by for the san francisco mayor's disability council meeting of may 19, 2023.

>> good afternoon everyone. and welcome to the mayor's disability council meeting. my name is sheri albers and this meeting is now in order. today is friday, may 19, 2023. this is a in-person and virtual hybrid meeting. this meeting is broadcast to the public on sfgovtv, and it is open captioned and asl interpreted. the mayor's disability council holds 10 public meetings per year, and they are generally held on the third friday of the month. please visit the mod website at www.sf.gov/mod or call the mayor office of

disability at 415-554-5678. for more information or e-mail -sorry. mod@sf.gov, for any accommodations you may need. our next regular meeting will be friday june 16, 2023. from 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock right here in this room, which is room 400 in san francisco city hall. i don't know if i mentioned that is where we are at. it is also going to be hybrid meeting and broadcast on sfgovtv. we thank you for joining us and we are glad you are here. okay, mary, could you please conduct the roll call? >> yes, thank you chair. we'll have the roll call. alex madrid.

>> here. >> thank you. orkid sassouni, i think is absent. sheri albers. >> present. >> denise senhaux >> she will be here momentarily. >> okay. helen smolinski >> present. >> thank you. jason lewis woods is absent. tandon verma is absent. that is the roll call. >> council members, i know will be joining virtually momentarily. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. and we now need to have mary if you could read the agenda for approval. >> sure. our agenda today is

the first item is the welcome and roll call. our second item is action item, reading and approval of the agenda. the third item is general public comment. our fourth item is cochair report. the 5th item is information item, report from the mayor office disability. and second item is e-scooter safety campaign presented by kate toran and mona chui. there will be a 15 minute break. when we return the 7th item is discussion item active community plan update on disability outreach, presented by christopher kid san francisco municipal transportation agency.

the 8th item is information item, sda budget item for the public to comment on proposed city budget with the board of supervisors senior and disability action is here to present their budget advocacy agenda. the 9th item then is the correspondence. our 10th item is general public comment. the 11th item is council member comments and announcements and the 12th item is adjournment. and that's our agenda. >> do i have a motion to approve the agenda? >> make a motion to approve the agenda. >> do i have a second? >> second. >> great. the motion-the agenda has been approved and passed. thank you. alright. now we'll move to

general public comment. of course first we have any public comments from people who are in the room with us. do we have anybody mary? >> i don't believe we have anyone for public comment in the room, no. >> okay. i do believe we have to read the >> yes -i can read that if you like. 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 larger number of public comments. with respect to today's item discussion items, the opportunity

to address the council will be afforded-at the conclusion of each discussion item before council discussion begins. and a reminder that the brown act forbids the council taking action or discussing any items not appearing on the posted agenda, including those items raised at public comment. if you would like a response from the council, please provide your contact information by e-mail to mdc@sfgov.org or call 415-554-6189. if you join the tablet or smart phone webex, app click the icon and raise

your hand. you may also use the q & a feature in webexon the top of the video. if you use a desktop raise hand and q & a are at the bottom of the screen. if you are joining by phone, dial star 3 to indicate you like to make a comment. we'll prompt you when it is your turn. and as i said, we look-if there is any in-person commenters, which we do not have, and i don't know if we-anyone remotely? >> there is no one remote. >> okay, thank you. >> okay. >> public comment will be closed, chair. >> sorry mary? >> public comment is closed. >> thank you. we'll move on then to the cochair report, which will be given by

me sheri albers. we have a very brief report this month. since the april mdc meeting we it scheduling challenges which caused a delay in having our housing committee and our employment committee meetings, but we expect that these committees will be meeting before the next public mdc meeting. so, that's really all we have to report for this month. but i would love to turn the floor over to our director of mod, nicole bohn, who will give us our director's report. >> see if we can organize the microphone for a moment here. try to get a little

closer. one second, please. thank you cochair albers, and thank you everyone who is following along on sfgovtv today. i'm nicole bohn, the director of mayor's office on disability and first i want to thank our colleague from the veterans affairs commission, mary murphy for helping us in the clerk role today while we have folks traveling and away so welcome mary and thank you very much for your help today. so, today's report will be posted following this meeting to the mod website at sf.gov/mod. you can also engage with this report by calling us

directly at 415-554-6789 and there is quite a bit in this month's report so i do encourage folks to seek out this version, but i will give you some highlights today. first of all, in terms of legislative updates, since our last meeting in april, the affordable housing needs assessment this council heard about in february was referred to public safety and neighborhood services. that is referral number 221218 and that was the report as you recall that directed the disability and aging services, mayor office on housing and community development, the planning department, the

department of homelessness and supportive housing, and mod to look specifically at the needs of people with disabilities and old er adults. this item was heard as part of the april 27 meeting and was filed, and we do encourage the council to continue to monitor this item, and consider periodic updates around how that effort is proceeding. secondly, resolution 230269, was heard just earlier this week honoring judy human n and the un (indiscernible) of 1977 which enacted federal disability rights legislation and the resolution passed with recommendation as amended and is now w the mayor's office and

it directs public works to install a commemorative plaque in honor of judy humann in the disability rights protest. this will be the first public recognition of a disability leader in san francisco history and because of that, i really do encourage the council to work with mayor's office on disability to make sure we support an accessible instillation of this very important commemoration. the next item that i will highlight today is moving to federal legislation. so, as council member sassouni mentioned last month, the air carrier access amendment act of 2023, senate bill 545 and house of

representative bill 1267, these identical bills require the department of transportation to seek consultation from the access board and redefine minimum accessibility requirements that have been needed for a long time, including, but not limited to, the way that equipment is handled, (indiscernible) captioned and audio description of in-flight entertainment and safety communications, visual displays. it also speaks to appropriate stowage of assisted devices, wheelchair, accessibility of all gates, ticketing areas, customer service desks and software and websites and mod and the san francisco airport are in the process of drafting joint support letter for this federal

legislation, and then for those in the public who may be interested, a sample of template addressing these issues specific to the deaf community may also be found at the national association for the deaf website as well. i have a number of news and announcements of things that happened over the last month i also like to share. thursday may 11, m od attended the office of digital equity connect san francisco affordable connectivity program launch event. this program provides direct vouchers to qualifying households. san francisco residents with disabilities are encouraged see if you qualify. information is available online and there is print information in the hearing room for folks or call the office of digital

equity at 628-652-5888. next tuesday the 17th, mod presented to the public health commission on remote public comment for non board public bodies. the council is encouraged to continue to monitor accessible remote public comment city wide, something people with disabilities are still having questions about, but i will say the meeting with the health commission was very positive and productive one. yesterday thursday was global accessibility awareness day,b and mod hosted a great conversation called first person. a conversation about websites and the disability experience. we had over 90 participant who learned firsthand from panelists with disabilities about

their experiences using websites and technology and this-with their permission will be posted soon on the mod website. another piece of exciting news, the coalition of mew unicipal office for persons with disability which includes san francisco, new york, boston, saint lewis and others have been invited and will meet with the department of transporpitation, secretary (indiscernible) in washington dc on june 1 of 2023 to discuss our january request letter and collective accessibility agenda related to air travel transportation paratransit on demand services and autonomous vehicles. i provided the coalition letter as part of this report is this will be posted to the

website as an attachment along with this report and happy to talk more about this at your june hearing if you like that and finally, to announce for the public june 26, 2023 is public comment day at the board of supervisor at the budget and appropriation committee. the mayor's disability council members may consider providing public comment on behalf of persons with disabilities as it the board considers the final budget allocations for the next fiscal year which starts july 1. a couple other items i wanted to bring to your attention i haven't mentioned previously that you might want to consider for future agenda items are first, i suggested if you would like a public report from mod about what we have been up to for the past year and some of the challenges and

successes. happy to present that again. it has been about a year since we talked about those things. also, some of you were involved in feedback related to dining reusable and upcoming legislation department of environment. i want to highlight that particular item for you as well. the rest i mentioned publicly previously so i'll stop there for now and happy to entertain any questions the council members might have. thank you. >> thank you nicole. any questions from the mdc? >> yeah, i do. thank you nicole. reuseable's

from the restaurants. i think it is good to invite them and i just want to ask if we get any correspondence regarding plastic straws and-- that department handles all receipts that issue any-- >> sorry, happy to answer that question. so, to my knowledge we haven't received direct correspondence through the mayor's office on disability regarding plastic straws, and so if not since the

original legislation that allows plastic straws for folks with disabilities in public establishments was amended and passed so that has been at least three years now i believe, so there hasn't been other correspondence i'm aware of since then, but certainly it is something if the council would want to learn more, i do encourage you to invite the department of environment to talk more about that, and the reusable issue. >> thank you. thank you alex. thank you nicole. anyone else from the mdc? denise, are you there? do you have any questions? >> it doesn't appear she's here yet. >> she's here. i got a message from her. she is on mute. >> okay. >> this is sheri in

the meantime. nicole, the air care-what is it called? air carrier access. >> thank you. >> it is a lot of a's. >> it is amazing what is in that bill. i read the letter that was written. it was so carefully crafted and when the public reads it you will be amazed what is contained in it. it is so comprehensive, and it is so long time coming. whatever-i will be talking to the council here. we definitely will support and will issue a letter in support whenever that needs to go. i dont know what the timeline is for any of the

