perhaps i could invite kate toran up to follow-up with some more detail. >> thank you, chris. i don't know how much more detail i could give at this moment, but that was really comprehensive. i'm kate toran the paratransit manager at sfmta and i did want to talk briefly about the impacts on our paratransit program of the tncs. as chris discussed our ramp taxi program is critical to us and our passengers who use wheelchairs and over the last year, year and a half, we have seen the service levels plummet because of all the problems chris mentioned. let me just give you some numbers here february, 2013, there were over 1200 ramp taxi trips provided in the month. february, 20 14 we had 550. so we have really seen a decrease and on the sfmta's side, what we have been doing is trying to improve our incentive program to make the ramp taxi driver whole and make it an economically viable option. so what we have done, we have improved our incentive program. we have had incentives in our ramp taxi program for a number of years, but since we have really good data with our debit card progr

so it's a bit of a challenge to keep that program going, but miss toran's program has been very helpful in helping us retain and keep drivers. looking at the big-picture, one of the critical things that we need to do is to find a better vehicle. there really isn't an affordable, suitable vehicle for wheelchair-accessible service. we use the converted vans now, and they are really not very good. once you cut the frame of a vehicle, it's never going to be the same. so we look forward to perhaps some help in purchasing the more expensive vehicles that are starting to appear on the market now >> . thank you. >> thank you. >> walter park. >> good afternoon commissioners, staff. thank you for letting me speak today. i may not get to my remarks. i would like to thank christiane hayashi. i have never met you before and very happy to hear you today, but i heard you talk on the forum and we had a person from the tnc industry who was vague and wondering and unconcerned about the questions being asked and chris came back time after time after time with specifics on the ground knowledge and i had a

word of thanks to sfmta, the program that miss toran oversees has been extremely helpful to us. the incentives for drivers is a big boon and it's very difficult to attract and retain drivers at all and particularly for the ramp taxi program. it's more work and the gas is more expensive and more training and scheduling difficulties. so it's a bit of a challenge to keep that program going, but miss toran's program has been very helpful in helping us retain and keep drivers. looking at the big-picture, one of the critical things that we need to do is to find a better vehicle. there really isn't an affordable, suitable vehicle for wheelchair-accessible service. we use the converted vans now, and they are really not very good. once you cut the frame of a vehicle, it's never going to be the same. so we look forward to perhaps some help in purchasing the more expensive vehicles that are starting to appear on the market now >> . thank you. >> thank you. >> walter park. >> good afternoon commissioners, staff. thank you for letting me speak today. i may not get to my remarks. i would like

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we have miss hayashi and miss toran as well. >> good afternoon and thank you so much for having me today. i see some familiar faces that i have worked with over the years. it's good to see you again. i'm chris hayashi and today i'm deputy director of the division of taxis and accessible services for the san francisco municipal transportation agency. this is my last day on the job. i will be going into those golden pastures of retirement. [laughter ] i do continue to care about this issue very much and i was very pleased to be invited to talk to you about it today. first of all let me define in baseline concepts here. first of all what is that distinguishs a taxi cab? it's on-demand point to point transportation and it distinguishes from other four modes of transportation in san francisco. you have pedestrian, bicycle, transit, taxi, private automobile and all of those things work together and taxis is a very important compliment to those other modes. tncs stands for "transportation network company." it of course came about because of the ability to dispatch this form of transportation on

francisco municipal transportation agency, deputy director for taxis and accessible services kate toran, san francisco municipal transportation agency agency, paratransit manager. there will be a break, the council will take a 10- minute break. item 7, information item, ada transition plan capital projects for fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2016. an annual update on requested capital funds to provide design and construction on the remainder of the city's ada transition plan projects. information on other ada transition plan projected that are currently in design and construction, presentation by john paul scott deputy director for physical access, mayor's office on disability. public comment is welcome. item 8, information item. play area ada checklist. an overview of the play area ada check lift for new city playgrounds and recommended design policy. this policy will impact nearly 30 new accessible play areas scheduled for construction in parks and recreation centers over the next three years. presentation by john paul scott. deputy director for physical access, mayor's office on dis

and he tried to say to them, look, a hundred years ago my an assess toran -- ancestors came from ireland. there is no reason you couldn't have a black president. he was wrong but only by five years. >> a couple more questions. there are a lot of other things going on in this period, and one of the interesting stories that you tell is how the issues around economic policy, they get entwined but then disentangled with the civil rights issues, particularly the tax law that the president wants to pass. tell us about that. >> i didn't really realize until i started this research how crowded those first two and a half years in the kennedy administration were, how cheek by jowl these events were so when he made that speech about passing the bill, alabama had been integrated, and that night four hours after the speech, he was shot. then lbj is juggling calls with j. edgar hoover and members about the bill. president kennedy's domestic legislative priority was to get a big tax cut which he thought would be an economic stimulus. in those days there was a strong caucus in congress that was fiscally