Okay, good afternoon, everyone.

This meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the April 27, 2026 regular meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I'm Supervisor Miranda Melgar, Chair of this committee, joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Cheyenne Chen and Supervisor Balam Mahmud.

The committee clerk today is Mr.

John Carroll.

I would also like to acknowledge Eugene Libaria at SFGov TV for staffing us during this meeting.

Mr.

Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

Please ensure that you send us your cell phones and electronic devices that you've brought with you into the chamber today.

If you have any documents to be included as part of any of today's files, you may submit them directly to me.

Public comment will be taken on each item on today's agenda.

When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please sign up to speak along your right-hand side of this room.

Alternatively, you may submit public comment and writing in either of the following ways.

First, you may email your comments to me at J-O-H-N period C-A-R-R-O-L-L at SFGOV.org.

Or you may send your written comments via U.S.

Postal Service to our office in City Hall, and that is room 244, City Hall 1, Dr.

Carlton B.

Goodlick Place, San Francisco, California, 94102.

If you submit public comment in writing, I will forward your comments to the members of this committee and also include your comments as part of the official file on which you were commenting.

Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of May 5th, 2026 in this otherwise stated.

Thank you.

Agenda item number one is a resolution adding the commemorative street name Helen Wakazo Way to Julian Avenue in recognition of Helen Wakazo's legacy as the founder of Friendship House and her contributions to the Native American community in the city and county.

Hey Sasha, please come on up.

We have Supervisor Fielder's office here to present.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Chair Malgar and committee members.

My name is Sasha Gaona.

I am the Chief of Staff for District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder.

I am proud to be here on behalf of Supervisor Fielder to honor the life and legacy of Helen Wakazoo with a commemorative street naming of Helen Wakasu Way to Julian Avenue, located in the American Indian Cultural District, and a part of the mission district.

Helen DeVore Wakazoo was born and raised on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico.

At age 13, she was forcibly separated from her family and sent to a federal boarding school in Utah.

Part of a systematic effort to strip Native children of their cultural identity and community.

Helen arrived in San Francisco at the age of 19 as a part of an Indian relocation act, a federal policy that relocated Native Americans to urban centers under false premises of promises of housing and employment.

Here in San Francisco, Helen quickly learned that her Native American siblings were facing a spectrum of challenges from discrimination and poverty to substance use disorders.

So in 1963, Helen founded the French and Friendship House Association of American Indians as a place for people to reconnect with their culture and join a community of other natives looking for healing.

Under Helen's leadership, the Friendship House grew from a drop-in center to a nationally recognized model for substance use disorder treatment by integrating traditional Native healing practices with evidence-based treatment.

Helen was a savvy leader, walking these very halls to meet with supervisors and mayors, ensuring institutional visibility for the needs of local American Indian community.

Today, Friendship House has served more than 6,500 clients through their multi-bed treatment programs here in San Francisco and Oakland, providing a path to recovery rooted in cultural identity and dignity, including cultural programming, advocacy, and vital community support for the Bay Area's native community.

And Friendship House is working hard to continue Helen's legacy with their expansion of Village SF, Helen's long-held dream of a native-led wellness cultural and economic center for San Francisco-wide Indigenous community.

Supervisor Fielder and our office want to thank the Friendship House staff and leadership and their full community for their advocacy and for being here today.

We hope that you can send this item to the full board with a positive recommendation.

And thank you.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Galina, for that wonderful summary of your actions.

Please add me as a co-sponsor at Mr.

Clerk.

Supervisor Chen.

Thank you, Chair Malga.

The Friendship House is such an important community and cultural institution in San Francisco because of the friendship of Helen Wakuzu.

It has become a cherished home for urban Indians and a place to uplift the visibility of indigenous communities.

I strongly believe that the city's public spaces should reflect the contributions and histories of communities, often underrepresented.

And I'm very honored to support this resolution.

Please also at me as a co-sponsor.

Thank you.

Okay.

I don't see anyone else on the roster.

Mr.

Clark, please.

Let's go to public comment.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Land use and transportation.

We'll now hear public comment related to agenda item number one.

If you have public comment for this item, please come forward to the lectern at this time.

And Madam Chair, it looks like we may have some speakers coming up.

Hang on just a moment.

Come on up.

Good morning.

Good morning, good morning.

Good afternoon.

I'm sorry.

My name is Patricia Shirley.

I'm in Navajo.

And I come from Arizona Arizona.

But I'm at Helen at the boarding schools when I was eight years old.

She was about 10.

And she really took me in as a little sister and really show me how to take care of myself, how to adjust to the new environment such a way from my parents.

She just full of compassion for all those children.

We were alone.

Huge villain, night of five girls.

They're all young and they're just completely lost because they're taking from their parents.

It was such a strange for me.

Because I never know how to fix my hair.

My parents always did that for me.

But Helen showed me the way she showed me how to make the bed and how to dress myself and be able to comfort me, you know, keep me busy out of my loneliness and out of my losses.

Then we came to San Francisco 1963, April 6th, and they put us in a home as a maid, but we didn't like that one.

So we start uh coming back to the San Francisco and we contact a church that was called Friendship House.

And uh she started working, we start working there, and we saw a lot of a lot of pain.

Is that my time up?

25 seconds.

Okay.

Um we really talk about having our own villain where our realtor can come in and experience complete healing from their losses when they're grief, when their trauma and uh she really wants to work, and we really got full support from the supervisor here, and uh it's just amazing.

She's just full of compassion.

She's amazing woman.

Always care for other people.

And uh she's the first one to put that bill in up for the friendship house.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's have the next speaker, please.

Hello, good afternoon.

Thank you for taking the time to uh hear us today.

My name is Catherine Collins, and I'm alumni of the Friendship House.

I entered Friendship House 14 years ago, and it saved my life.

I'm now a certified counselor at Friendship House, giving back to the program that has given me this beautiful life.

Miss Helen Wakazoo should be honored every day for the thousands and thousands of indigenous families she's helped put back together.

It's because of her resilience to never give up on her people.

That is why I stand here before you as a proud Native American woman and mother rooted in my culture and solid in my recovery.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sheree Apadaka Duarte.

I came through the Friendship House program in 2018, volunteered in 2019, and Helen asked me to be her HR assistant.

I my life has changed because of me successfully going through the program and my current role at Friendship House.

I'm the human resources manager.

I'm also the great-granddaughter of a boarding school survivor, the granddaughter of a Navajo Army veteran, and the daughter of an um American Indian movement, um proactive person in the Alcatraz movement.

I'm here with my colleagues and my community and to ask the change of Julie Avenue in recognition of Helen Wakazoo Way.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

My name is Javerne Shirley.

I'm Chief Administrative Officer of the Friendship House.

I've been with the program for 28 years.

I've seen a lot of changes uh throughout my time there.

Um it's been amazing listening to Helen's story since I was a little girl.

Well, we all our families grew up together.

Um it's amazing to see how far she's taken this agency.

So I would like to address the name change of Julian Avenue to honor the remarkable legacy of Helen Wakazoo, whose strong leadership vision and commitment transformed dreams into reality.

Throughout her life, Helen dedicated herself to building a safe and supportive environment for Native American men, women, youth, and families struggling with alcohol and substance abuse.

Her efforts to establish a facility specifically tailored to the needs of Native Americans have opened doors to healing and recovery, allowing many to reclaim their lives and culture.

Naming a street in her honor would not only serve as a testament to her unwavering spirit and dedication, but also promote awareness of the ongoing challenges faced by Native American communities.

It is essential to recognize and celebrate individuals like Helen, who has made a lasting impact on our society.

I urge you to support the proposal to change the street name to Helen Wakazoo, thereby acknowledging her legacy and its significant contributions she made to the Native American community in our area, but nationwide also.

Thank you for considering this important change.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, board supervisors, chair.

My name is Nona Claypool.

I'm a uh enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

And my role at the Friendship House is discharge coordinator.

I'm here to um acknowledge my support in the name change for Hella Waukazoo Way from Julian Avenue.

Um I see on the daily the impact that our agency has had um on our community.

Um not only does it require um daily planning and and discharge planning, but it also requires a sense of belonging.

And having the name change would help support that.

Umkazoo was a pioneer of you know what she did, what she created in the city, and um I really hope that you support that change.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

So the next speaker, please.

My name is James Williams.

Um I'm Pima, Maricopa, Salt River, um, home of Ira Hayes, when well American that helped serve in the country.

Um I came to the address 80 Julian back in 97, first time.

Um I came back again in 2016 and realized that I have a family, a family here, and everything that that Miss Helen Wakazo has done has been amazing.

And well, I'm a facilities assistant manager.

Um everything that she has done has been amazing.

Everything that has come before me has been loving, caring, understanding.

And my heart has opened to the well-being and the caring of the rest of my family and you know, tribes and Native American people.

So that's where I stand today.

Once again, it's just for the well-being and the care of my her family and to to uphold her dream.

And I also would like to have the name changed.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

Uh, thank you for letting me speak on behalf of this movement.

My name is Athuservantas, uh Yaqui member, and my family's been in the mission since the 40s and 50s.

Um and I grew up knowing that San Francisco's beauty and its strength comes from its multiculturalism and its inclusion of all types of people.

Um I didn't have the honor of knowing Helen Wakazoo personally, but I get to experience her impact every single day through my work at the Friendship House as a uh program co-lead for the Village SF.

I get to see it in the families that are healed.

You've heard some of them speak today, um, and in the the care, the culturally grounded care that Helen built the foundations for.

Um Helen Waukazoo wasn't just a leader, she was a force, a matriarch that continues to sustain our community for generations, even beyond her lifetime.

Uh renaming Julian Av to Helen Wokazoo Way isn't just symbolic.

It's a visible acknowledgement that the American Indian community is not only a part of San Francisco's history, but its present and its future.

Uh this vote is an opportunity to honor that legacy, Helen's legacy that continues to save lives and to give hope to the generations that will walk that street for decades to come.

So I urge you to vote yes.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

My name is Andrew Cloud, enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Zoo tribe, born and raised here in the Bay Area.

Um here to stand alongside uh my relatives and those that spoke before me in support of this name change uh for Miss Helen Wakazoo.

Uh I'd like to share a quick uh testimony and her impact on my life and our communities' lives, uh my personal testimony.

Uh I'm a recent graduate of the Friendship House back in 2022, 2023.

Uh since then, uh through her prayers and the work that she's done in our community, I was able to start a new life that's that's beneficial to my own and my community and one uh one that my new uh four-month-old daughter can be proud of.

And it's through the work of Helen and her dedication to to her people that this is possible.

The the impact that she she she had on our community is uh is is immeasurable.

And so one day have the opportunity to take my daughter down this road, down this street, and to show her this future name change and what it means and the impact that it'll have on my daughter, that anything's possible and that these are her ancestors and her elders that she can look for for strength.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hey, all doing my name is Peter Brett, and I'm a Ketra Aimada indigenous person.

I'm born and raised here in San Francisco, served as a film commissioner, or Mayor Gavin Newsom.

And uh I knew Helen because she called me her son.

I've been associated with Friendship House Association of American Indians for over 30 years.

I'm leading the Village SF project currently.

And uh Helen was not just a great American Indian human being.

She was a great San Franciscan, she was a great American.

Uh she received a Minerva Award along with Jane Goodall and several other iconic uh female leaders.

Uh she was recognized by Maria Shriver.

She's being considered given recognition in the California Women's Hall of Fame.

She was a remarkable human being who made everyone feel welcome.

When you walked in through the gate, she called you nephew, grandson, granddaughter, daughter, niece, nephew.

Uh that was kind of Helen's magic.

Um she had very close relationships with several mayors here in San Francisco, including uh going back to Art Agnus, uh Mayor Lee, uh Gavin Newsom, who she mentored and called son when he was a supervisor, um Willie Brown.

Um the list goes on and on.

She called Speaker Pelosi, her sister.

These were all advocates who supported Helen's bold visions.

And uh and she she not only created uh a social service agency that impacted the lives of of American Indians, but she she helped create the critical safety net of San Francisco.

It's you know today, friendship house provides 11 beds to San Franciscans through a contract with DPH.

So recognizing her is just incredible.

We break ground on the village project at the end of the summer.

I can't think of anything more fitting for that building to live on Helen Wakazo Way, and I really encourage you to make this move and I thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, I'm Juliet Lee.

I'm a representative of the Native American Technical Assistance Provider Team of the California Reducing Disparities Initiative.

That's a statewide initiative that has been establishing the evidence that culture is prevention and culture is health.

And Friendship House model was is one of those programs in this initiative.

And I I just want to um acknowledge that not only has Friendship House served so many people here in the community, but also many clients throughout the state.

Um has uh and the model that held was Helen's vision has really been replicated and served as uh as an inspiration for so many uh programs really um helping people return to their culture.

So thank you.

Uh we support this uh name change.

I think it's really wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

You guys got time up here.

Perfect.

Uh good afternoon.

My name is Hector Patty, uh Muscoli Creek and Semino.

Uh for Helen, she was more as my mother.

Um I, you know, became a son of hers through a ceremony at a manhood ceremony, which I felt like uh changed my life in a way, and just like how she's changed a lot of lives.

Um, you know, even during her ending times when she was, you know, making her transition and she lost her her freedom of speech, her voice through ALS.

Uh she was still writing on her notes.

She was writing her notes on a piece of pen, you know, to give those directions for friendship house and for clients for community members.

And uh, you know, I just want to thank you, board members, board of supervisors for um just even taking this this time to hear us out because it's just a bit and a piece of what Helen brought to the City of San Francisco to the American Indian community and also myself and so many others that come along and to be able to see that name across, you know.