committees, how it has to go through the legislature, but i would not want to miss the date for support of those committees, so very very much needed. i know how long it takes the access board to do things that process, so however we can support that, we will do it. >> wonderful. my understanding is they hope to enact changes as early as september, so the sooner the better and for the council and also for any other members of the public who might want to be supporting this act by writing to your congress people and asking them to support this. that would be great. >> this is sheri again, i am wondering if it is needed yet

for specific suggestions, because i made a laundry list already of-for instance, labeling the row numbers even. besides the obvious to me at least, the kiosks when you go up to the arrival counter and you want to just print your boarding pass independently, trying to find the gate as you are going down the long hallway where all the grates are on each side and don't which one is which. and then on the plane, what row am i at? if i go to the restroom, first finding the restroom and then-whatever. but then getting back to my seat, finding the row and have to ask. disturbing people. there is a lot of ideas that many people have. i don't know if they are asking even for those suggestions yet. >> there are specific

implementations in the bill, so i would first recommend that you take a look at the bill, but i'm happy to-mod is happy to work with the council on any other kinds of comment and figure that out with you in terms of how-what is the best way to proceed here and certainly i want to talk more specifically before we go to dc, which is in a week. so, let's talk soon. thank you. that's great. >> yeah, and very very happy to see another attempt to straighten out the issue of what is a service animal and what is not. i don't know how many times this has to be defined or examined, but hopefully once and for all this can do it. thank you. >> thank you very much. appreciate your

engagement. >> if we are ready to move on -we are going to move on to discussion item, and this is on e-scooter safety campaign, and this is going to be presented by kate toran and mona chui, sorry if i got your name-please tell me if i pronounced it wrong. and they are from the san francisco municipal transportation agency. >> good afternoon. i'm kate toran and copresenting with my colleague mona chui. >> thank you. >> mona is remote and i'm in person and we have either the

preezentation on a thumb drive or mona can share her screen if there is any preference. >> john said they already upload the file and going to show. >> on the computer already. >> great. thank you, john. it is it scooter presentation. thank you, john. >> great. thank you. wait a minute for that to get loaded and i'll introduce myself with my title and kate toran, the director of taxies access and mobility services for the sfmta and very happy to be copresenting with my colleague mona chui, who is a data analyst and who is also our resident artist and graphic designer. mona will be copresenting with me and

talking about phase one of our scooter safety campaign. and, we are also joined by alex murray and he is with the scooter evaluation team and we'll get into that as we go through the presentation. thank you for making time for us on your busy agenda to hear about scooters. i'll provide a brief update about the scooter share program including the program evaluation currently underway and mona will fill you on phase one of the scooter safety campaign and we are excited to share this with you and to get your feedback on phase two which is a upcoming phase of the safety campaign. when we were last before you this past november talking about scooters, we let you know that sfmta at that

time was planning on engaging a consultant to do a program evaluation and so, happy alex murray is here today from the consultant, faren pierce and the evaluation is underway and happy to share the status where we are at with the program evaluation and to hear your thoughts and comments. to give a brief update on where we are at with the scooter share program, in april the mta board approved a one year permit term extension, so the current permits are good until june 30, 2024, and along with the extension of the permit term for the scooter share program, the mta board also added specific sidewalk detection requirement tuesday the transportation code at that same time. prior to this, the mta had not set specific requirements, because

the technology is so new, but we had requested that applicants propose solutions to sfmta on how they would handle safe riding, safe scooter riding, and since they submitted those applications and we selected the existing permitees, mta has been working with the permitees to test and demonstrate and develop best practices on sidewalk detection technology, so this past april as mentioned the mta board approved the specific requirements now which are in the transportation code. we currently have two scooter share permitees, (indiscernible) last time we were before you there were three scooter share permitees, bird was the third. bird decided to stop providing service in san francisco in february, so currently we have spin and lime in the

program. as i mentioned, the program evaluation is underway, and our overarching goals are to evaluate the scooter share program and make sure that the program is helping mta meet our goals and then we are looking to see recommendations on any potential upgrades to the program. the evaluation includes a number of key elements, including look at sidewalk detection technology, vehicle design with safety in mind, the consultant also conducted a peer city review, there is a rider survey that will be underway shortly. we are also looking at the adaptive program. the consultant has reviewed a number of relevant data sets. there is actually a lot of very rich data related to

scooter share on the mta website. we have dashboards that show trips, we have maps showing trip locations, we also have enforcement information related to citations, complaints and we have those mapped as well, but the consultant has been reviewing in addition to the publicly available data sets, there is a number of other types of data they have been reviewing inclusioning collision data, travel data, monthly reports. the rider surveys that will be coming out soon will be available in spanish, chinese and tugolic. peer city interviews have been with-we expect the final report and recommendations to be out later this summer and so we look forward to hearing your comments at the end of

our presentation, and now i'm going to pass the baton to my colleague, mona chui and she's going to fill us in on phase 1 of the scooter safety campaign. >> thank you kate. hi, this is mona. i have been working with sfmta all most 5 years and i'm very grateful for the opportunity to do the graphic design campaign. the scooter safety campaign start may through july this year. we are consolidating the feedback from the public, including the disability council last november. riding a scooter should only be fun when it is safe. the design concept using eye catching visuals for the young demographic. phase 1 we focus on the top three golden rules to improve

scooter safety and we want to remind the public what is legal scooter riding. the first one, riding on the sidewalk is illegal. i use a rabbit that rides in the bike lane and everybody is happy. the rabbit rides on the sidewalk which will scare pedestrians and may hit the vulnerable pedestrians like the elderly turtle that falls down. the second design concept is how a scooter cannot exceed 15 miles per hour. i use a tiger and stopped by the bear police. the third design is about double riding, which is illegal and dangerous. just like the poor little rabbit falling off the scooter crying for help, so don't put your loved one in danger. one scooter for one people only. next

slide, please. we are working with the sfmta communication department for the media channel, including muni on the exterior banner and interior. the digital display in the central subway. also we are hosting the block and social media. we are providing poster and postcards to hand out at public outreach events. we have qr code scan to (indiscernible) scooter complaints and back of postcard with a qr code. we are working with the sfpd on scooter safety. from january last year to march this year, there were 117 warnings and 151 citation issued to scooter riders. so, we will

continue the campaign into the next phase 2 and i will turn it over to kate. thank you. >> thank you mona. so, for phase 2 of the campaign, we are starting to develop concepts now and hoping to collaborate with the mayor disability council on additional key safety messages and the scooter safety campaign is to address all scooter safety and all scooter riders with the scooter share program and those riders we have a lot of enforcement tools and we work with the permitees, but for individuals who ride private scooters, we have less ability to enforce and so the intention of the safety campaign is to get the messages out broadly for all scooter riders. for phase 2, what we like to do is to collaborate with the

mayor disability council if there is interest to develop additional key messages and then also explore developing public service announcement videos. we are really excited to see the shared spaces video that directed bohn shared with us and we think that is a really great model and so we are here today to ask for engagement and collaboration with us on this phase 2. let me see if i missed anything. what we are thinking is establishing a small working group where we could discuss script development, safety messaging and maybe recruiting local talent like the shared spaces video so that is something we are excited to hear back from the council on today. so, hand in hand with the scooter safety campaign, mta is

focusing on building out the safe riding and parking infrastructure for scooters and bikes and know later on your agenda you will hear from our colleague christopher kidd who will talk about the active community campaign and this is a important effort and we see it as part of the safety campaign, a lot of feedback we hear is, mta, if you don't want us to ride on the sidewalks with our scooters, please make sure we have more bike lanes, so that is very important to us, it is very important for us to hear from the community, and mta has been committed and has been working on adding additional bike racks. there are 3,000 bike racks installed over the past couple years, and the scooter permitees actually pay a rack fee to support the addition of new bike racks in the city and there are about 11,000 bike racks city wide. mta has been expanded

bike lanes over 45 miles added in the past few years and again, my colleague christopher kidd will tell you more about the active community plan and all the exciting work happening there. as we presented at the meeting in november and as we discussed before the scooter permit terms and conditions require an adaptive program and the adaptive devices have to comprise at least 5 percent of the on-street fleet, and they have to be available for reservation through the app. in addition to the on-street fleet requirement, there is also a complementary adaptive program and both spin and lime participate in the adaptive complementary program and that allow said them to test additional features and then offer device said for longer

rental periods and those are offered for free for the community to test out. as part of testing out additional features and i mentioned testing as part of sidewalk detection, because these devices are fairly new for this type of use, there is also been testing of adaptive features to try to understand what safety features, what balance features meet the needs of a variety of riders, and so this past january the team at mta tested adaptive devices out in the field with students and teachers from the sf access program, and there is a great blog post written by our colleague at mta maddie (indiscernible) and with more details about types of features tested and

the feedback, so it is a iterative program, it is a iterative process we are learning as we go, again a lot of this is new, the technologies are new squl best practices are unfolding. so, i think that is it for our presentation today and we are happy to answer questions and take comments. again, we do have alex from faren pierce to hear specifically about the program evaluation. >> okay. thank you so much kate. thank you mona. and at this time, we are going to move to public comment. >> that is correct. >> thank you. we welcome public comment on this item.

