-wide emissions come from muni fleechlt thanks to mta boa

we have two members from the mta board, bruce oka and malcolm hideke here today. i'd like to thank our judges. we have judges representing a lot of president businesses here in the union square area. with that, to all the mta employees and fine citizens of san francisco, thank you for joining us today and thank you for your support. >> matt ford, ladies and gentlemen. the bell ringing competition is a two-part event today. we have professionals competing for a number of prizes in the coveted title of world champion bell ringer. for the amateur portion we have executives from some of our local media outlets competing for first, second, and third place trophies. the competition started with preliminaries. 37 contestants went through filling out the paperwork and a chance to proceed to the finals. all cable car crews were invited to compete. this year they have six finalists competing here at union square, competing against the two-time current champion mr. leonard oates. going to be tough. two years with the tiara, hard to give up. individual trophies welcome awarde

director oka: move to not disclosed. director nolan: all in favor? we were not disclosed. with that, we are adjourned. -- we will not disclosed. with that, we are intent. -- adjourned. patty: filing for social secury online, is so easy a beatnik can do it. with his laptop. in any malt shop! >> the public wants to access particular information about your house or neighborhood we point them to gis. gis is a combination of maps and data. not a graphic you see on a screen. you get the traffic for the streets the number of crimes for a police district in a period of time. if the idea of combining the different layerce of information and stacking them on top of each other to present to the public. >> other types of gis are web based mapping systems. like google earth, yahoo maps. microsoft. those are examples of on line mapping systems that can be used to find businesses or get driving directions or check on traffic conditions. all digital maps. >> gis is used in the city of san francisco to better support what departments do. >> you imagine all the various elements of a city in

director oka: move to not disclosed. director nolan: all in favor? we were not disclosed. with that, we are adjourned. -- we will not disclosed. with that, we are intent. -- adjourned. >> the most important thing abuot this decision was the decision itself, and the words that would matter most are in the 138-page document that are processed in thea ppellate court. they did not just set out to win a lower court decision. they set out to withstand scrutiny at the appellate level, successfully and unsuccessfully, understanding what the court is up against. judge walker set forth rules that became the foundation to which this will, i believe and hope, be appealed and adjudicated at the supreme court. i'm not a lawyer. i'm not going to profess to make the legal argument that has bee n made. the most important thing is to get a solid decision out. not a win, but to get a decision where the arguments made are validated, and my understanding was that the points they made that they emphasized were advanced in this decision, and that is a significant thing. so i will leave that to l

director oka: move to not disclosed. director nolan: all in favor? we were not disclosed. with that, we are adjourned. -- we will not disclosed. with that, we are intent. -- adjourned. >> good afternoon, fellow commissioners, folks in the gallery. the date is august 10, 2010. it is 1:35 p.m. >> [roll call] i might note that commissioner ellis is excused from this afternoon's meeting. she is out of town. commissioner crowley: all right, 3. >> i might call your attention to approval of the minutes of july 13. commissioner moran requested modification of two -- actually, three places. on page 8 in paragraph two in the beginning of the middle, he requested minor clarification of the language here, and on page 9 at the bottom, it said it could be accepted without objection. >> i do not seem to have a copy of the minutes. commissioner crowley: i will give commissioner caen a moment to look at that. >> if you could entertain a motion. commissioner crowley: as amended by commissioner moran, entertain a motion to accept. it has been moved and seconded. all those on the question, pl

director oka: move to not disclosed. director nolan: all in favor? we were not disclosed. with that, we are adjourned. -- we will not disclosed. with that, we are intent. -- adjourned. >> good afternoon. thank you for joining us. today is a major milestone in our sf park program. it is a new system of managing parking in the city and county of san francisco. the mta was fortunate enough to receive a $25 million partnership grant to look at ways to help with congestion in urban cities and find a way to do with pricing. rather than looking at toll booths and things of that nature, we thought it would be a more elegant solution to look at where the cars are going better actually trying to park. by making parking easier and getting better data, we believe we will have a strategy that will reduce congestion on city streets. over 30% of the contestant dickcongest -- congestion is related to automobiles looking for parking. we want to provide better data in terms of the sensors on the street. they will have a real time information needed for 511, through the website, or through t