I hope to see that so that you guys can also see the impact that it has to have an American Indian matriarch of this city who forever is I feel like we just everything she did, she did it for her community and also for the friendship house.

She always did something with that in mind.

And you know, I just want to say, you know, she's missed, and even just to see her name will, you know, influence people to just smile because that's all she did.

She did one good deed of the day every day of the week, every month.

And for this, you know, I support this, and you know, I hope you guys support this as well.

So thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Do we have anyone else who has public comment for agenda item number one?

Madam Chair.

Okay.

Public comment on this item is now closed.

Uh thank you, uh, Ms.

Galena.

Um thank you to uh Supervisor Fielder's office for bringing this to the committee.

Uh you know, we lost uh Helen Wakazoo uh when we were still sheltering in place during the COVID pandemic, and I feel like the community and our city never really had a proper way to uh you know celebrate her life.

I hope that when the name goes up or or perhaps when Friendship House um does the groundbreaking or you know, whenever the community comes together, we can incorporate that, you know, just because I feel like it's still needed uh for folks to remember her great contributions to our city.

Um this is a perfect way to do it.

So thank you so much.

Uh with that, um I would like to make a motion that we uh send this item forward to the full board with a positive recommendation.

On the motion offered by the chair that this resolution be recommended to the Board of Supervisors, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Machmood.

Machmood I, Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Melgar, I madam chair, there are three ayes.

Okay, that motion passes.

Thank you.

Uh let's go to item number two, please.

Agenda item number two is a resolution authorizing the director of public works to approve the installation of a commemorative street plaque in honor of Carlos Santana, who has enjoyed a lifelong career as a world-renowned and groundbreaking musician while maintaining a strong connection to San Francisco, provided that the installation shall be approved following the Arts Commission's approval of the commemorative street plaque design and the director's review of all corresponding permit application materials and the commemorative street plaque shall be installed in the sidewalk at an appropriate location in the vicinity of 205 Mullen Avenue where Carlos Santana was living when he was first discovered.

Thank you.

Mr.

Clerk, colleagues at Supervisor Fielder's office has requested a continuance on this item.

Uh they need a little more time to discuss uh things about this block with a community.

Uh so if it's okay with you, I will um after public comment make a motion that we continue this to the call of the chair, but let's take public comment on the item uh first.

Thank you, Madam Chair, land use and transportation.

We'll now take public comment on agenda item number two.

If you have public comment for this item, please come forward to the lectern at this time.

Okay, Madam Chair, to preserve no speakers.

Okay.

Uh public comment is now closed.

I'd like to make a motion that we continue this item to the call of the chair.

On the motion offered by the chair that this resolution be continued to the call of the chair, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen.

And uh Member Machmood Machmood I, Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Melgar, I, Madam Chair, there are three eyes.

Thank you.

That item passes.

Let's go to item number three, please.

Agenda item number three is an ordinance conditionally accepting an offer of dedication and quit claim deed for real property from the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure for a segment of East Clementina Street between Beale and Maine.

Conditionally accepting the segment of East Clementina Street for maintenance and liability, delegating to the public works director the authority to first accept the street segment for city maintenance and liability purposes, and second, take other related actions such as establish official public right-of-way widths and street grades.

Conditionally accepting offers of improvements from Trans Bay II family LP and Trans Bay II Senior LP, collectively, Trans Bay 2, for public improvements on Beale, Folsom, and Main Streets, and approving Folsom Street public sidewalk easements from Trans Bay 2.

Waiving the application of ordinance number 1061 entitled Regulating the Width of Sidewalks to allow establishment expansion and reduction of official sidewalk widths through administrative action associated with the street segment and transbay two public improvements.

Adopting findings under CEQA, making findings of consistency with the general plan and the eight priority policies and planning code section 101.1, approving a public works order, recommending various actions in regard to the segment of East Clementina Street in Trans Bay 2 public improvements, and authorizing other official acts in connection with the ordinance to be taken by the public works director and other officials.

Okay, we have Mr.

Hennessey here to present.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Commission uh Chair Chairperson and Committee members.

My name is Kalhal Hinsey.

I am uh with the Department of Public Works, and if you could have the screen, please thank you.

Yes, we are here today to talk about the acceptance of infrastructure for the Trans Bay uh Transbit uh terminal location.

Um just to get ourselves orientated.

This is the section um of the block that's surrounded by Howard, Beale, Maine, and Fulsom Streets.

In May of 2024, uh Supervisor Darcy, uh including many other dignitaries attended a groundbreaking ceremony.

Uh this time last year, I was uh presented before the committee here to talk about the establishment of the street names for East Clementina.

And I am happy to be back here again once more to make in a recommendation for the board to accept uh some of the public infrastructure.

Uh particularly related to the um East Clementina streets and also the improvement stats bounded by block two west, which is senior housing, um, which includes 151 units, along with the um block two east family housing, which will have 184 units.

Again, borderly both of these buildings will be 100% affordable.

Um the senior housing has already started to receive residents moving in, and later this year, if not in the summertime, we expect expect um residents to start moving into the family housing building.

I do have a couple of photos of showing the almost completed streets, which is this is East Clement on the left-hand side of the screen is East Clementina Street, looking from Beale to Maine.

Um in addition, we also see the sidewalk.

You can also see the buildings that are being constructed and currently being resided in.

And again, this project, border these projects are close to completion.

Um again, we are here today um to make a recommendation to the board that they um accept, conditionally accept the offers of dedication and quick claim deed to accept East Clementina Street for ownership, maintenance liability, and to delegate to the public works director um to take various actions to accept the streets as street segments, ownership maintenance liability, to establish public rightway widths and street grades, and the allowed administrative approval of such street grade widths.

Excuse me.

And also to approve the establishment of the easements on Fulsom Street.

Also in your package is a letter from the Director of Real Estate who has reviewed this package and is also making the same recommendation to the board.

I am joined here today by members of OCI's project team, along with our development partners and other public works project management team who have been leading the uh construct design and construction of East Clementine industry.

With that, I am open to any questions.

Okay, I don't see any questions or comments on the roster from my colleagues.

Uh let's go to public comment on this item, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair, land use and transportation.

Now hear public comment related to agenda item number three.

If you have public comment for this item, please come forward to the lecter and at this time.

And Madam Chair, it appears we have no speakers for this item.

Okay.

Uh public comment on this item is now closed.

Um I would like to make a motion that we move this item forward to the full board with a positive recommendation, please.

The motion offered by the chair that this ordinance be recommended to the Board of Supervisors, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Machmud.

Machmud, I Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Melgar, I, Madam Chair, there are three eyes.

That motion passes.

Thank you.

Let's go to item number four, please.

Agenda item number four is an ordinance amending the administrative code to authorize the public utilities commission to purchase utility infrastructure from customers that the public utilities commission would otherwise be required to install, subject to specified conditions.

Okay, we have uh Mr.

Reneel Bijoy from Supervisor Mandelman's office.

Welcome to the Chair Melgar, Vice Chair Chen, Supervisor Mahmood.

Uh, this is Renil from Supervisor or President Melman's office.

He's the sponsor of this ordinance, uh, which would allow the SFPUC to connect new customers more efficiently at lower cost and also support the city's electrification goals.

In 2021, uh the Board of Supervisors gave the PUC authority to have developers build electric infrastructure for the PUC and turn it over instead of the city doing it itself, which has proven uh since then to increase efficiency and reduce cost.

This ordinance would extend that same approach to customers building facilities with significant electrical load who have major products underway but aren't covered by development agreement.

Importantly, this legislation would retain the city's common sense protections.

Any agreement must include prevailing wages, local hire, non-discrimination in contracts, and first source hiring.

Furthermore, the PUC could only pay less than or equal to what it would have spent doing the work itself, and the city would only take ownership of the utility infrastructure after testing and inspection.

With that, I respectfully ask for your support, and I'll pass it off to the PUC to go into more detail.

Thank you.

Hi, Ms.

Baldine.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm Catherine Spauldine.

I'm a deputy assistant general manager at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Power Enterprise responsible for power planning and capital delivery.

Thank you very much for the opportunity today to discuss the proposed ordinance for the purchase of electric facilities, and thank you to Board President Mandelman for sponsoring this legislation.

Thank you.

San Francisco's municipal electric utility, Hatch Hetchy Power, provides 100% greenhouse gas-free electricity and is actively working to serve new development and support electrification to meet the city's climate action goals.

We are experiencing a significant surge in demand for electric infrastructure.

As this demand grows, it is increasingly challenging to serve new customers on the timelines they need.

There are large load customers seeking hedge hatchy power service as quickly as possible to support major construction projects already underway on their properties.

Many of these private sector partners are accustomed to construction to constructing infrastructure and then transferring those facilities to utilities like ours for ownership and ongoing operation.

One example is the Cordia Steam Loop Project.

Cordia is transitioning from gas fired boilers to clean hedge hatchy power to heat the seam, heat the steam that is used for space and water heating in many buildings in the downtown and civic center areas.

This is a large load and requires a new electric substation in order to serve it.

Fortunately, Cordia is willing to construct the necessary electric facilities as part of their larger construction process and then transfer the facilities to the SFPUC to own and operate.

Cordia is also making real estate available so that we can site this substation.

And they are also willing to allow us to build facilities with extra electrical capacity so that we can serve other customers with this new infrastructure.

It would be much more expedient for us to have CORDIA do the construction rather than doing our own contracting and implementing construction in parallel, which, in addition to a lot of other inefficiencies, could additionally disrupt the public right of way.

And we are in discussions with other customers in similar situations.

Customers who like Cordia need timely service and are willing to construct electric facilities on our behalf and then transfer them to us upon completion.

The proposed ordinance would capture such opportunities by providing us with the needed authorization to contract with a customer to install infrastructure on our behalf and then purchase those facilities.

This facilitates existing city policy that we provide electric service to all new customers whenever feasible.

Without this authority, we miss the opportunity to capture the efficiencies of construction that is already underway and be responsive to market conditions.

And without this authority, we may not be able to meet the customer's timeline for service, and thus we risk losing them entirely, either to another utility or perhaps to another jurisdiction.

The proposed amendment expands the existing authority and the admin code, as you just heard in the introductory remarks.

In 2021, the board added Section 99.5, and under this law, the PUC may contract with developers to install electric infrastructure that the PUC would otherwise build.

This has allowed projects with those agreements to proceed much more efficiently by coordinating infrastructure installation with ongoing construction.

But currently, this authority is limited just to projects that are part of formal development agreements already approved by the city.

This proposed amendment would extend this authority to allow PUC to contract to purchase from other customers.

This new proposed authority would only be appropriate when customers have these large loads, triggering the need for significant infrastructure, and would only be appropriate when these customers have the ability and willingness to construct such infrastructure on PU's half, on PUC's behalf to our standards and specifications.

The proposed extension of the 99.5 authority would retain all of the same important conditions and protections under the existing authority.

The PUC would have authorization to purchase customer-installed facilities only under some very specific conditions, that it wouldn't create any additional costs.

We have clear labor, excuse me, we have clear agreements on responsibilities and scope with the customer.

All city equity labor, local economic participation requirements are met, specifically non-discrimination in contracts, prevailing wages, utilization of local business enterprises, project labor agreements, and local hiring.

Other conditions are that the facilities would be owned by the city, and construction is in compliance with all city rules and applicable codes.

Importantly, just as with the existing 99.5 authority, the city maintains control and accountability for outcomes.

All work is done subject to our review and approval and must adhere to our strict design and engineering standards.

We would have the authority to inspect, reject, audit, and withhold payment for any noncompliant work.

To conclude, we believe this proposed amendment is in the public interest.

It would make us prepared and commercially ready to act.

We would be able to reduce delays and enable more flexible and timely project delivery, leading to a larger customer and rate base sooner, supporting large-scale electrification efforts across the city, advancing the city's decarbonization and housing density goals, delivering infrastructure more efficiently and at a lower cost than what the city could otherwise provide due to utilizing construction processes that are already underway, all the while still maintaining all city equity, labor, and local economic participation standards.

That concludes my presentation.

Thank you very much.

Really, really great.

Thank you so much.

Please add me as a co-sponsor.

This is really significant and impactful.

Supervisor Chen.

Thank you, Chair Malga.

I appreciate the PUC's commitment to deliver a need and electric infrastructure in a timely way.

I don't take any policy decision that streamline public procurement process lightly, such as exempting agreements from chapters 6 and 21.

I see that under this legislation, the city specifies that the contractor must have the necessary qualification and retains the ability to reject bits and contracts for construction that do not meet price, quality, and scope specifications.

The ordinance also requires agreements to include war forest protection such as pivoting wage, non-discriminate non-discrimination, local hire, and first source hiring.

Because this authority is intended to facilitate connections of services only for specific projects where the timing to deliver infrastructure needs to be aligned with construction timeline to improve efficiency.

I believe the ordinance is reasonable extension of existing authority.

So I'm supporting of the resolution.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor.

Let's go to public comment on this item, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair, land use and transportation on that here.

Public comment related to agenda item number four.

If you have public comment for this item, please come forward to the lectern at this time.

And if you are waiting for an opportunity to speak, you can line up to speak along that western wall I'm pointing out with my left hand.

Please come forward.

Good afternoon.

My name is Brendan Green, representing the electricians of IBW Local 6, and we strongly support this item.

SFPVC has made clear that electrical demand is growing rapidly, requiring new substations and major grid upgrades across the city.

This ordinance is a practical solution that allows needed infrastructure to be built with larger development projects and integrated into the city system, helping avoid delays and keeping pace with growth.

This work is highly skilled, technical, and essential to building a modern electrified city.

Our union electricians are trained, licensed, and held to the highest standards with city oversight and inspection, ensuring quality and accountability.

Just as importantly, this policy preserves equity, labor, and local participation requirements so that growth benefits San Francisco workers and communities.