if there anyone in person here with us, if you step 250 the podium if you like to comment. it doesn't look like we have anyone in the room. and control room, is there anyone on the remote side for public comment? >> one caller. >> there is one caller. okay. please go ahead. please unmute the caller. >> my name is francisco decosta, and from time to time i pay attention to what is being discussed about the disability community, and the outreach has to be done and what segment of the population that is left out are the homeless. the many homeless who are in wheelchairs. mta

should do something about this too. talk about the scooters on the street, but have those in the wheelchairs move from one place to the other. and also, we have to have a mechanism where we offer the outreach in various languages, and before i stop, i want to make it very clear that we may have a day for public comment, but after every agenda item, public comment is important. it is sack risanct so public comment isn't a joke.

we the people in any democracy have a voice to stand up and speak. the disability community can-you can go to any other city, but we have had presidents like fdr and others who fought for the community that is physically challenged or mentally challenged and grateful for that work. i'm 75 years old. i was part of that movement, not only the united states but all over the world. thank you very much. >> thank you for your comment. is there anyone else on- >> no more callers. >> okay. now we'll move to comments from the

council, fallowed by mod staff. anyone from the council have any comments? okay, helen. >> hi. thank you sfmta for the presentation and all your good work around the issue. i know it can be complicated and lot of different interest. curious though, who is that campaign that safety campaign aimed at, the one with the cartoon animals? are we talking about children riding scooters on the sidewalks? >> it's aimed at all riders, so-the graphics are intended to be catchy and eye catching for the younger demographic, but it is really aimed-those are important messages aimed at all riders, so that's the intention and the follow up with the phase 2 is think about how can we continue getting

those messages out in different formats and forums. >> okay. because, my understanding as a parent of young kids is that children on scooters are allowed on the sidewalks, much like the exception for biking on the sidewalk. is that an incorrect understanding among parents in san francisco? >> if we are talking about electric scooters, like powered scooters-squlrks we are not. >> you are talking kick scooters? >> yeah, kids don't ride a motor scooters. >> the kick scooters are separate and apart. we are talking about the electric powered scooters so on the images we put in the battery back to make it clear these are the electric powered scooters and often the state law gives the maximum speed limit of 15 miles an hour, but a lot of those go faster, so that is what we are talking about with the campaign.

>> okay, because i did notice you made the distinction of motorized scooters, which in my opinion i like to see any future ad campaigns aimed at the adult 20 something male who i see riding on the sidewalk on motorized scooters speeding in san francisco. i don't know if there has been any analysis of who is fined or stopped in any of the enforcement activities, but i think that's our demographic of who needs to get the message, if we are looking at what people are seeing on the streets. >> thank you. >> sure. >> thank you. >> alex, any comments? >> yes. thank you.

couple questions for you kate and mona. one is that, i notice you give some numbers with--if there is any relationship-do you guys have those data or just --that is one question. the second question i have is that, with enforcement, this is a

tricky subject to discuss is that--they can not stop using scooters, but again, talking about enforcement, there is a thing that we can do for some san francisco to enforce the law. i just want to ask you to touch on how mta

--enforcing the rules with regards to users. the last thing is about the meeting on these two companies-i know that --15 miles per hour, but i just want to know from the status and analysis how many of those are--

not only riding on sidewalks, but leaving them in the sidewalk. >> okay. great. thank you. taking notes to make sure i got the questions. >> thank you. >> thank you. so, those are great questions. i'll start with the big issue that you brought up about private scooters and that you are spot on in that mta has very little enforcement authority over private scooter riders and that is why we are focusing on safety campaign and getting the messaging out as educational efforts and so that's really important to us, and then also enforcement manager who has been before you in the past, phil my colleague had a relationship with sfpd and we work in collaboration with sfpd because sfpd is the

proper authority to stop private scooter rider if they are engaging in illegal activities such as riding on the sidewalk or such as riding faster then 15 miles an hour, and so mona shared some of the statistics that we receive from sfpd and mta has a work order with sfpd that includes a type of work and you notice that there is a lot of education happening from sfpd. they want to stop the behavior, not necessarily issue a citation, and so our mechanisms for dealing with private riders are to collaborate with sfpd to get out the safety messages and just to continue getting the word out. we did actually bridge some of the hard copies of the safety campaign postcards. mona mentioned we had postcards. we do have hard copies and we are making sure when mta staff is going out and

doing community outreach events that they have a supply of those postcards that they can get the word out as well, and for access, we have all the information that is linked on our blog with all the same safety messaging, so that's available online. in terms of the data, i think you asked about the data, and we do-i mentioned in the presentation, we have a number of dashboards that are publicly available, and so mta staff can issue citations to scooter share companies for improper parking, which we do and then can issue citations to the companies when the riders are riding on the sidewalk or riding improperly and so i will look-i think i have- >> that is what i was trying to ask is, if you have

any numbers of those data in hand about how many of those are citations right now and what to do about it. >> okay. yes, i do have some numbers. i'm looking at a presentation the mta staff gave at the mta board meeting in april when we requested the permit term extension so at that time when we looked at a snapshot of the program from july 2021 through march 2023, there had been a little over 3 million trips provided in the scooter share program. the have been all most 19,000 citations issued and all most 11,000 311 complaints

about the scooter share programs so that gives a sense of the 3 million trips, 19 thousand suitations rchlt . these are infractions administrateb in nature. they are not moving violations, but this is for improper parking for the most part, some improper riding issued to the company and the complaints are about little less then 11,000. so, that gives you-i will look at the presentation. i think i might have a little bit more-let me see what else i have, if you still are interested. >> i think it would be good to the public to know. >> i found it. you ready? yeah. okay. so, about 18 thousand impaurp parking citations issued. the fines that represents a little over

$2 million in fines. the fine for improper parking was hundred dollars per citation from july 2021 through february 2022, and then in march 2022 it increased to $150. these will look different now. the mta recently established a fine incentive program to -we are interested in the devices moved quickly because if they are blocking an accessible path of travel that is a certain so we are lowering citation amounts or allowing the permitees to pay less in citations if they need certain thresholds to move the devices more quickly. back to the numbers, for improper riding, sfmta started issuing those citations to the permitees starting march 2022,

mid-march 2022. it took a long time to figure out how to establish the authority for mta to issue those citations and so-is that the bell? >> no. go ahead. [laughter] go ahead. >> okay. >> continue. >> okay. if you need to go quicker- >> no. go ahead. >> okay. >> you got time. >> okay. so, about 850 improper riding citations had been issued by the mta during that period, so from march 2022 to march 2023 representing about $125 thousand in fines and again, those were for a certain time period. those citations are now $500 per citation. >> good job. >> yeah. i think does that answer all your questions? >> no, couple more.

didn't you make a note-my question? >> yep, you had a question about the data on the tickets, which i think we just covered. private users and enforcement. you had a question about the two companies and the 15 mile per hour maximum and if we have demographics on like who's doing the infraction. >> yes. >> no, because mta issues the citation to the companies themselves, not to the individuals riding, so we don't collect that type of information. >> i guess my last follow-up question, the last question i have just want to ask about the companies-we have two companies right now lime and-if

there are these companies are repeating --what's the-what does mta have --i think mta should think about any--if the company is repeatedly--especially

when it comes to accessibility and those devices on the streets. >> yeah, it is really important and we do validate the data and we do have a really top notch data analytics team internal that mona is part of as well, mona chui who is presenting with me today, and they built a lot of tools for our enforcement team on the street and they also built tools for the permitees, and so through the use of these tools and online apps, when the companies move the devices they submit it into the app and so then we can track, so that does happen. there is a lot of automation in the system we built over the permit term. >> i guess my question is, what do you guys--when it

comes to renew the contract? if the companies is repeating the-the policy of the rules- >> i see. what other further disciplinary action like if the companies are consistently out of compliance? >> yeah. >> we are trying-we have a lot of enforcement, 6 in the toolbelt and adding incentives- >> what if you dont want to terminate the company? >> no, if there is a bad actor that is really egregious we would, and there are tools in the permit terms and conditions so there is the ability for the

mta to samarally suspend so if we had a company running rough-shot and it was danger to public health and safety to like the worst level, we could immediately pull the permit and then there is also progressive discipline, so there is the opportunity to revoke a permit. to samarally suspend and revoke. at this point we have two that are very engaged. we meet with them biweekly and they are interested in providing good service and work on rider accountability so we feel we are adding more incentives and we are seeing improvements in the service. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> testing. thank you. okay. thank you. those are great questions alex. very

important. i have one quick thing to add. so, for the campaign, i see no sidewalk riding. the speed limit. don't double ride, and parking, where to park the scooter. has any consideration been put into making sure or educating the users to possibly take note to the traffic signals as they fly through them? especially the ones in the middle-mid-block crossings, like as in the one i always cross at market street between 7th and 8th as i'm specifically crossing and scooter are just flying through

that mid-block crosswalk there. it seems there is absolutely no regard for traffic signals at that point. >> that is a great point. glad you brought that up. that's been a location of interest for us and we actually discussed that with sfpd and we are engaging in dialogue prior to the pandemic about doing some kind of outreach activity, safety messages at that specific location for the very reason you mentioned and then the pandemic came along and things went crazy. we have started reviving that conversation internally at mta and making notes here today and i think that would be-might be a great one for phase 2 of our safety campaign and if there's anyone who would like to participate with us like those real world experiences, i think will be really helpful, because for-i think some of

the riders, there is self-interested like we all are and to ride in what feels the safest place to them and may not be mindful of how their actions are impacting others, so having those real world stories to bring the safety messages home, i think will be really important. >> fantastic, i appreciate that. i think this brings us to the end of our time. my goodness, how could i forget the mod comments, mayor office of disability? >> it is okay, i will be brief. nicole bohn. sorry. i are think is my mic on now? okay, thank you very much. this is nicole bohn speaking, mayor office of disability. thank you kate and colleagues for being here today. as the council knows and kate