director oka: move to not disclosed. director nolan: all in favor? we were not disclosed. with that, we are adjourned. -- we will not disclosed. with that, we are intent. -- adjourned. >> please direct your eyes to the water out over the bay. just a quick note -- the 5:30 to net the lawn is not canceled -- to nebulon is not changed. for those wishing to change rocket ships, you can talk to spot. we have another rocket ship on the way, but this one is where they take off, any minute now. we have a couple of speakers here today. the first one is an lazarus from the port. public art like this is not done without partnerships, and the partnership that we have with the port of san francisco turned this space into an art space and has been spectacular. thank you, ford of san francisco. if you are representing the whole commission and some staff, though, ann if you want to say few words, that would be great. our boarding up is right here. >> thank you all for being here today. i would like to thank mike for wearing his seersucker suit so we were sure to get some sunshine today. i

director oka: move to not disclosed. director nolan: all in favor? we were not disclosed. with that, we are adjourned. -- we will not disclosed. with that, we are intent. -- adjourned. patty: filing for social security online, 9 out of 10 experts agree, it's groovier than a brooklyn hot dog! cathy: or a crepe suzette! ♪ when cousins are two of a kind! ♪ >> again, good afternoon. it is not morning anymore, and happy to earth day to all of you. thanks again for joining us. today, in addition to celebrating earth day, we are gathering to celebrate another accomplishment that has been quite an important and critical milestone in our attempt to be a green and more livable city. will compile the apartments and agencies together to further green our city, capturing our environmental and aesthetic benefits. many of us have been working together in making sure that every single development around the city is incorporating various greens strategies, that is, essentially, improving strategy -- improvement strategies that not only improve our environment, but make social and economic

we actually have been joined by commissioner bruce oka from the mta, and at some point, we will ask him to say a few words. >> i am cheryl's has been, and i want to come here today to say some kind words about my wife -- i am shall' -- i am cheryl's husband. she understands her dedication and experience with transit. everywhere we travel, everywhere we go, we take transit here we go to new orleans, we take the bus to the airport. she rides a bike and a lot as well, but we love transit. she lives and breathes it. we have seen systems all over the world. we have seen some of the creative things it can do with access. we have seen systwi

i do believe that the current structure, notwithstanding some exceptions, i point to commissioner oka as one of those exceptions, the current structure does not, in my view, provide for the level of accountability and independence that is needed. i think that until that structure changes, that we are going to continue to have some of the same problems. we are going to continue to have a lack of representation in certain communities. we are going to continue to have a lack of transparency on some issues. i think that's the reason why those of us who submitted a charter amendment for the ballot felt very strongly that that charter amendment neated to go forward because we do need comprehensive muni reform and reform that only includes the communities that we talked about, but along the lines that were discussed by members of the public, youth, seniors, disabled, and so many diverse communities in san francisco. i think that given the current structure we are not going to do better than this nomination. so i'm very happy to be supportive of that. we can take that without objection. we ca

. >> oka is he a good employee? >> he is a very good employee? >> and knowledgeable fans to? i have worked with pat in the past and have a lot of espect for him. >> has he been a longtime employee of bp? >> i think pat joined the firm through the arco fast our acquisition of the was with one of our predecessor companies. so he would have been with bp's since about 2000. >> since you do ith bp has he been promoted? are increases in pay? >> i believe so, yes. >> obvious he will testify, so my guess we will be running through his credentials and history at the time he testifies. so it would be fresh in everybody's mind and. >> have you seen any of the post-incident interviews by the blight investigation of people who are on the rig? >> i have not. >> do you know what the bly investigation is? >> i know mark bly is. >> and were you aware that people under mark bly's direction interviewed the basic bp employees to find out what they do, what they thought, what they could say in terms of helping understand this casualty? >> i would hope they are interviewing everybody that they thi

i like to say a special thanks to bruce oka but doesn't seem to be here but was a key factor in getting this library named after my son. i like to mention peter warfield who is not enthusiastic all the time but he does what he believes is important for our library. and you -- you are all very important, each one of you. because you love libraries, you love learning and you're here today to share the spirit of the richmond. and so as we initiate a new year for our city and our family, to support what is really one of the marks of our democracy, a library, the libraries and the schools are the most important parts of the establishing of theory of democracy in our children. so -- >> [applause] >> so please continue to be there with us and for us, and be the leaders that you are and encourage others to follow you because you are very important to the vision of our city, which is an unusual vision, a vision of diversity, a division of equality and dignity for all and success for all. and in our tradition, i would like to say, congratulations on this day. i neglected to thank the leaders of t