We respectfully urge you to move this item forward with a positive recommendation.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

So the next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, supervisors and staff of Rudy Gonzalez with the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades.

I'll associate myself with Brendan Greed's comments.

We think this is a smart policy.

You know, a lot has has been thrown out in the public space around public-private partnerships.

We think this is actually a great model for that.

Uh the Public Utilities Commission has a short-term, a midterm, and a long-term plan in terms of their capital outlay, and we think that this integrates very well.

It also is important to downtown's recovery.

I don't think many members of the public or even regulators uh fully appreciate the scope of the steam loop system and how it is uh, you know, for decades and decades and generations provided uh already uh a carbon neutral opportunity, but with the electrification of the boiler rooms where you actually produce the steam itself, we can really push our goals forward in terms of our climate action plan and create good skilled work opportunities.

So you think about the pre-apprentices you come celebrate with sisters with tools and city build and all these great young San Franciscans from all different lifestyles who want to get into the skilled trades and find employment in our career paths.

These are the kind of projects that will move those forward and position us for more housing production, more office uh and other economic activity downtown.

Um we're excited that it's Cordia, frankly, because they have the skill set, the qualifications, and oftentimes we're the first ones to call foul when there's some sole source opportunity or something like that.

Uh, this is absolutely essential.

They are qualified, uh they're ready to go, uh, and they've already have a track record with the PEC.

So we fully support them.

And we'd like to thank President Mandelman for his leadership sponsoring and thank you for adding yourself, Madam Chair.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, Chair Melgar and uh committee members.

My name is Mike Yerkis, and I'm actually the general manager of CORDIA Energy Center San Francisco.

And we've operated the district scheme system for decades here in San Francisco, serving over 37 million square feet of buildings across 185.

I'm sorry, 37 million square feet across 185 buildings.

So in 2024, CORDIA actually acquired a steam loop from the Civic Center right out here in front of City Hall, helping to service buildings like City Hall, Main Library, and the and the courthouse.

We are actively working to convert our system from gas to electric steam generators, a large undertaking that Merritt Lurie's updated uh 2026 climate action plan specifically calls out.

This legislation will allow Cordia and the PUC to act as unified team to do just that.

By authorizing the PUC to purchase infrastructure we install during our own construction, we can move faster and more efficiently.

This isn't just for us.

Under this ordinance, we can work with the PUC to build an additional capacity.

When Cordia builds a structure to electrify our system, we can install the additional infrastructure the PUC needs to serve the neighborhood.

And in addition to serving these neighborhoods, we're excited to bring more work for the people who live here.

Courtney remains committed to prevailing wages, local hire, and first source hiring.

Let's work together to make San Francisco a national model for urban electrification.

So we strongly urge your support for this legislation.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Do we have anyone else who has public comment for agenda item number four?

Madam Chair.

Public comment is now closed.

I would like to make a motion that we send this item forward with a positive recommendation to the full board.

On the motion offered by the chair that this ordinance be recommended to the Board of Supervisors, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Mockwood.

Machmoodai, Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Melgar, I bet I'm sure there are three eyes.

That motion passes.

Let's go to item number five, please.

Agenda item number five is an ordinance submitting division one of the transportation code to authorize the Director of Transportation to approve temporary street use permits under certain circumstances.

Amending the administrative code to authorize the Director of Transportation to approve certain street closures proposed by community benefits districts under the Downtown Entertainment Event Activation Program and affirming the planning department's secretetermination.

Okay, thank you.

We have several presenters, and I think this show starts with Ben.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Melgar, Vice Chair Chen.

We have a PowerPoint to bring up, but um Ben Van Houten, Director of Night Life Initiatives at the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, uh joined here by Hava Cronenberg from SFMTA and Katie Tang from the Office of Small Business, who will also be speaking as part of this uh presentation.

Um this is uh important legislation to improve the special event permitting process that was introduced by Mayor Lurie with co-sponsors President Mandelman, Supervisors Wong, Mahmood, Sauter, and Dorsey.

Um before I jump into the substance of it, I did want to note we are requesting that the file be duplicated and have circulated uh the duplicate with some technical amendments, and I know Hava is equipped to to speak to that uh as well.

Okay.

Um this uh legislation is part of the permit SF initiative.

Uh permit SF aims to drive meaningful reform through structural changes, making it easier, more cost-effective, transparent, and efficient for businesses and property owners to secure the permits they need.

Um I will say from the experience we've had working alongside folks doing special events, special events can be complex for both uh event organizers and city staff.

And I'm excited about the work uh happening here to uh to improve the process and to work across departments to make it easier for organizers and for city staff alike.

Um the goal here today is to simplify a special event permitting for street closures by allowing the administrative permit issuance by SFMTA for certain special events, eliminating the need for these special events to go to the uh ISCOT committee for approval.

Um, all of the relevant permits will continue to be reviewed by the respective departments.

So fire, PD, everybody involved in the process will still be involved in the process.

Um in order to get administrative uh permit approval, an event must meet these requirements spelled out on the slide, uh, be contained within three blocks, keep intersections open, and not require the rerouting of any mini vehicles.

Um as a result of this uh proposal, this would improve the applicant experience by eliminating the need to attend and present at the ISCOT hearings a couple times a month.

Um it will expedite special event permitting review through this administrative permit issuance, and we'll also shorten ISCOT hearings to focus on complex special events that do require additional coordination and public input.

And I think this uh quote from Carolyn Thomas about this block party experience is really valuable.

Um for special event producers, especially smaller scale events, um, that the time is really as important as the money, and so the ability to uh have that time back to to focus on producing events as opposed to attending these hearings when it's not necessary.

That is uh meaningful reform to help event producers across the city.

With that, I will hand it over to Hava.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So Hapa Cronenberg SFMTA.

So very briefly, um currently ISCOT takes all temporary street closures and hears them.

This um will send about 80 to 90 percent at our estimate um through this administrative permit issuance.

Um, just as some illustrative examples um about what would be not qualified from our last ISCOT uh agenda.

So we have Fillmore Jazz, so that has a transit impact, it would not have been qualified, a shared space permit, um, an athletic event, and two events greater than three blocks.

But all the others, um, which are mostly community block parties would have been eligible for um this administrative permit issuance.

And so um we're excited to see these people get their permits fast and to have the great events that they're all planning.

So passing it back, and I'll probably be back.

All right, good afternoon, supervisors.

Katie Tang here today wearing my hat on the Permit SF leadership team.

Uh this change comes at a time where we've also launched a couple months ago a new permitting system, also called Permit SF, where uh now event organizers have a place where they can submit their intake forms and learn up front uh what permits that they need from all the different departments.

Alongside this, all the departments now have visibility.

I would say improved visibility for some departments that had to wait for the ISCOT hearings, and now they can see all the information in real time, uh, communicate with applicants if there's any missing information, and so they no longer have to, as a result of this new Permit SF platform, wait for a hearing uh to actually uh interact and also to let the event organizers know what requirements uh that they need.

Um our goal has been to uh get in event organizers the information on front loaded as much as possible so that they can best prepare whether it's a different requirement or a new cost that they need to bear for the event.

Um so we couldn't be more happy that this legislative change is coming at uh the same time that we have this new system in place.

And we really want to thank uh SFMTA for their partnership and collaboration on this effort.

Okay.

Uh thank you so much.

Okay, thank you, Director Tang.

Um, I just want to thank you all very much for this.

I think it's gonna be really awesome, particularly for the small organizations and CBDs, the you know, little guys uh for whom this is always a headache, even though it happens every time at the same time here, but it's so complicated.

So I'm so glad that uh you are supporting street life and you know, the life of our city as it happens, the moments of joy when people come together on our streets uh in making it faster, easier, and simpler.

So thank you so much.

Supervisor Chen.

Thank you, Chair Mauga.

And our city hosts a large number of community and public events, and we have our fair shares in District 11.

It's one of the many qualities that make San Francisco unique and culturally rich.

I am very supportive of the effort that will simplify the process for applicants and provide them with a clear role map of all feeds and requirements of fund in the process.

I know that this legislation will also reduce the bureaucratic procedures internally for the city departments.

Of course, I'm always concerned about reducing public oversight or policies that will undermine our equity goals.

However, this legislation does not do that.

So I would like to support it and also please add me as a co-sponsor.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, uh supervisor.

Let's go to public comment on this item, please, Mr.

Clerk.

Thank you, Madam Chair, land use and transportation on that here.

Public comment related to agenda item number five, temporary street use permits and closures.

If you have public comment for this item, please let up the speak along that wall, and then the first speaker can come forward to the lecture at this time.

Um thank you.

My name is Jill Linwood.

I work with your Bobuina partnership, which is the community benefit district of your Burbuena.

Um here to say that we enthusiastically support streamlining the permit process.

Um we um in our neighborhood, uh which is dense with small and large businesses, we're able to host both small and large um events and removing uh the time challenge and sometimes daunting uh process of the ISCOT uh hearings, we think will encourage even more events downtown.

So thank you for supporting us.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you, Chair Melgar, Vice Chair Chan, Supervisor Mahmood.

My name is Simon Bertrang, executive director of SF New Deal, and I'm speaking in favor of the proposed ordinance.

SF New Deal is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening neighborhoods by making it easier for small businesses to succeed.

Over the last six years, we've dispersed over 58.8 million dollars to 2400 small businesses in all 11 districts.

SF New Deal supports permit SF in general, and this item specifically.

We want to support all the ways that the Office of Small Business and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the other city agencies are looking to make permits easier, cheaper for small businesses and community members to navigate.

We support allowing approval of relatively simple street festivals, three blocks or smaller, no muni or intersection closures to be approved through administrative permit, and not requiring community members to visit ISCOT for approval.

This would mean a dramatic reduction in time and effort for almost 80 to 90 percent of applicants for street festivals supporting the continued revitalization of our neighborhoods and benefiting commercial corridors and small businesses throughout the city.

Thank you.

I urge the committee to advance this legislation to the full board with a positive recommendation.

Thank you for comments.

So the next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, land use and transportation committee.

Uh Griffin Lee here representing connected SF staff and membership.

We are certainly uh genuinely supportive of downtown recovery and the economic revitalization of our beautiful downtown.

Um very supportive of revitalizing small businesses and streamlining permitting processes through permanent SF.

I did have one question though in the code or in the legislation.

It um it states under certain circumstances.

What are those certain circumstances?

Um I know you probably can't answer it on the spot here, but it'd be helpful to get that phrase detailed out a little bit more under certain circumstances.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

Do we have anyone else who has public comment for agenda item number five?

Madam Chair.

Thank you so much.

Uh any members of the public that have questions about, I would uh you know encourage you to connect with staff after this meeting to get those questions answered.

Um please add my name as a co-sponsor.

Public comment on this item is now closed.

Um, and I will make a motion that we forward this item with a positive recommendation to the full board.

Madam Chair, I understand that.

Yes.

We need to duplicate the file.

That's right.

Uh well let's duplicate the file.

Um, and there is an amendment to the duplicated file that I need to make.

So um you circulated this.

Did you uh send it electronically to my colleagues?

Or okay.

Um the duplicated file has in its you didn't read this into the record.

So uh the it the duplicated file has in line three um to reorganize provisions governing the interdepartmental staff committee on traffic in transportation, ISCOT, as a change uh in the description.

So you're moving that amendment to a duplicate version of the file?

Yes.

And uh well, I guess we can do it in one motion and also continue that to the call of the chair.

Two motions offered.

They are to amend a duplicate version of the ordinance as presented, and then continue the duplicated version as amended to the call of the chair.

Both of them are offered by the chair on that pair of motions, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Machmood.

Machmood I, Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Melgar I.

Madam Chair, there are three eyes on each of those two motions.

Okay, thank you.

Now, the original uh legislation unamended.

Um, that I will uh make a motion that we move that forward with a positive recommendation to the full board.

On the motion offered by the chair that the ordinance be recommended to the Board of Supervisors, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Machman.

Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Malgar, I.

Madam Chair, there are three eyes on that motion as well.

Thank you all.

Um let's go to item number six, please, Mr.

Clerk.

Just one moment.

Agenda item number six is an ordinance amending the housing code to revise qualifications and deadlines for conducting structural maintenance inspections and affirming the planning department's sequel determination.

Okay, we have Christine Kasperic here to present for DBI.

Welcome.

S for us?

Okay, uh good afternoon, Chair Melgar and supervisors.

I'm Christine Gasparek, Assistant Director of DBI, and I'm going to present this ordinance today.

Uh the purpose of this legislation is to align our local requirements for inspections of external elements to state law and to and so reduce unnecessary duplication and confusion.

So in 2002, the Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance requiring apartment buildings and hotels to conduct an inspection of building appendages such as decks and balconies every five years.

And some specific uh provisions include qualifications for inspectors as well as the requirement that an owner submits an affidavit to the department to verify the structural integrity.

And then in 2018, the state legislature passed its own similar law requiring inspections of exterior elements every six years.

And the inspector qualifications called for in the state law are slightly different than our local law, and it also requires the report to be kept by the owner unless there are some needed repairs.

So although the the two laws are similar in intent, the they're not aligned and results in building owners having to comply with two different requirements, potentially within a year or two of each other.

So the ordinance before you addresses this problem by altering our local law to better align with the state law.

It provides a flexible time period to submit local affidavits to match up with the state requirement and also matches the state requirement for inspector qualifications.

It was inadvertently taken out during the drafting process.

And the second is to clarify that the extended timeline for the local inspections is a one-time thing to get them both on the same timeline, but it's not ongoing, so they can't they can't use it again after they're uh on the same timeline as the state requirement.

Uh the building inspection commission recommended approval of the ordinance at its April meeting, and the code advisory committee also recommended approval.