knows, very personal issue for me due to my own injury and so thank you to the council for continually bringing visibility to this topic and helping kate and everyone be held accountable and also do more, which we have been so thank you. and i will also support sheri's comments in that the mid-market crossing, which is right across from the civic center bart elevator and also home to the lighthouse and mayor office on disability, definitely still a issue. also with the bikeicals bicycles by the way, it may be time to re-educate the bicyclists especially during heavy commute

times where it can be really tricky as more of us are thankfully returning to offices. i just want to express the mayor office on disability support for any other kind of public psa kind of messaging. we have found that the shared spaces psa is very well received. thank you to council members madrid and albers for starring in the video. it has really been effective. that leads to my question before we break which is, what are some of the-do you know yet what some of the indicators will be that this messaging you are rolling out is working? and what measures are you going to be using towards that? thanks. >> thank you. so, noted again on the mid-market

issue. i will bring this back to the team. in advance in prepping for the meeting we were anticipating the question of how do we measure effectiveness. it is not easy to measure on this type of safety campaign, so i think that is a question we'll just have to keep noodling on internally. we feel like it is so important to get the word out even if at this point there is not a direct methodto measure. we would look at different vision zero data, crash data but we couldn't tie it back to the safety campaign and trying to target a survey to people that may have seen the saturday messages and then change behavior just gets really tricky, so at this point we don't have the perfect method to measure, and we are committed to continue

doing this and continue thinking how do we measure effectiveness, but thankfully because we have such talented staff internally, mona and her artistic skills and graphic design and our communications team, it doesn't cost us a whole lot to put a campaign like this together. >> thanks for that. again, i want to express my support. i really do hope we can figure out how we can figure out if it is working. i think that measure is really important, so just to emphasize that again and last thing i'm wondering if you wouldn't mind if you have it, if you could just say for the public, where that dashboard link is in case people want to look for it. >> okay. i'm looking to my colleague sitting here and he's going to take a quick look. i know we in the last presentation we gave

in november we included in the link to the dashboard, so we could-we all happy to resend it, but i'm 95 percent sure we included it in the presentation to the mayor disability council in november. >> if you have it and can reread it, that would be awesome. >> sfmta.com/shared/mobili ty/dashbo ards. >> thank very much. thank you. okay. thank you very much. that's the end of my comments. >> thank you so much. thank you again mona and kate. it was a great presentation. we look forward hearing from you now. it is now time for a break. we are going to take a-we stick to the 15 minute break?

>> right on time. >> i was thinking that too. if we can make it in 10. >> everybody, be back at 2:25. let's go for it. thank you so much. [10 minute recess]

[meeting reconvened]

>> hello everybody. welcome back to the mayor's disability council meeting. hope you had a good break. okay, we are going to continue with a presentation. this is a discussion item about the active communities plan. this is a update on their outreach. the disability outreach, and to present this is going to be christopher kidd, from the san francisco municipal transportation agency. hey christopher, how are you? >> hi, good afternoon. thank you everyone for having me at mdc today. >> one second. go ahead chris, sorry i wanted to make sure we could see you and we can. sorry about that. go ahead, please. >> thank you nicole. good afternoon to everyone. commissioners and

public attending. my name is christopher kidd a complete streets planning with sfmta and i'm the project manager for the active communities plan, which is san francisco first city wide bikeplan update since 2009, which is quite a long time. i did present at mdc back in november but i wanted to come back to you all to share what we have been doing since then and what is coming up, and really engage with the mdc on how we can best bring the disability community into this discussion and create a plan that's really representative of their needs. so, i have a presentation i can put up on screen. there we go. full screen here, as i present. so, today i wanted to give a update on the

active communities plan, what it is and what we have done. as mentioned the active community plan is the first city wide bike plan update since 2009, that means it will represent a 10 to 15 year investment plan for the agency. once it is adopted. not just infrastructure but policies and programming as well. it will include a new proposed network for what we call the active transportation network. we call that for a specific reason and in this plan differs from a traditional bike plan in two specific ways. the first is we want to really be inclusive of all devices that can use the bike network sot that means not just scooters and e scooters and skateboards and e skateboards but power chairs and adaptive bikes and adaptive scooters and other electric device said that can

improve mobility for people with disability. the other way this is different then a traditional bike plan, we are trying to center our work within equity priority communities in san francisco and communities that had historical bad relationship with bicycle and bike projects and we want to insure that we are really centering the needs of those communities to help bridge all the gaps and barriers they experience to active transportation. this is a plan that will be adopted in the spring of 2024. we have a caltrans planning grant for this project with matching funds from proposition k from the sfcta. >> christopher, this is nicole, i'm sorry to interrupt, if the control room can move the interpreter bubble to the right. we had a request for that.

>> thanks so much nicole, i can wait until that is taken care of. >> i think that is better. i think so. >> great. >> please continue. thank you. >> thank you. i also want to briefly touch how the active community plan fits into larger city goals and projects. so, right now the city is in a process of developing a update to its transportation element, which is a piece of the city general plan, which is supposed to dictate the policy for how the city is run. the active community plan will once adopted fit inside that transportation element which we'll look at transportation in a comprehensive level for all modes and we have a lot of work that has gone on feeding into the active community plan. first is work on connect sf the long range visioning multimodal transportation including the transportation study and also the investment plan that the sfcta put together for

2050. we also have vision zero the policy to try to achieve zero serious and fatal collisions within the city and that is part of the action strategy the mta updates every 2 years and also have adopted city of san francisco climate action plan and the complementing roadmap is how sfmta contributess to the goals so those things set the stage or feed into what the active community plan needs to accomplish and represent. we have existing programs and guidelines, specific to disability community that we want to make sure we are calling out and we are lifting up and incorporate into the work and the first is the guidelines for accessible building blocks for bike facilities which is a series of design guide lines to insure bike facilities can retain accessible curb space for people with disabilities and especially when we

design parking protective bike lanes we do so in a way that accommodate access and vehicle loading needs. we also have as you heard just from kate just now our scooter share permitting and program work, including our mechanisms to enforce better behavior, but also to introduce adaptive scooter programming. i lastly, we have our borp program the adaptive bike share program made permanent and now going to be available in both golden gate park and along great highway which we are excited about and hope to expand in the coming years. to briefly go over the plan goals for the active community plan, first foremost advance equity and increase mobility for those the most sus ceptable for transportation challenges. also support safety for all the road users

specifically through the vision zero work. support climate action. we have our goal of 80 percent low carbon trills by 2030 and the city of san francisco climate action and the active transportation network can contribute towards that goal. we also want to support access for all residents and so that is a wide range of needs where people experience different kinds of barriers to access the active transportation network, whether comfort or education or affordability or parking. there is a lot of different barriers. we also need to deliver real results. we have urgency behind our work and we need to create a better safer more accessible city and we can't have a plan on the shelf. and lastly, we need to work on developing new approaches. we need to figure how we can develop and deliver projects more quickly and effectively, but we also need to develop new approaches how we work with communities in

developing projects that people feel are really supportive of their needs and their values. along those lines, we have commitment working in the equity priority communities. we developed our grant application, in partnership with 5 different community based organizations and equity priority communities and have them inform our work from the ground up and they are equal partners in this work and these communities we are working within are in bayview hundreder point, the mission district, outer mission, exsels polk, tenderloin, western addition fillmore, soma and outreach work through one of the subconsultant interethnicu. just as brief- >> christopher, hi-sorry, if you could please slow down just a tad that would help the interpreters. >> absolutely. >> thank you so much. >> thank you so much.

so, to reiterate what the active community plan represents and will produce is it create a 10 to 15 year investment plan focus on 4 areas. the first is a new network so a new proposed network for active transportation facilities, bike lanes, protected bike lanes, neighbor ways, slow streets and include recommendsations for parking and facilities. not just bike parking but also for other types of devices. do we need to provide charging facilities for electric devices? how do we create supporting facilities so people have access to those options? we also need to create programmatic recommendations around things like education, around creating supportive events like things like sunday streets, and partnerships with other city agencies and organizations within different communities. lastly, we also will create a set of policy recommendations, and that is for where we can use

and leverage policy to help improve people access to active transportation, things like how we do regulation of our scooter share and bike share permits. how we conduct transportation demand management. how we work with developer jz development to provide facilities and investment to help improve active transportation in the communities. and so to briefly touch over what we have been doing so far, we launched our public outreach process in january of this year. we'll do public outreach engagement through january next year, and to date we reached-at this point probably closer to 2,000 residents in this slide it says 1500. we also have a commitment to all our project materials being available in english, chinese, spanish and filipino. so, in addition to that, complementing that, the outreach work we have

done bethe disability community so far is we have representatives from the mayor's office on disability on our technical advisory committee which meets about every 2 months to inform how we do the project work. a presentation at the mayor disability council november last year and in march we held two separate events, one with light house for the blind and one with the senior disability working group to get direct input from the disability community. in addition to that, just by matter of who showed up our work with community partners and equity priority communities had very strong representation from folks with disability. so through those events we were able to get really good direct input from people on the specific challenges they face in those communities. in addition to our public outreach, we also done a wide