Thank you.

I'm available for questions, and with me I also have Jose Lopez, who is a senior housing inspector in the department to answer technical questions.

And I want to um thank Carrie Bernbach from the Office of Small Business for her support with this and the permanent SF team for championing this change.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Supervisor Chen.

Thank you, Chair Malga.

Thank you for the department for your presentation.

Really also appreciate the staff for providing additional information where my staff reach out with questions.

I take issues of building safety very seriously.

And I understand that our uh rationale for this legislation is to avoid building owners having to complete two similar required inspections, one for the local authorities and another one for the state authorities.

On different timelines, it can feel duplicative and also confusing for building owners.

May I have an answer?

Am I understandings correct?

Am I understanding it correct?

Uh will you come to the podium so then we can hear um everyone can hear you?

So am I correct?

Uh yes, you are.

Oh, great, thank you.

And and I have another question.

Excluding the duplicative inspections.

I I'm understanding that there may be some situation where the intervals for balcony or deck inspections will be longer under this legislation than it's currently provided for the call.

In the department's assessment, that additional time doesn't compromise our ability to assure safety.

Um I'll answer that, yes.

Uh it's as I said, it's kind of a one-time thing where uh they can delay their local requirement to match up with the state requirement.

Um, but we still believe that that there will be sufficient oversight.

Great.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Supervisor.

Uh thank you for the presentation.

Um would you like to make a motion, Supervisor Chen?

I would like to.

Oh, we have to take public comment first.

I'm sorry.

Public comment first.

Let's put public comment and then I'll let you make the motion.

Let's go to public comment on this item, please.

Land use and transportation now here public comment related to agenda item number six, structural maintenance inspections.

If you have public comment for this ordinance, please come forward to the lecture at this time.

It appears we have no speakers, madam chair.

Okay, public comment on this item is now closed.

Supervisor Chen.

I would like to make this item number six to the full board with positive recommendation.

Like the previous item, I believe that the department was requesting an amendment to this that they have circulated.

I'm sorry.

This is what you just gave me.

The two amendments that I spoke about.

One is we had inadvertently removed uh fire escapes during the drafting process.

So we'd like to put that back in as well as clarify that it's a one-time opportunity to delay the local inspection to match up with the state cycle.

I can amend that.

Um I would like to make a motion to adopt an amendment ashraded by the staff and make uh and then forward the amended uh uh amended um item to the full board with positive recommendation.

Thank you.

Two motions in the book, both offered by Vice Chair Chen.

The first that the ordinance be amended as presented, and the second that the ordinance be recommended as amended to the Board of Supervisors on those motions, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Mockwood.

Machmoud I, Chair Melgar.

I Melgar, I Madam Chair, there are three ayes.

That motion passes.

Thank you.

All right.

Let's go to item number seven, please.

Agenda item number seven is a hearing to discuss transportation, economic development, and public engagement with regards to the Market Street corridor.

Okay.

Uh Supervisor Mahmood, thank you for introducing this hearing request.

Um the floor is yours, and then we'll go to the presenters.

Thank you, Chair Melgar.

Market Street is the backbone of the city's transportation network, carrying commuters both below and above ground on just about every mode imaginable.

It also is a cultural and retail corridor that is a central part of the city's identity and will be critical to how San Francisco's recovery is felt and perceived.

There's a lot of optimism around Market Street today.

Last year, Market Street reimagined and invited architects and designers to think outside the box.

The newly formed downtown development corporation is also committed to supporting public realm improvements around the Powell Street station.

I've also been working with city departments and local arts organizations to establish an official theater arts district in the mid-market area to pair public art, lighting, and daily street activations with coordinated safety and small business investments to support the neighborhood's historic theaters and music venues.

There's also understandably, though, some concerns.

High profile vacancies show that economic recovery post-COVID isn't where it needs to be to support a lively corridor.

On the transportation and streetscape front, COVID brought a massive scaling back of ambition of the better market street plan, which promised a total overhaul of the street, but ended up just delivering repaving and intersection improvements on a three-block stretch.

This plan also came with prioritization of active transportation and public transit over private vehicles.

But the cutback of transit service and the invitation of Waymo's and certain rideshare vehicles to the streets loading zones gave the community more questions than answers about what is the city's plan.

I rode a bike down Market Street with the community members and saw the highs and lows last week.

Crowds were spilling out of the orphium's matinee showing.

Bike commuters moved smoothly by on their way home.

And the sidewalks and plazas had signs of urban vibrancy that has been core to Market Street's identity for decades.

On the flip side, there were private cars parked in loading zones, treacherous pavement issues, and vacancies large and small all along the corridor.

That brings us to today's hearing, where there will be three primary questions I'm looking forward to discussing today.

First, what is the future of transportation in Market Street?

Particularly in light of recent public transit reductions and the reintroduction of commercial private vehicles.

Secondly, what are the city's investment plans for public realm enhancements on Market Street?

Where will these investments be focused?

And how will they be rolled out?

And finally, what strategies are in place to support small business activations on Market Street.

I hope that through this hearing, people who care about Market Street, whether they're residents, business owners, cyclists, or all of the above, feel heard by the city and decision makers who will set the policies on the future of the street.

With that, let's begin our conversation on the future of Market Street with Jeremy Shaw from the Planning Department.

Good afternoon, Chair Melgar, Vice Chair Chen.

Good afternoon, Chair Melcar, Vice Chair Chen, Supervisor Mahoon, thank you for calling this hearing.

My name is Jeremy Shaw.

I'm a principal planner for Urban Design at the Planning Department.

I am joined by several colleagues today, Java Cronenberg and Jenny DeLumo of SFMTA, Christina Olea of the Public Works Department, and Diana Ponce de Leon, Director of Community and Economic Development at OEWD.

Get the slide deck.

Market Street is uh is San Francisco's primary transit spine.

Every day it powers San Francisco's economy by safely transporting residents, visitors, students, and employees.

They walk, bike, take the streetcar, ride the bus on market, while tens of thousands of more ride Moody, Metro, and BART underground.

Market Street is also the front door to San Francisco's most iconic places and experiences.

It welcomes visitors to the ferry building, the cable car, it provides foot traffic to small businesses, and is the gateway to performing arts and civic institutions that draw people from around the city, region, and state.

A successful market street means addressing all of the overlapping transportation demands, but also the active storefronts, the occupancy, and the vibrant neighborhoods all around it.

So today, staff will share the many city initiatives that are designed to maximize people moving through Market Street while growing economic and public activity around it.

I will provide an overview of recent improvements to zoning, public the public realm and permitting processes.

Ms.

Cronenberg and Ms.

DeLumo of SFMTA will share the most recent updates on transit, capital improvements in access along Market Street, and Ms.

Pons de Leon will discuss the economic workforce and business development initiatives.

The planning department is focused on three main areas to bring more people and activity to Market Street.

Economic diversification is the first.

Diverse economic base is essential for the resilience of the city's economy.

The planning department is reducing barriers to doing business in the planning code and zoning ordinance downtown.

Expanding housing downtown.

While, excuse me, with high commercial vacancy rates and work from home trends, there is a great need and opportunity to increase housing downtown to create 24-7 neighborhoods and new demand for local business.

And finally, activating and improving our public spaces.

It is critical that the city and community partners design, activate, maintain the public realm so that all the residents, workers, and visitors can comfortably walk, gather, and connect in our public spaces.

Just a quick note when we when we say downtown, we mean the entire Market Street corridor as well as the land uses surrounding it.

The downtown zoning is shown in red on the map you see before you.

Um the green dots represent new or physically improved public spaces such as the downtown gateway uh with the downtown SF partnership, rec parks improvements to the UN Plaza area, and the white dots, if you can as you can see on your map, um, are also physical improvements, but that are currently in progress, such as the Mina Natoma alleys and uh other proposed projects, such as in the theater district.

And uh the wide array of purple dots represent public programming and activation.

So permit SF is uh, as you heard, is a city initiative to reduce barriers and streamline the city process.

Um recent legislation makes it easier for businesses to have tables and chairs uh or make routine tenant improvements.

Sign and transparency requirements are simpler.

Uh permitting for entertainment and public activities has been streamlined and standardized.

So combined with all the zoning and public realm improvements, permanent SF represents a significant progress towards getting more people downtown, whether by helping business, supporting nightlife, building housing, activating public space.

And according to the city economists, we are seeing year-on-year improvements in downtown trends, such as visitors, lower vacancies, higher muni ridership.

And so on that topic, uh I'd like to invite Miss Cronenberg and Miss DeLumo to discuss transportation updates along the Market Street corridor.

Actually, Jeremy, we're gonna split up the presentation by department so we can ask questions about each other.

Of course, thank you.

Um thank you for the presentation, and it's really exciting to see uh all the areas of avenues from housing to public realm uh and infrastructure investments uh that you're making on market street.

Um I have a couple questions related to the current planned investments and the ones in progress.

Uh can you pull up the slide again uh where you're sharing the public realm enhancements?

Um obviously there's a lot of uh different things that plan across the corridor.

Um as I understand it, the major investments that you're making right now are embarcadero and Powell.

Is that correct?

Those are those are significant city investments, yeah.

And how much is going into each of those investments uh on those respective corridors?

Um, there's a combination of funding sources for for each of those.

Can you describe that?

So for the embarcaderoza, um my understanding is it's a $32 million project, including $14 million in bond funds, uh, two and a half million of in-kind design funding, and uh 16 million from the downtown development corporation, as my understanding.

Um Powell Street was the other project you mentioned.

Yes.

Uh similarly, combination of uh 22 million from bond funding, uh four million from a grant uh from the MTC, and uh I believe 16 million from the downtown development corporation.

That is it seems a lot of this funding is half of it's coming from the downtown development corporation.

Is there any other places around the corridor where the GDC is is earmarking investments uh at this time aside from those two corridors?

Not that I'm aware of.

So those are the two major areas that they're investing in today.

Um I I can't speak for the downtown development corporate, but that's what I have information on right now.

Okay.

Um how how are how are you and uh either from you or the GDC deciding how are those two sites selected as a priority over the rest of the corridor?

Um, and how are you deciding on those investments overall?

Well, I should I should say that this is a a city effort, is not the planning department's decision uh on our own.

Um and I again I can't speak for the D DC.

Um but certainly there's a number of of long-term plans and processes in place to establish city priorities.

Uh I think in the Market Street Corridor, in particular, reaching back to the Market Octavia Area Plan, uh, and the Transit Center District Streetscape Plan from 2012, the Civic Center Public Realm Plan more recently, uh, and better Market Street, of course, um, and also public processes around Connect SF, the biking and rolling plan.

There's just a number of different area and transportation plans that uh solicit community input and stakeholder participation to invore inform those capital investments.

Um I'd say the second significant bucket are the CBDs themselves, right?

They're closer to the ground, they understand the neighborhoods better than anyone, uh, and they develop their own public realm plans in general.

So these plans inform a lot of the a lot that are shown on the map as you see it, streetscape activation, public space projects, and they can also be funded partially by city funds uh from the CBD budget or other sources.

Um I would just add also that there's a 10-year capital plan process, right, run through the Capital Planning Committee and Program.

And that's that capital plan is rewritten every two years.

It's a roadmap for all of the city's investments, right, around streets, facilities, parks, waterfront, et cetera.

And still more planning processes inform and shape that plan.

And so we can look to policy initiatives like Muni Forward, the high injury corridor network from SFMTA, um, earthquake safety and emergency response program, uh, the pavement condition and PUC's water system and sewer system upgrades, all of these things inform uh and shape uh the prioritization process and project readiness.

We have a uh list off probably half a dozen different plans that you're saying are informing uh where this going.

I'm still not really comprehending though what is the prioritization framework.

Um you have half a dozen to a dozen different plans telling you what to do.

How are you deciding along that corridor what to prioritize above one thing or another?

Well, I I again I would say it depends on the jurisdiction.

So that it's not the planning department's pure decision, and each agency has its own sort of capital planning process that informs that tenure capital plan.

Well, Chair Millgar asked some follow-ups here.

Sorry, because I respectfully disagree.

So I think that it is the planning department's um job to create a vision for market street, because all these things that you listed are priorities of uh different departments to reach either efficient transportation or economic development or you know, different aspects of the things that we're doing as a city, but there should be a plan for market three.

We did that through the better market, you know, planning process, supposedly.

We scaled back on it, but there should always be an overriding plan and vision for the most important corridor in our downtown that drives so much of what we're doing.

So I I will perhaps re phrase the question because I I heard you.

Um what is the plan?

What is the overall plan?

What is the vision that we have for market street?

All of these you know subordinate plans that the departments have a capital planning process has feed into it.

But I I still haven't heard what is the over what are we trying to achieve with anything that touches Market Street.

I don't know what it's an MTA.

I don't think I don't know that it's an MTA uh answer.

But go ahead, Ms.

Yeah, you're yeah, I just respectfully I think we we may be answering some of the questions you're having in later portions of the deck.

So I am going to cover um how we think about Better Market Street and the investments we've made.

So we just think the context of Supervisor Chair Melgor's question is the planning department should be leading the vision for this process.

But what we just heard is that you don't have a plan that you're driving for the plan department, is that correct?

Well, Better Market Street certainly guides a lot of the streetscape improvements that you know the city had had prioritized, and some of them were were completed, and it will speak to that.

But currently the focus uh as you as you know is on immediate uh and short-term improvements that we think we can or that the city and partners can execute in the short term, right?

And beyond those two, there you know, it it would just be the complex of plans that I described earlier.

And I'm gonna need all this question.

Who which department is responsible for the vision for for Market Street?

I I would say it's it's a joint effort.