range of analysis. the link on the top right of this slide goes to a interactive web map that we have that shows off a bunch of different analysis we have done. we is been able to map out today's existing conditions for the bike network and also where every bike rack is located throughout the city and a few other things. we've conducted a analysis to analyze the perceived level of comfort or stress someone experiences on every street in san francisco, which we have been able to map for every street, but also for mapping for today's bike network. we have done analysis of mode share of where people are living, who commute to work by bike or scooter. we also have done an analysis of collisions involving bicycles or scooters. the map in the bottom left shows a color coded the different types of collisions that we mapped. the

blue representing bicycle car collisions, the green representing what we call a solo fall when a bike or scooter rider falls off of their device and injures themselves, and the pink representing collisions with pedestians. in addition to that, we have been able to map where unreported collisions are taking place because we get data from sf general hospital for collisions that are not reported through a police report and because of hipaa rules we are not able to show those locations exactly, but been able to mape the neighborhoods in which the collisions are taking place most frequently. we also looked at volume data for micro mobility users so for e-scooter and e-bike users map the streets they ride on most frequently as well as

which bike share stations have the most activity. lastly, we have been able to model trips for people riding on bikes and scooters and looking at within the city network, within the bike network, where are the most trips taking place and where are they not. and so- >> christopher, this is nicole, one last time i think-if you wouldn't mind very briefly, because not everybody can see the colors on the map, can you just speak to the concentration a little bit? it looks like a lot of the activity is concentrated to me in the northeast of the city, but if you could speak to that a little that would be helpful. >> absolutely. for the network analysis map and i highly encourage those who are able to explore the map online, because there is many more ways to look at the analysis and

data, but yes we certainly have seen that for the model data we have for trips, is we see a really high concentration of trips in and around the downtown core in the mission and soma. we also see a high volume of trips on streets like jfk and golden gate park, and there are some kind of-some streets in the city southwest that also have comparatively high volumes, but we largely see fairly low ridership volumes in the city south and southeast neighborhoods. i think that that largely corresponds to neighborhoods that are relatively flat and neighborhoods relatively close to downtown. so, last to talk about what we are doing right now, we are currently in what

we call, phase 2 of a four phase outreach process for the calendar year. we have a survey that is out and live right now that will be available through july 31. we have a link here on this slide and also available on the website and i can share it through the chat on this meeting. we have since the start of may, because we are now in mid-may, we have over 30 outreach events on the calendar across the city. these are events that are both online and in person, and really what we are seeking is to understand people's needs, their barriers and the amount of comfort they need to feel safe riding a bike, a scooter, using a wheeled device and so really we are focusing on understanding what the people need to be able to bike scoot or roll more and what type of streets make

people feel comfortable or safe enough to use active transportation. the type of things we are asking to identify needs and barriers is we are asking if people need better information like more wayfinding signage, or access to route apps on things like phones or computers. we also are asking people about different avents and celebrations. things like sunday streets or this is a photo of the norcal ride with 400 folks in a big group ride that started in the mission. we also have questions about education and enforcement and do people need additional education opportunities or information about biking or scooting? do people need more enforcement and if that enforcement related to car drivers, related to scooter users, bike riders. we also have questions about parking needs because parking can be a

very critical barrier to being able to use active transportation. i think of people living in sro housing in the tenderloin where they don't have room to store a bicycle in their apartment, and if they don't have overnight parking option, they don't have access to active transportation. we also have questions about affordability and access. are people able to afford these different types of devices? would they want to use them if they could afford them, if there was a rebate program, would people want to buy a e bike or sit down electric scooter? we want to have questions how we design our facilities and it could be as simple as putting a scooter stencil on a bike lane but could be something much more complicated and inclusive how we redesign our bike facilities so that they can be inclusive and welcoming to the

broadest range of potential users. i think that i would think many people would agree that the current bike network is not friendly or accessible to much of the disability community, but i think that there is a opportunity through this plan for us to think about what does a friendly accessible network look like for people in the disability community where they feel safe and welcome and invited and included in those type of facilities. to that effect we have on our survey the opportunity for people to rank and rate different types of bike facilities that are in san francisco today where people can rate their comparative level of comfort or stress and using those different types of streets and facilities and really what we want to do is to understand what are the types of streets that people would actually be willing to ride on so

we can recommend those type of projects, because the last thing we want to do is build a bike lane no one uses. in terms of what is next for our project, we are in the middle of phase 2 where we are looking to get input on people's needs and barriers and the relevant comfort they experience on different types of streets. in the fall of this year, starting in september we will be bringing draft recommendations to the public, so a draft network, but also draft programmatic and policy recommendations and we will spend all the fall into the winter working with the public around how do we change and update those recommendations to reflect people's needs. in the winter this year we will bring our draft plan to the public, and we will then be in the spring next year be moving that draft plan to our final plan for adoption with the sfmta

board. in terms of speaking with mdc today, i think we want to really get input from you all about first of all how we can make active transportation more inclusive and accessible and welcoming to people with disability, and especially how we can design the active transportation network to be a asset to people who have a disability. i think we also want to get input on how we can overcome other barriers to participation for people with disability. it is not just the network, it is everything else around being able to access and use active transportation, and we also want to get feedback how we can continue engaging residents. i know that there has been a lot of change in turnover with some of the key organizations with folks like fda and lighthouse, and i think one other thing that i don't have on this bullet point list is we are also

convening a what we call a policy working group of members of the public to help inform and get into the deep details of the active communities plan and we would really love to have representation from the disability community within that group. our attempt to solicit folks for that have not been successful yet but anybody attending the meeting today who have interested or have recommendations we have our first meeting next thursday and will be honored to have somebody represent this community in that working body. and so, with that, that covers our presentation for today. i would be thrilled to take questions and comments from you all, and i would be happy to leave up the question slide in case people need to refer to

it. >> okay. thank you very much christopher. at this point, we are moving to public comments. first in person if there are any, which i don't think there are, and now to--we do have public comment? >> we have people in the room. >> we have people in the room! >> thank you marry. >> we will open the discussion for public comment. we'll start with those joining in the room and also go to those joining remotely. for those using a tablet or smart phone webex app click on the three horizontal dot icons and click raise hand. we will recognize you when it is your turn to speak. you may also

use qa feature on the top part of the video after touching the screen. if using a desk top or laptop computer raise hand and q & a icon are at the bottom of the screen. joining by phone, dial star 3 to indicate that you like to make a comment and we are prompt when it is your turn. we'll start with in-person and i don't see anyone in-person, so control room, is there anyone remotely who would like to make a public comment? >> no remote public commenters. >> i think at this time, we'll close public comment for this agenda item and move to comments from the council members. >> okay. any mdc council members that have comment? alex. >> thank you. thank you chris

for coming in and telling us about this. --focusing on key errors in the city. -- people using the scooters or bikes. any ideas on that? the second thing is, when it comes to

information on what types of sidewalks or devices that people might have or want to use, and how do you guys-how do you study them and have some amazing walking groups, but are there any things that you can share with us today and the last thing is, i would offer my time to do-to join you when it comes to walking

group, so you can please pass that information to me and to some of the council members might be interested in that. go ahead. >> thank you. yes, i will absolutely share through nicole and debbie information for our policy working group, and if there is someone able to participate from the mdc that will be fantastic, that would be wonderful. i think there were two ort questions other questions for our plan for information and what we are doing with devices that might be on the sidewalk. i think one of the things we really want to pursue through active communities plan is

how we create the type of network where scooter riders and other people using devices on the sidewalk feel safe and comfortable enough to use the network instead, and part of that work means we need to look how we design facilities in a different way, because scooters are very different from bicycles. they have much smaller wheels, people end up having different sight lines because they are higher up or lower down, depending on the device they are using, so they can see things differently and they are also more or less visible to other road users. these are all things we need to think about when we design the bike facilities so they can be not just safe, but also comfortable and intuitive for use and so i think that's one element, but we also need to look at what are other enforcement mechanisms to make

sure people are behaving in safe and appropriate ways, and i think some of the work kate is doing speaks to that, but there is also a discussion to be had around what other enforcement we need to be looking at to create not just safe bike lanes but safe sidewalks as well. and then, if you wouldn't mind repeating the first question, i think it had something to do with families? >> so, the first question was, what is your plan when it comes to how-bike lane or scooter lanes when it comes to

neighborhoods? areas you mentioned like in the residential- >> i see. >> areas that i'm sure people use the bikes and that. we don't hear any--family residential areas. >> thank you. so, in addition to the work we are doing in our target communities with our 6 neighborhoods with our community partners, we are also doing city wide outreach work, so we are doing outreach work and events in every supervisor district across the city, and

we definitely want to make sure that we are reaching as broadly as possible across the city and when we do create our plan recommendations in september, that will be inclusive of the whole city. that won't just be for our target neighborhoods, that will be recommendations for the whole city and we want to continue engaging across the city on how those recommendations grow and change and better reflect community needs. >> we don't have any idea how to go about residential areas at this point? am i correct? >> well, we've been doing a number of outreach events in residential areas . we have been present at many farmers markets across the city. we have been organizing group rides in different parts of the city, and we have been

doing partnership events with different organizations and community groups to give presentations in different areas of the city. >> thank you. the last question i have is, when it comes to sidewalks, i think it would be good for how to engage the public to make sure that people using devices have some-- need to move to the side but be cautious on the safety and having someone with

wheelchairs or with a cane allowing them to have room to pass. i don't know how to explain it, but-i hope that makes sense? >> yes, i understand, yes. we do need to work on-i think it can be very scary when you are passed closely by somebody moving class. not just carry, but dangerous and think we need to focus on how we create the conditions where that doesn't happen and also work on how we educate people to be aware of that. >> thank you. >> thank you alex. this is sheri, we are running time, but i have a quick-this is more a observation that just came to

me. if i understand this correctly, there are scooter riders that have fear when they are riding in the bike lanes, is that something you said christopher? >> i think that's something that we heard often. i think the other thing we heard is that due to pavement quality with those smaller wheels that people end up prefering to ride on the sidewalk. >> therefore, they ride on the sidewalk where it is not-they are not allowed to ride on the sidewalk. okay. you know what, in my opinion, maybe-they shouldn't ride the scooters. if they don't feel safe riding in the streets, then what right do they have to put people in danger when there is children, when there are people with disabilities, when there are seniors, what right do they have to go flying down a sidewalk and put pedestrians in danger and that is my opinion. they should not ride the scooters at all.

thank you. with that, i thrink we'll move to the mayor's office on disability staff, nicole. do you have any comments? >> i do. that is a hard act to follow. thank you for coming christopher, we really appreciate it. the mayor office on disability is part of the technical advisory group on this effort and we appreciate being included, which we have been from the beginning, which is nice, so i want to say thank you for thinking of us first, instead of after problems arise. it is very refreshing for us so thank you christopher. the survey is live now, correct? >> that's correct. and it will be open through july 31. >> i'm sure yousent this to us before, but if you could along with your policy working group information, resnd the information about the survey. i want to make sure that we

refresh and send it out again to our distribution, if you wouldn't mind. >> absolutely. >> that would be great. and then i would say, in terms of other things that kind of come into the mayor's office on disability around this issue, there is kind of three topics that just mention briefly. one is there's a lot of desire for some sort of return to a topographical map that helps different pedestrians wheelchair riders and other folks to understand what the hills and terrain is like in san francisco so i want to voice that as something mod heard and heard it again recently. also, desire for -i know this has come up, accessible biking in the bike lanes are not really wide enough. you do have

accessible bicycle to use it, so i know that has already come up but wanted to say that again publicly. lastly this and this might be newer, we are anticipating that finally after many years the public right of way accessibility guidelines will be adopted during the administration. we are getting very close. however, unfortunately the guidelines don't address getting to the curb in multiple conflicts between bike lanes and curb ramps and parking and so i just wanted-i know that we've mentioned that we are using getting to the curb principles, but wondering if you can briefly speak to how we are reminding everyone in the city that that's a important priority for us, because unfortunately the pro ag isn't going to help in terms

of a guideline that comes out. something we still need to work on federally. if you have any thoughts on that or willing to bring it back to your group, that would be great. thanks again for coming. that's all. >> thank you. >> thank you nicole. thank you christopher for coming today. thank you for your presentation and we look forward to more updates. >> thanks so much. >> okay, moving on. next on the agenda is the sda advocacy budget agenda in advance of june 25 hearing date for the public to comment on the proposed city budget of the board of supervisors. we have the senior disability action report and of course to present that is jessica lehman. >> thank you so much.

i am honored to be here. i'm jessica lehman, she her, executive director of disability action. there i am. >> (indiscernible) >> my microphone isn't on. can you hear me now? >> (indiscernible) >> the captioner is hearing me it looks like. okay. wonderful. so, i'll start over, jessica lehman, she, her the executive director of senior disability action. i am going to be leaving my position in about a month. one of my colleagues was going to come today and isn't feeling well but i know that senior disability action has worked for years with the mayor disability council and mayor office on disability so definitely looking forward to continuing that with other folks. so, i just wanted to start by the first

slide says senior disability budget ask. it has my name and the senior disability action logo. alright. just wanted to share a little bit about sda. recent work and wins. we have worked very hard and wanted to particularly thank the mayor disability council for your support in our work to insure remote access would continue to be a possibility for board of supervisors meetings. this is so important to members of our community who can't come in person, not only because of continued covid risk, but for all the reasons that it has always been a issue, transportation, health, a variety of things that come up that mean disabled people can participate more effectively own the phone then in person. so, we are really glad that is continuing in the board of supervisors we do need to continue to insure remote access in all of the other meetings that happen

in the city. we also recently did a resolution at the board of supervisors for free wifi in city of san francisco and they brought in the supervisors brought in executives from some of the major internet service providers working to hold them accountable because of the money they make in the city. and lastly, masking is one of the other issues we continue to work on. recently masking ended in most healthcare settings including in san francisco putting disable people and older people at risk. just want to share those. on the right side is a picture-i was thinking i remembered it was like the bottom third of the screen that needed to be blank for captions and asl but think it changed. this is a picture of a bunch of sda staff and board and members at our general meetings which we have every month.

want to always invite seniors and people with disability to attend. this was a hybrid people some in person. this is us eating outside where it was safer and then we also had a option for people to join by zoom. moving to the budget ask for this year. these are actually all about housing this year, because it is such a huge issue for seniors and people with disabilities in san francisco. i just realize-it isn't a typo. we are asking the city to put in $500 thousand for a disability operating subsidy pilot, and we are really excited about this. so, seberal years ago we worked with program organizations to create senior operating subsidies, which is when you take a unit in what is called senior affordable housing, but we know many units that are called affordable are

not actually affordable to people living on ssi or social security or very low income. the idea of senior operating subsidies is to further subsidize those units to bring them down to 15 percent of ami or 25 percent of ami. this program has been very effective in the last few years and making units that are deeply affords that people can afford. we dont have enough so you see we are also asking for additional $4.5 million for senior operating subsidies. disability operating subsidies is a brand new program and so folks at the city often said, we can't do this because we don't have buildings that are set aside for affordable housing for people with disabilities the way we have for seniors. we had two answers to that. one is that there is no reason that we couldn't take other units that are set aside as affordable whether or not for people with disabilities and bring them

down to a level deeply affordable and require somebody who is at that ssi level. we are not talking just about accessible housing, we are talking about people with mental health disabilitiess, people with chronic illness, a variety of disabilities where people need housing at a very deep subsidy to affords it. the second way we know disability operating subsidies can work is in a building where there are units designated for people with disabilities and we are excited about the civic center i imagine you all heard about. a new development the ground breaking is happening in a couple weeks i just heard. near city hall. the kelsey is it name of the non profit housing partner that worked out this very creative way to do what they call disability forward housing. and so, we talked to them about the cost and so $500 thousand would cover 19 units to be

brought down to 15 percent and 25 percent ami. we are pretty confident that if we can get this program started, everyone will see that it is going to be effective and we know we need it, so we hope it will lead to more. we are also asking for $3.6 million more for portable rental subsidies for seniors and people with disabilities. portal rental subsidies mean that somebody can use it not just in a certain building, but wherever they need. if somebody is in housing and they are having trouble paying it, maybe there is a rent increase, they can get a subsidy and if they move they can take that subsidy with them if they need to. and this is the same ask as homeless emergency service provider association who we work closely with. this is a program that has been very effective but every time subsidies are made available they get use up because the

need is so huge, and we know once people have a subsidy, they stay there. people with disabilities who are living on ssi are very rarely able to get off that subsidy and pay market rate rent or even what is called affordable rent. so we need more funding for that. lastly, we are asking for additional $5 million for sro elevator replacement. this has been ongo issue elevators in sro go out all the time. we know we have a highly disproportionate number of seniors and people with disabilities and particularly people with some kind of mobility impairment or chronic illness where it makes climbing stairs challenging. living in sro. we not only need to repair elevators, but they are so old and this happens so often they need to be replaced and updated. and there was $10 million allocated last year that has not yet been spent to replace these elevators, and so that money needs to be spents

but we dont want to stop there, we need to be adding money every year. those are our priority housing asks. i also want to highlight other asks for disability and senior communities. community alliance of disability advocates is echoing the senior disabilities action ask as well as the hespa for $3.6 million for people with hiv and aids. there is a bunch of separate pots of subsidies for different communities. this is critical. funding for mental health and safer consumption sites. i apologize i don'ts have a dollar amounts, but that is really important. and then, we are asking for $500 thousand to develop end ableism campaign. folkerize excited about this. i don't have to tell this group that we need to do a lot of work to end ableism in san francisco and everywhere, and we have been talking

about the reframing aging campaign that the department of disability and aging services lead a few years ago, and we have been talking about kind of a corollary building a end ableism campaign and we got a lot of ideas but public awareness and events, and so we are looking for fundsing to get that started. also, the coalition of agency service the elderly is asking for $400 thousand for behavioral health services at community centers like senior centers. we know that mental health issues are continuing to grow, inquluding among seniors and people with disabilities so we need to recognize that, and fund it. and then i also want to mention that senior disability action is part of the budget justice coalition, which is a coalition of a lot of different groups of people from marginalized communities, not only people with disabilities and seniors, lgbtq people, people of color,

low wage workers, et cetera et cetera, and the idea of the budget justice coalition is we know this is a rich city and we are not going to allow one group needs to be pitted against another but we are putting forth a vision of a society where we can all have our needs met and that is the kind of society we need and so senior disability action also supports the overall ask of the budget justice coalition and we hope you will as well. and i'll stop for questions or comments. >> wow jessica, that's a lot. beautiful stuff. okay, at this point we are going to move to public comment. mary. >> comments for the public for this item for those joining in person and remotely, if using a 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 to speak. you may also use q & a feature in webex webinar to comment. it is located on the top part of the video after touching the screen. if you are using a desktop or laptop computer, raise hand and q & a icons are at the bottom of the screen. if joining by phone, dial star 3 to indicate you like to make a comment and we'll prompt you when it is your turn to speak. we'll start with in-person comments and i don't believe we have anyone joining in person. control room, is there anyone waiting to comment remotely? >> no public comment remotely. >> thank you. turn to you chair. >> okay. do we have any mdc members that like to make a comment? okay. alex.