I I know that's a frustrating answer, but it it really is because it falls under so many jurisdictions, and planning is often played a convening role in certain kinds of conditions like that, but at the moment, right, uh there isn't a planning process.

I think that's part of the problem.

If you're not able, like we you mentioned uh half a dozen dozen different plans, multiple departments coordinating.

Do you think part of the problem about why we haven't made progress here is there's not one single centralized initiative to drive this?

Task force.

I I you know I can speak for the planning department.

I can't speak for personally.

Um, you know, I if if it were the the supervisors prerogative to establish a visioning process, I think there's there's certain benefits to that.

Um I think it's also a you know a time of of constraint.

I think it's also a you know a time of of constraint.

And so, you know, a lot of the priorities, as I mentioned, were really focused on what is the change we can effectuate today.

And like many of our tactical or pilot programming efforts, right?

We would build on that towards towards a longer vision when the resources were available.

Okay.

Um I have a couple Chairman Garden, more questions for planning?

Uh Chairman Garney more questions?

Oh go ahead.

Um couple more specific questions therein uh based on some of the things you asked.

One was um it seems like some of the prior in the absence of doing a holistic plan, some of the prioritization seems to be are you indexed based on where the bond money is going today?

You mentioned for Powell Street and Barcadero, half of the money was covered by bonds.

I I would have to refer I would have to refer to the capital planning department for that for that question.

Sorry, supervisor, don't have an answer.

Okay.

Um in terms of the office to housing conversion, it seems like a lot of your you're saying the plan for Market Street is around housing and it's indexed on the office to housing conversion.

What's the pipeline today?

Do you have a context on how many planned conversions we have, conversations with developers?

What's the progress from a metrics perspective on that question?

There have been several conversations with developers.

Um but as you know, the the market is the construction costs are very high.

Um I'm aware of one approved project at 785 Market and another potential project in the works at 901 market for conversion.

How many units would be there?

Uh I don't have that information.

Okay.

If you could follow up, happy to get that.

Um then last question.

Um talk about a couple of different vision exercises.

I know in parallel there's a uh civic joy fund urban land institute study that's happening right now for other ideas.

Are there any other ideas in that public space component that resonated that you feel you might be investing in going forward?

Yeah, thank you for bringing that up, Supervisor.

Um the the reimagined market street comp competition from last year did solicit uh over a hundred uh interesting ideas.

The winning proposals did uh did spark a lot of interest and I think had some commonalities around greening lighting and particular furnishings and and generally ways to activate our public spaces and storefronts that uh that front them.

Uh the jury itself uh I think highlighted a couple of new ways to frame the the corridor, again, focusing on uh landscape trees and gardens that parallel pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure, uh more dense planting, as you know there are trees, but more greenery.

Um, and also amplifying nodes or the activity zones along Market Street.

We know it's a long corridor, it has different different needs and different strengths throughout it.

So really treating each node or cluster uh according to its needs and amplifying those strengths.

Um those were some themes I think that the planning department picked up on.

Um we've also anticipate that the Civic Joy Fund is uh putting together uh or exploring a sort of activation project to test many of these ideas and is working with city staff on understanding what's possible.

Last question on this one of the slides you mentioned about the public investment.

Um you said in your comments that um one of the things in progress is the theater arts district.

Um what is the commitment you're making as part of that process where it's stage of the process?

You said it's in progress.

Um what uh can you describe more about uh yeah?

We just wanted to recognize that the work that you had been leading or uh working on with public works.

I think there was a lot of streetscape proposals generated in partnership with the CBD uh and with with your office that could uh could really do a lot to activate, you know, to address a lot of those themes we just mentioned, right?

Lighting, greening, activation.

Uh so we supported in our role as the planners just with some of the outreach and uh design feedback to public works, but as of now we understand there are no resources to advance it.

So uh until then there is there is no more work for the planning department.

Thank you.

Any more questions for the planning department from colleagues?

Okay.

Next uh MTA.

Thanks.

I think we'll we'll get some of the answers that you were looking for up here in this one.

So um again, I'm Java Kronenberg, I'm a senior planning manager at SFMTA.

I'm joined by my colleague Jenny DeLumo, but I'm also joined um by Public Works Project Manager Christina Olea and our Muni Service Planning Manager Jessica Garcia.

So they'll be available for questions as well.

Um first I'm just gonna get a little bit of a context for Market Street for transportation.

Then I'm gonna just talk briefly about our capital and operating, how we are spending on Market Street, and then my colleague Jenny is going to cover this in progress Market Street loading evaluation that we're performing right now.

So just to be completely redundant, Market Street move San Francisco.

As Jeremy said, it's our like central destination, and as we grow and people come back, that is where people are going to be going to.

And for thousands of people a day, Market Street is how we get places.

Transit is the core of our sustainable transit service with trunk service from BART, Muni Metro, Muni surface routes, with a train coming almost every minute, a peak between BART and Muni Metro.

On the street, thousands of people use their personal bikes, family bikes, bike shares, scooters, and for them, it's the key spoke of our connected biking and rolling network that includes 45 miles of protected bike facilities, 32 miles of slow streets, and new car-free promenades.

Market Street is a dynamic place, and as it evolves and changes, SFMTA meets the moment.

As Supervisor Mahmoud, you just said, there's a lot of optimism, and historically that is also true.

So these are photos are some of the first that happened on Market Street.

Um after cable cars were invented here, uh they became multiple electric streetcar lines after the earthquake.

Um a parade down Market Street introduced the first diesel buses in 1964.

We restored historic streetcar service in 1990.

Our first green bike lane ever was painted on market in 2010, and our transit priority lanes were painted red in 2014.

So every single decade brings new challenges, changes, and choices to Market Street.

So I understand today there are very specific questions about capital improvements and autonomous vehicles on Market Street, but the issues of Market Street need to be contextualized in the broader work of SFMTA.

So as many in this room know, Muni operations and service is at a precarious moment with a real fiscal cliff ahead of us.

We're looking across our agency, we're working more efficiently, we're making the most of our limited resources.

Um, but given the projected deficit looming over us, we're actively pursuing a comprehensive package of funding from our voters.

Um saving Muni from devastating impacts is our top agency priority.

Um but with that said, we are using our limited operating and capital dollars with the utmost care.

So first, we're focusing maintenance dollars on our Market Street subway, which is the most critical link in our transit network.

Um we've been regularly scheduling fix-it weeks to address larger maintenance projects and upgrades in subway infrastructure.

Uh since February 2019, moderate subway delays are down 64%, and long delays are down 68%.

On our surface routes, with reduced revenue, we had to make minor service reductions in summer 2025.

We cut about 2% of transit service.

Um the SFMTA goal is to maintain routes and frequencies as much as possible and rebalance our resources to meet demand.

The current service plan in place takes advantage of that trunk service on Market Street itself and truncates lesser used feeder routes at Market Street transfer points.

So riders uh on at market can still transfer to other lines that remain on Market Street to complete their trips, or they can begin on lines that directly serve market, and that's actually what we did see happen in the last year is people moving from locals to rapids that remain on Market Street.

So we're seeing um demand shifting.

Um our street side, um, as we emerged from the worst of COVID closures, we worked closely with mid-market entertainment venues and businesses to improve loading and access to their destinations.

Um, a suite of loading solutions.

We coordinated with taxi dispatchers for events that led out later.

We facilitated valley parking.

We've worked with ride share providers so they understand and map cross street loading zones.

We've provided more bike parking for delivery services and provided new and updated loading zones on side streets, among other improvements.

Um we're also retiming traffic signals to make sure that Market Street is clear and cross-streets are operating effectively.

Um, so just how many people are we talking about?

We have close to 60,000 trips by Muni Metro and bus in March 2026.

Um bike share stations located east of Van Ness recorded more than 37,000 trips.

Um there have been 25% more biking and rolling rides taken on market since this time last year, with more than 46,000 trips made this month going west on market at 9th.

Um so just as we talked about Muni and streets day-to-day operations, the city is also thinking about capital investment in Market Street.

So in 2019, the SFMTA board approved a broad capital investment strategy for Market Street under the Bart Better Market Street plan.

It's the full length of Market Street from Octavia to Stewart, including thinking for every single mode and every single user of Market Street.

Um I just want to say like the assets of Market Street are primarily SFMTA owned assets, right?

We have executed on two major elements of this legislative project, and we continue to use this plan to guide transportation investment on Market Street as funding and opportunities become available.

So for very little capital funding and a big bang for our buck to address safety and transit reliability, SFMTA implemented private vehicle restrictions east of 10th in 2020 that built on years of efforts to prioritize moving people sustainably and safely wherever they need to go on Market Street.

Taxis, paratransit, licensed commercial vehicles, and emergency vehicles are fully allowed on Market Street and can perform passenger drop-off and pickup or general loading as needed on the street.

The agency during this time also added 100 new loading zones on cross streets to make it easy to get to Market Street on things that cannot be on Market Street, like Ubers, Lyfts, or private vehicles.

After project implementation, the street has seen a 40% sustained drop in crashes, a trend that's actually been sustained for the last five years.

At the start of the pandemic, both injury crashes and downtown activity significantly dropped, but as activity increased, our injury crashes remain down.

The project also reduced transit travel times on Market Street by up to 14%.

And following on this initial project of the private vehicle restrictions, public works, improved and upgraded mid-market sidewalks and streets.

This has resulted in a more accessible and beautiful public space with key investments in our state of good repair.

This includes five traffic signals at some of the city's highest injury and most geometrically complicated intersections, in addition to significant sidewalk and accessibility upgrades and a full paving of the curb lane.

So those were our two major capital investments in the past five years.

And I do know that there are specific interest in who is on the street and how, and I think I'm gonna pass it to my colleague Jenny to talk about our evaluation of the loading that is currently happening on Market Street.

So please come on up.

Thank you, Hava.

I'm Jenny DeLumo, project manager for the mid-Market Street loading evaluation.

And as you just heard, the city has been refining the transportation network for decades, iterating as new technology has emerged.

And similarly, in 2025, Mayor Daniel Lurie invited Waymo and a limited number of commercial plated vehicles that operate on the Lyft and Uber platforms to provide commercial passenger service on Market Street using seven loading bays.

Oops, sorry.

Using seven loading bays between 5th and 8th streets.

So in response, the SFMTA developed this loading evaluation.

The purpose is to ensure that the city retains the safety, um, street safety and transit effectiveness gained through the car-free market street private vehicle restrictions.

And the outcome of the evaluation will be based on three core metrics.

One, do transit travel times increase by more than 5%.

Two, does travel time variability increase by more than 10%?

And three, are providers stopping in the travel lanes.

But we also have additional safety, transit performance, and mobility metrics that we're tracking.

So there's three phases to the evaluation.

Data collection, early monitoring with limited operations, and the full evaluation with all day operations.

First, we kicked off the evaluation with an ambassador program and initiated coordinated enforcement with SFMTA's mobility services, our parking enforcement team, and the San Francisco Police Department.

Then during the early monitoring phase, Liv Black, Uber Black, and Waymo were allowed to begin very limited operations on Market Street while SFMTA closely monitor conditions.

At that time, we observed that median transit travel times between 8th and Beale Streets remained stable, while travel time variability increased modestly by about 20 seconds.

Both metrics remained below the respective thresholds of 5% and 10%.

We observed no decline in bike, scooter, or other micromobility trips in the bike lane on Market Street, and trips by taxi or period transit users remained largely unchanged.

Based on available injury collision reporting, we did not identify any injury collisions attributable to a service provider during this phase.

SFMTA staff then presented these early monitoring results to our board of directors on December 2nd of last year, and we were directed to move into the full evaluation phase and return with results when sufficient data was available to inform a recommendation.

Since then, we have continued monitoring Market Street.

Uber Black began offering full-day pickup and drop-off service at the seven designated bays on December 15th.

Lyft Black vehicles make trips on Market Street, but have only recently begun to do a limited number of pickups and drop-offs on the street itself.

Waymo also drives on market, but they have elected to delay full pickup and drop-off service to ensure a reliable customer experience when loading bays are full.

Our evaluation is still in progress, but we've not identified or observed, I should say, any significant changes to date.

Muni travel times and travel time variability still remain below their respective thresholds and are currently at levels consistent with March of last year.

Based on the data currently available, we have not identified injury collisions attributable to a service provider during this phase.

And as Hava shared, trips by bike, scooter, and other micromobility modes in the bike lane, bike share trips, and overall transit ridership on Market Street corridor are higher than they were this time last year.

We also monitor average daily traffic on Market Street.

And compared to July of 2025, when we kicked off the evaluation, as of March of this year, weekday traffic volumes are slightly lower while weekend volumes are slightly higher, suggesting no substantial increase in traffic and traffic volumes on the street based on those two dates, those two months of data.

Our next steps include conducting a public intercept survey, interviewing Muni transit operators and market street businesses, and conducting loading bay utilization observations.

We'll also continue to monitor the safety, transit performance and trafficking conditions, and we'll report findings to the SFMTA board and through other forums.

Considering the best way to provide loading access to businesses and residents on Market Street, it's just one way we're thinking about how the corridor can grow and thrive.

But we understand this is just a tool and a larger toolbox that our colleagues at OEWEWD will also share.

Thank you.

Thank you, Haven, thank you, Jenny, for the presentation.

A couple questions on the TNC pilot and then some questions more broadly on Better Market Street as well.

So just to repeat what I feel I heard.

So basically with the pilot today, the only company that has been leveraging it so far has been Uber, and correct me if I'm saying Lyft and Waymo are still in the process of starting to adopt it.

When we um told the providers that they could start full evaluation as of December 15th, Uber Black said they would be ready to go on that date.

We've only we've recently heard from Lyft Black that they're piloting a small number of pickups and drop-offs just recently, and Waymo was not doing pickup and drop-off on Market Street.