>> thank you. thank you jessica for coming and i'm very sorry you are leaving. we would like to know where you are going and what is your next step? before you take-i just have a couple of questions regarding the presentation today--i just am curious on any updates on--maybe you

can enlighten us of that information. >> thank you, sorry i can't be at the microphone and see alex at the same time. first, as far as where i'm going and what am i doing next? i don't know yet. i wanted to be able to really focus on leaving senior and disability action as well as i could, and to not be kind of having to put time into what is next. fortunate i'm able to take a little bit of time. i will still be around, very very committed to fighting for change in senior and disability communities, so you won't get rid of me. and then as far as updates from last year, that is a great point and i wish i thought to include what did we win last year and why are we asking for the same things. so, i don't have those figures in front of me, but we have gotten some additional

money all most every year for senior operating subsidies and because of our work with mayor office of housing and community development, they were actually able to seek and secure additional funding from the state level for senior operating subsidies. portable rental subsidies we have gotten small increase every year so we are just trying to keep growing that pot, and then mentioned for the sro elevator last year was the first year we had a big win getting the mayor to recognize how important that was and set money aside for elevator replacement and capital improvements in general, but disappointed the money hasn't been spent. happy to share details later on the amounts of fundsing secured last year. there were also wins around funding for digital equity training and some other things.

>> can we follow-up on the elevators--it hasn't been touched, but are there anything that you thought of from last time that--elevators are not working from the last time you came to us? >> i'm not sure i fallowed. >> i guess my question is, the last time you came here there were complaints regarding the elevators, and you got $10 million to fix them

and that $10 million hasn't been touched, so i guess the question is, if it hasn't been touched, are there any issues when it comes to accessibility on elevators? >> okay, so if i understood right, i'll tell you a little bit, tell me if this is helpful. the $10 million was actually-it is not go toog senior disability action. i should have clarified. none of this is funding we request to go to our organization, it is money we are asking- (indiscernible) >> i know. >> and so, our understanding is there was work to figure which department it was going to come out of and been going through the process in the department of homelessness and supportive housing. i think there is some

progress, but one challenge is that it is through the homeless stability fund oversight board, maybe recommendations and how the mayor chooses to spend money doesn't always follow what some of the other groups intend, and so it is something that we are continuing to fight. we continue to hear about huge access issues with elevators and sro and people are frustrated and are it is very hard and i imagine this is what you are getting at-the work is about bringing together senior and people with disabilities people directly effected who know what we need and changes we need in the community, so it is wonderful when the city responds and people feel like okay, that work was heard and it hatered mattered and when we don't see the change and can't say this building is now more accessible to people who live

there, it is very hard for people to believe that the city cares about them and that they should keep fighting. i hope that city decision makers start to recognize that. >> thank you. thank you for the clarification and sorry you are leaving, but we hope to work with you in other capacities. >> thank you so much commissioner. >> thank you alex. helen, would you like to take a question? >> thank you. thank you, appreciate all your good work over the years and your collaboration with this body and the mayor's office on disability. thank you for your presentation today. how can the mayor disability council help get your budget

request approved? how can we be of assistance? >> what a wonderful question. there are a lot of different ways if you are willing to write a letter to the mayor and board of supervisors, encouraging them to fund these things, that would be wonderful. i think honesty inviting us to come today and sharing this is a huge step to invite members of the public to reach out to the mayor and to their supervisors to ask for these things, and i think with some of these-part of it is this is a little more vague, but for you all to continue to talk about the importance of some of these issues. i was talking earlier today about one challenge that we face in terms of housing for people with disabilities is that the department of disability and aging services doesn't build housing and doesn't do

housing policy directly, and then there is the mayor's office of housing and community development and department of homelessness and supportive housing who do all that work around housing, but are not necessarily focused on disabled people and seniors, and don't always understand exactly what our communities need and so i think for you all to be able to keep raising these issues and talking about what disabled people and why it is possible and why it is critical for the city to focus oen them is a huge way to contribute. >> thank you. >> i just want to check with denise. >> this is denise, can you hear me? i'm supposed to be unmuted, but i don't know. >> you are loud and clear. >> sorry, didn't mean to yell. thank you for checking in

sheri. appreciate it. >> okay. okay, so i have a comment. so, this is sheri. some of these things seem so frustrating that why-like with the elevator thing. i'm all most thinking should i start going to elevator school with this $10 million just sitting there, it is like i'll fix them. but i understand now what you just said about where the funds-what department and everything, but and then it makes me think about well, if we are now going to ask for funding for housing for disability-the disability community, well, hopefully their elevators will be working. it just seems very frustrating how things

work or don't work, and-anyway, but i do love the idea and wondering jessica, has it been funded before for the vouchers, the ones that people with disabilities are able to take with them for subsidies when they move? >> yes, so the portable rental subsidies was a pot of funding that we actually first got-gosh, i wont remember the year. it was some time pre-covid. i want to say must have been maybe 2016 or 17. it has been a little while. at first some folks in city departments said, this is not the approp we want to take, we dont think this is an effective way to make sure people have housing, and i get that one of the criticisms that i think we all share is that,

this is money that is essentially going to private landlords and property managers when they are often charging more then they should, but the realty is, we have shown and i think it has been clearly demonstrated that it is an effective way to keep people housed and keeps people off the streets when they can pay their rent and when they know that that subsidy will be there to help them pay their rent. i want to also make a quick comment about elevator school. yes, you should absolutely go to elevator school. i in the last few years have learned far more about the elevator repair world then i ever thought i wanted to, and there are so few companies that do it and so few technicians who are trained in repairing elevators and of course fewer that know how to repair the elevator said built in 1911 and so to have more people more companies,

i keep thinking why don't more people go into this because clearly there is money there. but the other thing is, so, we did a study on conditions facing seniors and people with disabilities in sro that came out in 2012. sound like a really long time ago now, and back then we knew elevator repair and replacement was a huge issue, and for years we couldn't figure what to do, because we knew it was so expensive to replace elevators. it got to a point where we just said, we have to get the city to spend this money. yes it is expensive, but we are worth it. there is no way around it and it is only going to continue to be a issue. i think one role we all play is letting people know first that they there are lot more of us disabled people around then anyone realizes and sometimes things cost a lot to make them accessible and that is

still worth it and that is effective now and decades. what about the new housing will the elevators work? building a elevator now versus trying to repair one from literally a hundred years ago is totally different, so we can be assured that those new elevators will work much more effectively. >> thank you. i just wanted to follow-up one little comment about having a portable voucher. one important aspect to that is, it gives us the ability to choose where we want to live, and not told this is the affordable housing for people with disabilities in this neighborhood on this street in this building, and only these units. any time we

are given the ability to choose is a big within. >> -win. >> thank you for adding that. >> now we move to comments from the mayor's office on disability, nicole. >> hello jessica. thank you for coming today and thank you for the very robust discussion. i wanted to make two-three comments first. one, i have some ideas if the council is interested in how the council might be able to elevate the sro elevator conversation. if that is something the council would want to take on, mod is happy to help facilitate conversations with the right people to do that. many years ago as jessica mentioned, we did have a sro elevator repair

and rebate program that was moderately successful. it did some good things and then because of facilitation changing hands and other issues and it seems like this is one of the many things that just kind of we lost track of it a little during covid. >> a decision was made during the pandemic to get rid of the elevator repair program, knowing people were paying less attention. thank you for reminding us. >> i do think though that there's are ways we can use the council to elevate no punt intended, the elevator program and mod is certainly happy to help with that conversation. before you leave jessica, i really do hope we can

have a conversation about that and see what we can do there. the other thing i want to mention-as you remember i mentioned in the beginning of the report, we had the hearing sponsored by supervisor stefani about the disability and older adult affordable needs assessment report, so a lot of the budget funding ask, i want to point out that a lot of that is also direct recommendation in the city report itself, and so there is a lot between what senior disability action and what disability advocates are asking for that is recommended in that report so i want to continue to encourage the council and senior disability action and your team and your -the shoes that follow yours to really continue to track that, because i think we do

have a opportunity now to really pair up some need and some requests with very concrete things in this very public report that there is a lot of interest in, so i just wanted to mention that as well. and finally, i wanted to say two more things. one is, mayor office on disability, i don't know if your interim leadership has been determined yet, but- >> not yet. >> i encourage senior disability action to continue working with mayor's office on disability. i alluded to this in the hearing regarding the commemoration for judith humann, was it this week? it was a while. it was this week. [laughter] and my point is, not to make light, but my point is, it takes-we need to work

together with disability access as a community from inside the city government and advocates. we need everybody in order to make all of-we need to make work and that is one thing that jessica i think you really understood that in your leadership through your time with us so thank you very much and i hope that this partnership can continue, because it has been really invaluable to me and to the city and just so excited for my other city colleagues to learn even more about senior disability action moving forward and jessica, yes but also jessica and a whole lot of other people working in disability advocacy right now and so thank you and i am excited for the future and you

have my public appreciation and hope that we can continue collaboration. if you want to work with the city that's okay with me. [laughter] anyway, so thank you very much jessica, thank you. >> thank you so much for that director bohn, i really appreciate it and i particularly appreciate your comment about people may often know me from senior disability action, but it is a community organization and we got so many wonderful people not only staff and board but hundreds of community members active in the work, so please reach outd any time if you are not sure who to talk to after i'm gone. they will help you figure it out. thanks so much for having me today. >> thank you for coming. thank you. >> thank you so much. okay. director bohn, do you know if there is any

correspondence this month that needs our attention? >> no, there is not public correspondence for this month. thank you for asking. >> okay. with that being said, at this point we are going to move on to general comments. mary. >> thank you. we'll open the meeting to general public comment. at this time, members of the public may address the council on items of interest to the public 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. reminder that the brown act forbids the council taking action or discussing items not appearing on the posted agenda, including those items raised at public comment. if you like response from the council, please provide your contact information by e-mail to mdc@sfgov.org with subject line mdc comment reply request. or you may call 415-554-6789. at this time we'll open to general public comment to anyone joining us in this hearing room. >> jessica lehman again. i just wanted to make a couple announcements. first, i can't believe i didn't actually mention ways to get involved on budget advocacy, so one is we have a senior

disability university about budget advocacy and if you are interested please e-mail (indiscernible) tuesday afternoon, i 2 or 3 more sessions coming up. tomorrow-sorry, the other thing on the budget is that public comment day, which is one day that is just set aside for public comment on the budget is monday june 26. looking for someone to correct me if that's not the right monday. it is definitely monday. >> that is correct. >> june 26, and we will have talking points about these asks. there are also hearings in advance, feel free to get in touch with any of us if you have questions at sd action.org. i'm not responsible for this, but excited tomorrow is a power soccer tournament in san francisco. we think it might be the first ever power soccer tournament. it is the first at a rec and park

facility. i saw a smile. it is the golden ducks i believe and it is a gene friend recreation center from 10 to 4. i used to pay power soccer. i don't get to play tomorrow but hopefully will see folks there. >> thank you jessica. okay. are there any public comments online? >> we have no public commenters online. >> my goodness. okay. well, we are going to move on to the council. does anyone on the council have any comments or announcements? alex.

helen. denise. sheri. >> no thank you. >> i do not either. so, with that, i need a motion to adjourn. >> so moved. >> okay. with that said, all in favor? >> aye. >> we will adjourn. thank you very much everyone. [meeting adjourned ]

>> i think a lot of times we get dult lives we are afraid to follow our passions and think life can't be that easy. but i truly do believe i followed my heart this time in my journal in city government i did not know that is where my passion lied. i kept following it and ltd. to great opportunity to serve the city. [music]

>> i'm katy tang the executive director of the office of small business. >> small business contributes to san francisco's economy. they provide the bulk of employment in the city and employing a million people in san francisco. and roughly 90% of the businesses are defined as small businesses. so, they contribute to the economy but also just the quality of life. small businesses are more then and there a place of transaction it is a community center. a play where people gather. know each other and form memories about the city. >> at the office of mall business i run a team this helps report all mall businesses in san francisco whether they are looking to stfrt a new business or expand or perhaps they are

feeling with issues. our office is here as a point of information for anyone with a business that has 100 or nower employees. >> i was growing up i had many ideas of when i wanted to do. i wanted to being an olympic swimmer. and i wanted to men be an architect, you name it i had many ideas for what i wanted do when i grew up. and i never anticipated entering in politics. this opportunity came along wh started working for former supervisor carmen chu and she became the district 4 sunset district supervisor. that was my firstent row in politics and government in a different level. and so when i was finishing up my time working for legislative aid i thought, i will go off and

do something else. may be explore opportunity outside of city government what was then approached by this opportunity to also serve as a district 4 supervisor. if not the traditional route that many people think of when you enter in politics. a lot know that is manage than i want to do and run for office. that was not part of my culture and upbringing with manage my parents were wondering why i wanted to go in that role this legislation and important because so many women when have it return to work after having a child feel embarrassed or don't feel comfortable asking their supervisor for will any lactation accommodations. i saw it as an opportunity you could use the position where you have tools creating legislation and pass laws and where people listen to to you help the

community and pass cause catharsis important to the city and individuals. my family immigrated to the united states from taiwan. and they came here in pronl probably late 20's almost 30. and so, they came also in the knowing english limp barely read or write but had to quickly understand english to i can't haveigate services and find a job in america. i grew up in the san francisco sunset district i spent most of my childed hoo up until i went off to college. so when i startedng in city government, i think i had mixed reactions about my involvement working government because for some of our parents generation, there is i bit of distrust in government. i think there are questions about why i was entering in this field of work. i think you know when i went in city government i thought about

my parents like so many other who is have to navigate city services and resources english first language and help the individuals both navigate, intercept that is on an application approximate signage. it is fulfilling to mow to help people like my parent and feel like government is there to support them and not to harm them. my parents are happy that i retired early from politics and being a district 4 supervisor i could have continued on for a couple more years approximate decided to leave early. i think that over all they were able to see some of my work appear in the chinese newspaper. through that they were able to see i was able to help communities in a tangible way. >> the member of the board of supervisors. >> transportation authority. for the city and county of san francisco.

congratulations. >> i think about one importance when i was worn in as district 4 supervisor. years ago, and someone actually came up to me during the swear nothing ceremony and said, wow, i'm traveling here from canada, and i just i could not believe i saw an asian female worn in in this role a leadership role this meant so much that someone would say that and felt they were inspired by the scene. so -- i hope that as more people see people that look like them and more women coming in positions of leadership than i feel they can doing the same. person this inpyred me is carmen chu who is our city add administrator but also was district 4 supervisor when i worked with her as a legislative aid. at this point, i too, was skeptical of going in politics.

i saw someone who had herself never seen herself in politics. got thrown into it and put her heart and soul and dedication to serve people. and it gave me the confidence to pursue that same job and i honestly would not have either chosen or accepted or considered serving on the board of supervisors were not for carmen. >> if you want to make your business accessible. >> in my role in city government where i have seen the most challenge is people who don't know you and you are here to serve and help them that they classify you as our city government and here to hurt you. so, people will talk to you and -- and just you know treat you disrespectfully. and sometimes i noticed that they might do more to me as a female compared to my male colleagues. but you know i try to be

empathetic. one of the most significant barriers to female empowerment we feel like we have to be 100% meeting all of the qualifications before we think that we are qualified to do a job. if we look at a job description or an opportunity to come your way well is self doubt about whether you can fulfill the obligations of that role. i think that the confidence is huge and sometimes i think we make up for it by trying to gain more experience. more and more and more in whatever we can put under our belts we'll feel better. that may not be the case. we might be qualified with when we have already accomplished. i started rock climbing indoors a couple years ago as an activity to try to spends time

with my husband and also to try something new and i finds that rock climbing there are so many parallels to life. you know when i'm on the wall i'm concentrating and trying to make it to the next piece without falling. there are daying you think i'm not making progress. you come back and wow, i hit another level. and so i feel like in our daily lives and w we think we are not making enough of i change in the city. and sometimes we have to take out time to reflect every day as long as you try and give it your all and you look back you will have made a significant contribution there is no limit to where you go in terms of rock climbing. i want to reminds myself of that in terms of daily life. >> follow what it is you are interested in, what makes you

feel excited about wake up every day. you never know and be open to all the possibilities and opportunity. [music] >> i am iris long. we are a family business that started in san francisco chinatown by my parents who started the business in the mid 1980s. today we follow the same footsteps of my parents. we source the teas by the harvest season and style of

crafting and the specific variety. we specialize in premium tea. today i still visit many of the farms we work with multigenerational farms that produce premium teas with its own natural flavors. it is very much like grapes for wine. what we do is more specialized, but it is more natural. growing up in san francisco i used to come and help my parents after school whether in middle school or high school and throughout college. i went to san francisco state university. i did stay home and i helped my parents work throughout the summers to learn what it is that makes our community so special. after graduating i worked for an investment bank in hong kong for

a few years before returning when my dad said he was retiring. he passed away a few years ago. after taking over the business we made this a little more accessible for visitors as well as residents of san francisco to visit. many of our teas were traditionally labeled only in chinese for the older generation. today of our tea drinkkers are quite young. it is easy to look on the website to view all of our products and fun to come in and look at the different varieties. they are able to explore what we source, premium teas from the providence and the delicious flavors. san francisco is a beautiful city to me as well as many of the residents and businesses

here in chinatown. it is great for tourists to visit apsee how our community thrived through the years. this retail location is open daily. we have minimal hours because of our small team during covid. we do welcome visitors to come in and browse through our products. also, visit us online. we have minimal hours. it is nice to set up viewings of these products here.

okay good evening, and welcome to the may 17th 2023 meeting of the san francisco board of appeals. president rick swig will be the presiding officer tonight and he is joined by commissioner og slumber and commissioner jr. eppler vice president lopez and commissioner trasvina are absent this evening . also present is deputy city attorney gen. huber who will provide the board of any needed legal advice. at the controls of the board's legal system long way and i'm julie rosenberg, the board's executive director. we will also be joined by representatives from the city departments that will be presented before the board this evening. corey teague, zoning administrator, tina tam, the deputy zoning administrator, and kate conner, housing implementation program manager. all three are with the planning department.