Okay, so the last four months only Uber really has been starting to get and Lyft a little bit.

Okay.

Um do you have data on how many drop-offs Uber and Lyft, I guess to some extent have done so far?

We're still um we have some round numbers about the number of trips they've done, and we're still digging into the actual the pickup and drop-offs from them.

Do you have the round numbers?

Yeah.

Um they collectively take about 250, under 250 trips on Market Street per day, which averages to about 10 trips an hour.

Okay.

Uh 10 trips an hour from those respective companies are using the loading zones today.

10 trips just on Market Street driving, not necessarily pick-em drop-off.

That would be a smaller subset that we're working with them to better understand.

Okay, you don't know how many that the pickup and drop-off they've actually leveraged of those loading zones yet?

Not as not no.

Understood.

We um sorry, go ahead.

Uh in that context, uh, is it safe to say that you said there hasn't been thank you for covering the metrics of uh sounds like the five and ten percent thresholds for what is re what you're designating as reasonable?

Um is that correct in terms of what you're trying to make sure the buffer is below?

Um is it safe to say that maybe there hasn't been because the utilization is so low that we haven't seen any of that potential disruption that could have been possible as well.

And it is possible.

Um in that context, umultaneous to this decision around adoption of uh this change for TNC loading zones.

We saw service cuts to Muni.

Um do you have any data specifically around the five and the and the nine being removed during rush hour and the six being removed entirely?

Um, how that has affected um service ridership overcrowding or less adoption uh along Market Street corridor as well from a public transit perspective.

Am I pass this one to my colleague in service planning, Jessica Garcia?

Hi, good afternoon.

I'm Jessica Garcia, the service planning manager in transit at the SFMTA.

And so, yeah, for the past year, we've been looking to see how the ridership has changed on the routes that were impacted by the service cuts last year.

In the most part, the the five R and the five local have seen the a big shift from the local to the rapid.

So crowding has actually gone down on the five local, but the rapid has increasingly gotten more and more crowded.

So we have been trying to find ways this last year to address the crowding.

So back in February, we had to make some changes to the fleet sizes that are on the route due to the closure of our Pero yard.

So we increased frequency during that time pointed to the project.

And then this summer we're also looking at ways to add some additional trips where we're seeing some of that acute crowding uh during the peak periods.

Um we saw a similar pattern on the nine and the nine R.

We've seen more local ridership go to the rapid, uh, but in that case, the the rapid is able to absorb it.

So we're not seeing extreme crowding or higher levels of crowding on those routes.

When can people expect to change see that those shifts to the five R then?

Uh we are planning a service change in June.

So probably by mid-June, we're hoping to see some alleviation, and then we're also continuing to work on other solutions to try to address the crowding that we're seeing.

Because overall, we are seeing you know a higher percentage of people traveling downtown, and we're seeing a growth in our metro system.

Um I don't think that's all just due to the changes that we made last summer.

I think there's also uh people coming more downtown for work and things like that.

So we're we're looking at all of those factors to see what's the best way we can leverage our resources that we have.

Understood.

Um second last question, I think on this context is one of the challenges I think that came from community last year was when these decisions were being made was um kind of a sense of distrust because there was not really a transparent communication process about how these decisions were made, um, particularly around the TNC pilot.

Um, what will public process look like going forward to make sure that community on the market street and the neighbors are um made aware of any future changes that are happening around service or TNC pilots as well?

So I I can speak to the the market street or the muni service changes that we made.

I know we had a really rushed process um to be able to balance the budget last year.

Uh so we did our best to do a really extensive um outreach process to get the feedback on what types of changes uh a ridership would be able to sustain with the resources we had, and we landed on using the underutilized capacity that we had on Market Street with those service changes.

So I I can't speak for the TNC outreach.

I'll I can hand that back to my other colleagues.

But in general, I think, yeah, we want to be it was it was a timing issue.

It was just a coincidence that those things lined up at the same time, but that was not part of driving our decision making and and making the changes to MUNI service.

Got it.

Uh can we hear about communication on TNCs going forward?

Oh, I'm sorry, can you repeat the question, Supervisor?

Again, the the concern last fall was that uh it came as a surprise uh to a lot of the stakeholders, uh, even the supervisors, but also the community, the neighborhood about that this TNC pilot happened.

Um what will be done as a public process going forward to ensure that uh the community and the neighborhoods and the districts are informed of new changes or proposed changes before a change is actually final.

And not just not just respect to this evaluation, but any changes on Market Street?

Um this pilot and also in general about cars and transit um on the on the market street, yeah.

Yes, and we um we understand and and respect those concerns.

Our evaluation will like our our next step is to do additional robust data collection and to take the time to really dig into the numbers from the providers, the numbers that we're seeing about transit bikes, um, other micro mobility to really understand what the effect is on the types of services that that they're providing and to come up with recommendations that we can then talk to our advocates and other stakeholders in the corridor about and then take that to our um board of directors at SFMTA.

So you'll go through that because I think part of the concern is like we mentioned with the service cuts, there was that public discussion process before a final decision was made, but on this pilot, there wasn't that public, there wasn't an opportunity for the public to weigh in.

So you're saying that any changes to the TNC pilot going forward, whether we add more cars or take away cars or service uh members in there, it'll go to the MTA board for discussion.

Yes.

Um more broadly um we covered a little bit about Better Market Street and kind of the sidewalk level bike lanes that were proposed were pretty exciting.

Um can you walk through why the decision was made to move away from the original SQL cleared version and what might be the future of that component of the plan as well?

And what might be the future of that component of the plan as well.

Sure.

So you know, every project we do is CEQA cleared.

So we um did clear an original vision of Market Street in the 2019 Better Market Street legislation that the SFMTA board approved.

Um and subsequently, about a year and a half later, um, there was a large item heard by our board again.

And so we have um we did hear significant public outreach and feedback on this decision to move away from the uh cycle track, the original cycle track and shift it back to a uh street level um bikeway.

And so the thinking then that was shared with our board and with others is that the cycle track um at sidewalk level uh varied between five to eight feet um, you know, depending on the sidewalk and and everything else that was going on in the street.

Um we knew that immediately it would actually be under serving the number of bike riders that needed to be on it.

Um, you know, that is a very narrow bikeway.

Um and so uh the the thought is to leave the bikeway at the street level.

Um that is also more cost effective, right?

Like moving anything on market street costs an arm and a leg.

Um so whether we are uh narrowing a sidewalk or shifting a um boarding island, that is gonna be a very expensive endeavor.

And so the current um approved version of Better Market Street has the bicycle facility on the sidewalk level and um consolidating all of transit service into the center lane.

Um that is predicated on a number of significant capital upgrades that are currently not in our capital plan.

But that is something that we're always thinking about and working towards as funding becomes available and as opportunities sort of move ahead.

Um we do still have that infrastructure plan in place that we can advance.

Can you actually put up the slide with um some of the curb cut actually?

Um slide um Is this one?

Yeah.

I just want to acknowledge on the ride that Jenny and I and the advocates went on, uh, several people commented specifically on that uh one and really complimented the innovation there to be super helpful.

Um so just want to acknowledge and thank you for for doing that one and hopefully see more of those as well.

So the uh last question is on the TNC pilot.

I guess Hava, would you say that as of right now, is it meeting your expectations for what the results would be at this mid-cycle point?

Um and would you say it's a success or not?

So you know, we don't I didn't have any expectations.

Commercial vehicles were never prohibited on Market Street at any point, um, which is why these vehicles are all on Market Street, right?

So any anyone with a commercial plate is entitled to be on Market Street, and that was always um intentional, right?

That was a thought that um people who are like a plubber or doing a moving truck or anything else um need access to those loading zones and need to provide the services that they are providing.

Um there is certainly that the idea that currently um our autonomous vehicle fleets are commercially plated is not something that we would have known in 2019.

And it is not something that we could even know in five years, right?

The uh the space is really dynamic and truly changing, and we're not gonna be able to anticipate every moment in the future.

But what I think is certainly true is that we have a lot of um rules about our curbs and who can use the street um on market street already, and that there is a certain amount of nimbleness that the SFMTA board um can use.

So as we see things changing, so just to come back to your question, we haven't seen things changing, right?

Um so I didn't have expectations, but based on what Jenny said, we haven't seen things changing.

Um but we are monitoring it and we are concerned about not just this, but any other change that might come to Market Street.

And as that happens, like that is the whole point of Market Street.

It's never gonna be one size fits all legislation that is gonna be good for a hundred years.

We spent 100 years fixing, nipping, and tucking in 2020, we made some really big changes, but we are continuing to nip and tuck as things come along.

And I, you know, I'm proud of our board for continuing to push us to make those changes.

Sorry, last question before one of my colleagues.

Um you mentioned loading zones.

When we were on that bike ride, we actually saw a lot of non-commercial vehicles parked in the loading zones and sometimes double parked on Market Street as well.

I think it was at least almost a dozen cars that we saw parked.

Um is that a concern that you've seen happen at an increased level since the public permission to have commercial loading the Uber Lyft uh in the loading zones?

Is it the same level of double parking that you're seeing prior to that announcement?

Um and also what are you doing to address that as well?

I'll let Jenny speak to it if if she wants, but I think fun that is what the evaluation is for, and so we're still underway, it's still ongoing.

We haven't parsed all that information and data.

I'll let Jenny speak to it if if she wants but I think fun that is what the evaluation is for and so we're still underway it's still ongoing we haven't parsed all that information and data um you know we I will say that before 20 what you're 2025 um you know we definitely see some noncompliance and our enforcement our PCOs are out there and they do issue tickets um and so whether we've seen a change I can't speak to that but I'll let Jenny say yeah you want to oh no sorry about that we got so our answer is no we are not ready to yet sort of report out on our evaluation of what's happening but that is something we are currently doing and paying attention to.

Yeah just the concern is that if we're not seeing an uptick in utilization but we're seeing an uptick in in abuse uh by noncompliant actors that would be concerning so yeah so that is something we will certainly be evaluating and considering and reporting back on.

Appreciate it Supervisor Chen Thank you Supervisor Matmoo.

I have a question I know that it's only four months is the TNC vehicles on Market Street.

You are still trying to collect data but I still want to know if any of data or analysis it's already available to understand um the uh the degrees of influence because of TNC cars um uh on market street that actually encourage or or uh move people uh to use more alternative transportation methods such as public transit or um bicycle also yeah I think uh the answer is the same which is that we have not uh first of all we're not seeing a dramatic uptick in the usage from those providers specifically and then on the same level we have not even finished the evaluation thereof of all the different impacts or non um or non-impacts um of this sort of um commercial plated passenger loading and and in the future when you uh have more data and longer uh time uh period for evaluations would you consider that and then see you know how cars a TNC related or weymo um eventually on Machestrian how would that influence uh um people's behavior of choosing alternative yeah I think that is exactly the intention of this evaluation I think that there is um certainly we've heard public concern um that these um some of these are emerging areas and that the MTA does need to be paying attention to this and so that is precisely why Jenny is leading this evaluation and if um there are decisions that need to be made that are related to changing what kind of access or loading is provided on Market Street and we will be bringing that to the SFMTA board.

Thank you.

Okay I am going to be thoughtful about my comments because I don't want it to cost me any friends.

No but I think you know this is I think you your presentation was I think to the crux of the issue I um I think the MTA is in just a tricky position because everyone what blames you for everything in this case you in your presentation stated that we needed to contextualize this in the work of the MTA and you talked about uh your assets which is most of Market Street.

It's your every and then under it too the infrastructure it's all yours.

So while you um get blamed for everything at the same time, I think you do sort of take possessiveness of a lot of it because you want control because it's so many of your assets and so much of what your work is charged for.

It but I would you know push back on that because it's not all yours.

So you know your presentation was about how important market street is to the transportation infrastructure of the city everything goes by there you know and getting people from point A to but point B.

But in addition to it being a street in a thoroughfare Market Street also is important for us in any number of ways.

So it is not just a thoroughfare it is also a destination.

And so and you have no control over that part of it.

So like how attractive a destination it is how it feels as a destination what it looks like, what the policies are, what the tax policies are for that destination and how that destination is important to our budget because almost 60% of the um income that the city and county of San Francisco gets is from tourism and hospitality that is all along you know not just right on Market Street but all adjacent to Market Street are major concentration of you know hotel uh tourist hotel zone parcels, uh our entertainment district, all of those things it's an ecosystem, right?

And so while you as an MTA are making decisions for what is most efficient, what you know, how overcrowded the buses are, uh, whether or not people are coming to the loading and unloading zones, you really have no control or are keeping track of you know why people would come and unload, you know, in front of ACT, whether or not there's some place to eat after the show, whether it feels safe for a 12-year-old girl.

I'm just saying this because you know, uh, we had a uh a town hall meeting that your MTA director came to last this weekend uh for uh this uh district seven youth council.

It was great, the kids are great.

But I asked them this question because they had a lot of questions about downtown and about Market Street.

Um I'm like, why do you all go to Stonestown?

Because as everybody knows, is the after school program, right?

For all of the high schools on the West side, and on any given day after three, it's like full of people full of kids, right?

It's right on the M, very accessible to public transportation.

And the the the what they told me was like it's not fun on Market Street.

It's fun at Stonestown.

They have, you know, round one, they have all those things.

They can get there by public transportation, just like they can on Market Street, but yet they're not going because it's not fun.

And it also doesn't feel safe to the kids, right?

And so all of those things, public safety, all that that has nothing to do with your jurisdiction or work plan.

And so I think it is kind of a a bum thing to put it on your lap and say, go solve this, because it's not really for you to solve, um, and it's a different thing.

And another thing that, you know, you said in the presentation were about, you know, muni muni travel times and how important that was, and it's important to everyone.

Um, and I'm wondering, you know, what the relationship is between you thinking about Muni travel times and the fact that you know, late at night and we want bodies on the street, um, you know, that's when Muni decreases its frequency, you know, what's a real you know, so so I just think that you know what we're measuring as measures of success, you know, may or may not align with who um is being charged with doing most of the work for creating success, because it's not all on you.

So I I don't know if there was, you know, a question in there.

I just had to say it because, you know, I do think, you know, for Vision Zero for everything, everybody's like MTA get it done.

And I'm not sure that that's right here.

It's it's because it's not all on you.

I think this is a collective effort that we need to figure out in terms of it's our living room.

Market Street is our living room as a city, right?

And and yes, you know, getting to the living room and the front door now, that's on, but but it's not all on you.

I appreciate there wasn't exactly a question there, but I do want to like give you a rejoiner and say, like we I hear you.

First of all, like I think I think that's what we were hoping to convey.

MTA, but also the city understands that Market Street is not just a through street, it is a two street.

It is it has to do double duty.

And you know, I don't know why, but nobody's people.

Nobody parades on South and S.

They parade on market, right?

Like this is a a two and a through place, and MTA is very thoughtful about that unique role that Market Street has.

And that is why we're actually sandwiched between our friends at planning and OEWD, because it isn't on us, and we do absolutely need the support of our city partners.

And I really appreciate how much work they're gonna do.

I know OEWD is gonna come up after us, so I think that that's a really nice way for them to speak to how do we make it more of a two place, right?

It used to be a two place because of employers, and as the post-COVID shifts out, we have to think about that.

So let's go back to I will ask you a question.

Let's go back to the Waymo issue, because that's something that my colleagues have brought up.

So how you uh answered it was we haven't really seen a change.

We haven't seen an increase.

But you know, what is the measure of success for putting Waymo back on Market Street?

Like I get it that they always had commercial vehicles that, you know, whatever.

You know, I am gonna be for the moment agnostic on, you know, whether or not we have Waymo on Market Street, but if we're gonna have them, because I, you know, right street on the daily on my bike, I have not seen Waymo's on Market Street, really, very rarely.

What I have seen is a market uptick of people in private vehicles after that happened.

It's almost like it was carte blanche, you know, for people to say, oh, I can do this because Mayor Lurie said it's okay, you know.

And so and but enforcement of that is not on you.

You're you have no jurisdiction on that.

It should be SFPD somewhere, someone should be keeping track of it.

So, you know, I'm just wondering, like what the marker of success is whether or not it has uh done anything to muni travel times or whether or not the delivery, you know, spaces are being used.

And I'm not sure that that's a measure of the success.

Because what I want to know is, you know, does it does it feel safer for people who are biking or you know, in in yes or no?

And if it's worth you know, us not feeling as safe as we used to, because there's more people breaking the rules, um, is it worth it?

Because people are actually coming to ACT on shows from you know the suburbs uh in taking away most.

And you're you that's not within your jurisdiction to keep track of, right?

You're not keeping track of whether or not the businesses are more successful because of that decision, whether people are taking advantage of different modes of transportation, whether you know, uh, people who are older who would be reluctant to take muni at 11 o'clock at night are now more like none of those things are under your jurisdiction.

So are you do you think that you the measure of success that you're using is the adequate measure of success?

Um well, I think we have those very specific metrics that you gave, but we also had a whole set of other questions that we are evaluating and asking.

So I don't want us to only say that those are the only measures of success.

I think it's gonna be a whole set of things that we are currently evaluating and considering.

I want to say specifically that we do include the idea of people um on bikes being safer.

So we are doing, you know, again, our data is sets are very limited, and like we do not want a collision, but we are tracking these things.

We are looking at them, um, we are considering them, and when we complete this evaluation, I believe we're gonna have like more to say than just like whether Muni is up or down.

This is just our like sort of interim outputs that we can track because they're longitudinal, but we are collecting very specific one-time data.

So if Jenny wants to provide any more color commentary on that one, go ahead.

No.

Yeah.

But I think you're you're asking, are we thinking holistically?

The answer is yes.

We really want Market Street to succeed.

And so this evaluation, and then I I do want to say again, like this is whether our wonderful amazing destinations succeed.

Um, it's this is just like a sort of small piece of that bigger puzzle, and that's where we need our colleagues at OEWD.

And so I know they have not yet presented, but I think that they're gonna share how they're thinking about this much broader, right?

It isn't gonna be seven loading zones that are gonna make the difference here.

Um we do have a broad suite of transportation solutions after 10 o'clock, which includes our taxi industry, which includes cross streets for TNCs, which includes, you know, a bike share station, so you don't have to leave your bike out at the theater for three hours.

You can just take um a ride chair that has a nice light on it.

So, you know, we are a multimodal agency.

Not every uh mode is gonna be the perfect one for the trip you are making today, but we are hopeful that we've provided enough great solutions that people feel like they have the right things at their hands um so that they can make a choose a sustainable choice.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, MTA, and all the speakers who presented uh therein.

I'll have now Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

All right.

Can we have the presentation, please?

Thank you.

Good afternoon, supervisors, um, Chair Melgar, Vice Chair Chen, and Supervisor Mammoon, thank you for calling this hearing.

So today, uh my name Diana Ponce de Leon, director of economic uh community economic development at the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

I will be presenting uh collectively on behalf of all of our divisions today and all the programs and projects and policies that we've been implementing with a view of the citywide, right, to remove and create opportunities uh for the San Franciscans as and our local economy, but as well, how do we take a neighborhood-based lens, uh, such as in this case Mid Market or Market Street and apply some of those policies as well as customize it based on what we're seeing as opportunities and challenges at the local level and with very close partnerships with uh nonprofits and CBOs on the ground.

So our mission is to advance equitable and shared prosperity for San Franciscans.

We support businesses of all sizes, create great places to live, work, and help everyone achieve economic self-sufficiency.

So whether it's looking at um businesses and attracting them to San Francisco to create jobs to keep us competitive, and also supporting our workforce pipeline to those jobs, and whether it's also supporting our small businesses removing barriers and challenges and uh proposing new policies that can do that is what we do across all of our divisions.

Next slide, please.

So I'm gonna start with our business development team who has been working on implementing some pretty popular programs that you have heard of, our entertainment zones at a citywide level to create and make it easier for uh neighborhoods to be able to activate and support businesses with the ability of uh being able to have alcohol on the streets.

So instead of bringing vendors from the outside, now with entertainment zones, we can support those small businesses along those corridors with the activations with uh people being able to purchase from those locations.

Um of those entertainment zones is actually uh on market suite between 5th and 6th streets.

Um SF Live.

So as a response to uh we have seen much positive attraction in terms of downtown uh more activations in terms of the city as a whole in San Francisco, more positive outlook.

So with that, we were hearing from our smaller venues and theaters uh that they wanted some of that attention to.

So SF Live was created as that effort to really draw traffic and be able to have a calendar of events across the city for our smaller venues, including like the function and and some of the smaller theaters across the city, so that people that wanted to visit San Francisco can now see across the board where are where are those um more neighborhood-based um businesses where they could come and enjoy smaller acts and performances.

Um specific to uh Market Street, uh, we have a project where um CAS was able to leverage the SF Community Investment Fund in the amount of four million dollars to be able to uh promote the arts and affordable space on Market Street.

So that was very exciting.

They are now there, it's a very successful project.

Next, please.

Also, just uh lastly, um our business development group does also keep investing, uh sorry, engaging with hotels as well as businesses that may be interested in some of the vacancies along Market Street.

So that engagement is continuous, as well as the Office of Small Business.

We have a uh leasing and commercial assistance.

So they've seen an uptick in a lot of interest, especially from the East Bay in office space, that's maybe B and C category.

Uh so given the changes, some of the positive changes we've seen on Market Street of safety and perception and cleanliness, that we've seen an uptick in interest.

We have uh with that said, we know we have a lot more work to do, but we are seeing some positive um impact based on some of the work.

Next slide, please.

So, in terms of our community economic development division, this is where we work very closely on the ground with our partners to develop and support the capacity, but also really coordinate and plan different strategies based on what we're seeing on the ground and what they're seeing.

So, two main partners, well, th really three entities that we work very closely with in this area are mid-market, uh CBD, uh Civic Center CBD.

Um obviously I didn't mention all the other CBDs in downtown, but I'm focused here on mid-market, in addition to the mid-market foundation.

So we do fund that very closely, the vision of creating a space for art, filling vacancies, um, and deploying our small business grant programs to also support some of those efforts.

Um of the programs that are mid-market uh partner supports are the busket, right, unstage, which we partner up with the entertainment zone to leverage that, and we've seen also a huge narrative shift in terms of the interests along for people to come to Market Street to experience those.

We've also partnered very closely through those programs with our local businesses to make sure that people aren't just coming to the performances, but that they're eating, drinking, staying.

We have a craft program right now where we are programming on a weekly basis with Mid Market Foundation as a partner, um craft activities that are very popular to support it within our businesses, so then people hang out, they eat, they drink, and they support.

So those are some of our programs.

Um then generally.

Oh, so I just went over these.

They also have a very strong um retail activation component.

So we support the funding and the staffing, not just for marketing, but also for business recruitment.

So they have this program where the model is to be a master leaser for a few spaces.

They then invest in the space, build it out, attract the business to it to remove some of the risk, right, so that they can try it out and activate it so that it creates a center of attraction for others.

So we've done that at three different locations.

Um I think might be on the next slide.

But some of those are Holy Stitch, the red tail beer and wine, but that is now closed, but that was one of one of the businesses attracted, and RoarShack.

Um, and some of those, you know, the goal is that if it works out, they can sign a longer-term lease, and if it doesn't, it's okay.

We work on attracting uh another business in its place.

And with that I think that's it.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um and really appreciate all the partnership um we've had on investing along the corridor and helping a lot of the businesses as well.

Um I want to dive into kind of some of the initiatives you've represented and kind of understand their efficacy and maybe data around uh progress uh they're in so far.

Um an overall investment perspective, you covered a lot of different initiatives, but along the kind of similar questions I had for planning in the beginning, there's multiple parts of the market street corridor from embarcadero to the front street, second street to 4th Street to Powell to Mid Market.

Where do you see the current prioritization from your department um along that corridor and how are you deciding relatively on where to prioritize?

Yeah, so in this environment of budget constraints, our budget has been significantly impacted.

So with that, again, downtown has been a major, major focus, obviously as our economic engine that benefits across the city.

We also have neighborhood programs, so that it's it's not one or the other.

We we do all all of it.

But a high concentration has been in downtown, right?

But with that also has been also a scale back as we've proven concept in many of those activities.

Obviously, there's this public-private partnership with the DDC, so a lot of the private funding is now supplementing, and actually we're we're pairing back a lot of the downtown funding that's general fund.

Mid-market actually has an assigned staff person to help support some of those partnerships keep going.

Again, we also uh fund our nonprofit partners as well as our abutting neighborhoods, right, such as the tender loin, they all work together, and so it is a priority of ours.

Um we have an assigned person there as well as we leverage all of our staffing and programs from our other departments, from other divisions.

How do you define downtown?

I would consider mid-market and TL as part of downtown as well.

So if there's a distinction, what is the current investment for downtown?

There's like the DDC has their own, right?

Now we have we have investments.

So to your point, we have investments in the tender loin, we have investments in mid-market.

We also work with Soma Filipinas.

So for us, like that's all of our area of investment.

But there are specific targeted programs that have specific boundaries in the core of downtown financial district, et cetera, that are different.

Now we deploy, you know, based on different geographies.

So we have had programs that are very specific to only mid-market, only tenderloin as well.

And we define those at that time.

Again, just to clarify, you're saying there were budget cuts, and so you've prioritized more investment in downtown.

Can you establish again how much money relatively is being invested in downtown versus tenderloin versus mid-market?

I don't have the totals right now, but I will say downtown and TL are very higher in investment than mid-market currently in terms of our grant funding.

Got it.

Um in terms of one of those investments, I know something that's really excited about was the store for an opportunity grant, uh, particularly on mid-market and on TL, I believe.

Um where other corridors are they on on Market Street, the opportunity grant?

So we have um market, sorry, I don't have off the top of my head which ones all of our SOG are throughout the city.

Uh we have Bayvie, Tenderloin, Mission Street, Market Street.

Um I forgot what the other ones are.

Maybe just focus on TL and mid-market then.

Um what has been I know the deadline for those grants is coming up.

Um what has been the adoption or application rate?

Are people interested?

How's that going?

Thank you for the plug.

Yes, please, mid-market businesses.

We have anywhere from 50 to 100,000 to attract small businesses uh to mid-market.

We have not received well, I think there's some potential right now applications, but really the end of because our funding we have to get it before the end of the fiscal year out, so the end of May is the deadline.

So I do encourage any business that may be interested small business in locating to either uh to mid-market or the tenderloin to reach back out to us.

Have you had applications to the tenderloin yet?

Um the tenderloin we actually closed our application, sorry, we closed our application process.

We have a few in there that are we're for that for that process, it was like they adopted, they were interested in the tender loin and we're now helping them look for space.

Is there a reason why you feel you got more adoption for the tenderloin than mid-market?

This part of the process?

Well, the the application periods were different.

They were two tracks.

So one open later, so mid-market open later than tenderloin.

Okay.

Um of the investments you covered as well were like entertainment zones.

Um big believer in them.

I think we've adopted a lot of them across the city.

Um what uh have you seen on the times where the entertainment zones were not active?

Um, have we seen a recurring foot traffic build more in the neighborhoods where entertainment zones are there relative to the ones that they weren't, or even pre versus post-entertainment zone?

I don't know that we keep track of that.

I know that obviously when we do have them, it has a huge boost.

Overall thesis of the question is do the businesses on that corridor benefit from an entertainment zone outside of the hours of the activations?

Yeah, that's a great question, Supervisor.

And we haven't yet done, we're actually in the process of starting to think about look back on a more structured way for entertainment zones over the the now one and a half years duration of that program.

Um because each entertainment zone is different, I think we're gonna want to be thoughtful to how to measure the zones that have more frequent activation versus the ones that are only recurring, you know, once a month or less.

Um so yeah, we're we're we're working on it, but we don't have any good data at this point.

Appreciate it.

No worries.

Um next is second last question is just um public safety.

I think is particularly on market street is a significant challenge.

Um obviously a lot of the perception around our city and downtown is really tied to the public safety perceptions as well.

Um I would actually ask in that context, it seems like there's more investment or focus on the eastern side of quote unquote downtown.

But the mid-market area, when people think of San Francisco, that's what they're seeing in the news.

That's what they're seeing online.

Um is that contextualized within OEWD or planning or any department that unless we invest more in the mid-market corridor, we're not gonna change the perception of San Francisco.

Um so that that's for me is part of the confusing part of what I've heard across today, has been there's a lot of focus on the embarcadero and Powell Street, but everything west of Powell Street is seems to be not being invested in at a relatively similar level, and that's hurting the image of our city.

We've actually um had a huge amount of investment.

Obviously, the um ambassador program urban alchemy started in the tenderloin mid-market area that has continued.

We have CBDs that also cover those areas just you know, um with ambassadors and cleanliness.

I think the UN Plaza with the restructure of the outside has seen civic uh civic center has seen also a huge impact on that.

That has been very different in that shift.

So I would say, especially with also the police cooperation and activation, we have seen, you know, um in the from the past years a huge, huge dramatic change.

And there have because of that investment.

So I would say there has been a huge amount of investment that has gone through for those efforts of uh public safety.

Again, we continuously have um you know a long ways to go.

Um but we are we have seen the progress and we're seeing it.

Like people are now interested, they're feeling a little bit safer, but we still we're still working very closely with the police department as part of those operations as well as our benefit districts.

To clarify my point of my question, 100% see the investments from public safety and urban alchemy on those investments, and that's making a uh progress therein that we're seeing right now.

My question is more so why aren't the public realm enhancement investments commensurate with the need from where the conditions seem unsafe?

Because as I think we can all agree when you make fundamentally infrastructure changes to the public realm, that is the number one thing that uh that creates a dissipation of negative street conditions.

Uh we saw the evidence of that uh at UN Plaza where it was converted into escape park, and we've seen such amazing improvement uh therein.

Um and we've seen kind of that investments going now into Powell Street.

I mean the the numbers we heard was that $32 million into embarquadero and then $22 million into Powell Street.

Um my question is more why aren't we seeing the same level of public realm enhancement infrastructure investment?

Maybe question for everyone that presented uh on mid-market as we are seeing on those other parts of the market street corridor when unless we change the public realm enhancement components of the mid-market corridor, we're not going to see a permanent change in street conditions.

Yeah, so um our jurisdiction is not the public realm, so apologies for that.

I think we heard a little bit around that.

We do focus within the storefronts, so f for us like within the storefront, we have you know murals, things like that.

So we are trying to make those physical improvements and invest in them.

Um and you know, again, our partners are are trying to do that even in the vacant storefronts to make it at least more inviting and feel more active through art, I'm gonna say.

So we in a in a smaller level, we do have that incorporated into our programming.

Um obviously, you know, given our budget situation, um it is limited.

Budget is an issue.

Okay, thank you.

Supervisor Chen.

Thank you, Supervisor Mat Moo.

Um, you know, from downtown, from the little time that I'm the supervisor at the board, um, I find they sometimes focus on larger corporations as an anchor for economic revitalization of the area hasn't always pay off.

Why mom and pop enterprises can be a real anchor of our neighborhood through thick or thing.

So I would like to know is the department done any analysis of the economic health and stability of our mom and pop enterprise.

So, in um in general, I gotta say that we have a huge focus on supporting our um small businesses.

The challenge are there, we see it in the sales tax.

It hasn't come back, the foot traffic right, because in especially in that area, um it was imp it's impacted similarly to downtown with the uh less use of office space, right?

And so that is something that we continue to work on.

However, in terms of grants and funding, right?

So we do deploy programs specifically to our small businesses for that.

We have our small business technical assistance, businesses can reach out to us if they need support in terms of their operations.

But also I gotta say, we um, especially in the areas that haven't seen as huge recovery after COVID, we did have as of late this year our SF Thrives grant application, which supported um businesses with up to 10,000 in um if they demonstrated uh expenses towards their business operations.

So many of businesses, especially mid-market and tenderloin and other areas uh benefited from that program um to help support them still in and and pay back some of those operations up to 10,000.

So we we have been deploying that.

Thank you for that.

I understand those programs.

Um District 11 is also benefited directly from it.

Have uh are we tracking data and how healthy and how stable are those store funds or small neighborhood enterprises that actually received it a grant uh before COVID, during COVID, uh right after COVID for the recovery post-COVID for the recovery, you know, do we have any report or analysis or evaluation that um um finds one grant is more impactful and then also finds um business in which neighborhood is more um beneficial to some of their grants?

Yeah, we do it based on need and opportunity.

Um and we haven't done to your point though, I think that's a good point, doing a survey for those all of our recipients that that have received grants to see how they continue to do.

However, we do um continue to outreach and provide them the services in terms of what is available to them.

Again, the Office of Small Business continuously um, you know, as businesses need help and support, that's how we get our feedback is directly from the businesses.

At the grand litter level, our indication of whether businesses are doing well or not within quarters is our our uh retail tax, right?

So that those are like at a larger level, and that's how sometimes we use that as a guide to then invest based on what we see there.

Thank you.

I I want to bring it back to market streaming, and I I I don't want to go out to citywide, but how do you assess uh needs and opportunity?

You just mentioned like based on needs and opportunity, and then how do you how's the department uh assessing needs and and opportunities?

Yeah, so obviously vacancies, right?

So if there's if we have more vacancies or large vacancies is a big challenge on market street, I'm gonna say.

Um and so we look at that.

So we're deploying attracting businesses to market, obviously, with our resources as well as our direct business attraction with people going out and talking, um, because then that creates more foot traffic, right?

Um if we have less vacancies.

So that's one of the measures that we look at.

Again, looking at sales tax.

Um we also it there's a big uh sort of narrative shift in terms of you know, when we're getting a lot of negative uh press on certain issues in the past when we have we've our partners have worked really hard to do these positive activations to really add something more positive in terms of what's happening now that people can come and be attracted to versus the negative, and that we have seen a big uptick in terms of interest of what's happening on market street.

Um so that's a huge thing for us too, is the marketing and and how we're seeing it portrayed or seen and the social media and the upticks.

Um this question might be you or might be the planning department.

Uh has there been any analysis done on what displacement pressure uh for small business in in market on market street?

Any data on displacement not specifically.

Does the planning department have anything to share?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Bonsa de Leon, for um the presentation.

So I had some questions about um what you're doing and then what OEWD is doing overall.

So I am very appreciative of your programs.

And then, you know, you uh talked about how you you're not a department that has like heartscape improvement responsibilities, but I'm wondering how you convey what you know, what you learn in terms of the success of your programs or the you know deltas that you see to those departments.

So I'm saying this because you know, as you noted in you know, your answers, there's been a lot of bad PR uh for this, you know, part of our city.

Um, and that has affected our tourism industry, which is our you know, largest industry, and it has affected the success of those businesses on Market Street.

And uh I also know that we were really slow to adapt to the changes in the retail environment that have happened all through the world.

So Union Square and our downtown was very heavily dependent on luxury retail that worked for us for a long time.

It brought in a lot of income for those businesses and for our city coffers.

But then, you know, luxury retail brands started faltering all over the world.

It wasn't just in San Francisco.

The Macy's men's store closed like eight years ago.

It was a really long time ago.

So people were not so you know happy to go up to the eighth floor in Nordstrom, you know, after somebody brings you a little box with whatever your heart desires to your door.

So a lot of things changed in the world.

And we didn't change our zoning, we didn't change our planning for this area, we didn't change a lot of things.

And so uh the there's a lot of work that we need to do, you know, design and and infrastructure improvement is part of it, but also like our business plan, because like I said, it's not just a thoroughfare, it's also a destination, and we need to justify, you know, the income the the capital improvements we're doing to the you know infrastructure for transportation because it's bringing people to the destination.

So the question is like the the programs that you're running, whether or not they're working, how do you how does that information translate to somebody like you know, Mr.

Jeremy Shaw in terms of the plans for the urban design that we're thinking about for Market Street?

How do that how does it inform you know the zoning decisions that we're making about what we need, conversion of commercial to how like how does that happen?

That's a great question.

Um, and so it happens at different levels, right?

So when we are taking a neighborhood, and maybe Jeremy, I don't know if you all want to talk about the bigger kind of looking at commercial retailers across the board.

We do talk policies and they often come to us to look at, you know, as we're looking at different corridors, whether it's a very neighborhood approach, right?

So we're looking at constantly changing even land use and zoning, right?

So one example right now is we're looking at our 24th Street SUD, right?

Um, after years of being implemented, we're evaluating and looking at it's had great success, but are there changes now?

There's a higher demand now that there's more stability in locally um owned businesses.

It's now potentially we're looking at expanding the number of restaurants that can go on the corridor.

Um and so we're constantly engaging as we're getting feedback, and to your point, as we're working on the ground, we're seeing an opportunity there, working with stakeholders, and then figuring out is there a land use intervention that is needed in this case.

We are looking in the tenderloin right now at uh looking at all the our makeup in terms of commercial, you know, uh makeup of of the neighborhood and seeing are there interventions here that we can that can promote, right?

Opportunities that maybe we didn't see before.

Um so we we have it at both levels, I would say, in terms of providing that feedback as they're creating and looking at policies as well at the neighborhood level as we're on the ground.

We do engage with them in conversations to see if that is one of the many interventions, right?

That we can deploy.

Thank you.

I had a couple more questions.

One was about like sort of public-private um, you know, um collaboration.

So, you know, uh I'm like IKEA is like my second favorite place in San Francisco, I will admit that.

Um when they opened, there was so much enthusiasm.

It was during the pandemic, somebody was investing on Market Street.

It's great, right?

Um, but then you know, we were Market Street was a mess at the time, you know.

Um, but I'm wondering in terms of like the um the pop-up, the um, you know, events that we do, how often or or whether you um time these things to support the private investment that does come, like an IKEA.

Do we plan things so that you know people like, okay, well, this store now opened up, you know, let's call attention, let's see if we can spruce up the sidewalk a little bit.

Let's see, you know, like those things I feel like are important for the ecosystem to then build on itself.

Um, and I feel like you know, there's a lot of opportunities that you know, just like we kind of let go because you know, we have the programs that we have, but then you know, we don't have something that's flexible enough to adapt or to collaborate with uh you know private investment.

Uh I well, we have especially in the IKEA case, I would say, like even with the restaurants in there, try different models, some of them didn't work.

So we're leveraging not only like attraction of business through our grants and we're proactively, so some of the new businesses that have come online have been supported through our office, but also as the mid-market foundation, a lot of their events are focused on there again to collaborate and support and keep that going, right?

But through the mid-market foundation.

Through the mid-market, through our Office of Small Business, through multiple, even like again, the ambassador program, as we were seeing things, how can we support?

So we do leverage our resources collectively as we're having those conversations, uh, you know, with our business, not just large businesses, but our small businesses too, the theaters as well.

So, in terms of looking at how can we um couple the the activations on Market Street to make it feel more welcome at the time when there's theater performances.

Why don't we do that?

So those have been uh collaborative efforts.

Um we make every effort to try to leverage everything we have to create a more positive space.

Thank you.

So uh my last question touches upon something that I think my uh colleague supervisor Chen was asking about, and that was like the small mom and pop businesses.

And I'd like to understand like how exactly we are doing that in uh market street and particularly um around uh Union Square, because you know, again to my district seven youth council kids, you know, when I asked the question, why aren't you going downtown?

Um what they said is aside from it being feeling like it was unsafe, it was expensive.

So I remember that hot dog place in the basement of Westfield was one of the last surviving, you know, uh eateries before they went under, but I think they were paying like 20,000 a month or something ridiculous.

That's like a lot of hot dogs, right?

Rents are high in this area, and a lot of them have been uh they're still leased up to like big box retailers, retailers that can, you know.

So um, so one of the things that the kids said is like it, you know, we would come and you know, like hang out on the street more if there was like, you know, there used to be a blondie's pizza, now there's not anymore.

There used to be, you know, those uh small business opportunities that could like interspersed with a luxury retail had an ecosystem that kind of worked.

Uh you you can't go backwards and recreate something, you know, that was there 40 years ago when there was a Woolworths, you know, right there.

But but what are we doing to sort of create those opportunities?

You know, is uh the office of you know, uh are your office actually like doing sub-leases or doing anything that can capture that real estate to try to at least temporarily provide opportunities, you know, and then by the same token, you know, before the pandemic, and this was a different world, right?

There used to be uh folks who shine shoes right on the sidewalk and flower sellers and people who had, you know, and some of the best um uh things that happen organically in our city is when people are you know having drum concerts on the sidewalk.

You know, there's there's a lot of opportunities for both artists and you know, uh, but but it's always like informal economy or smaller businesses.

And I just I wonder what we're doing because that does add to the vibrancy and it brings people because it's fun, and I don't see that happening as much as as it used to, organically or you know, with the help of of our government.

Yeah, I think there's multiple factors here based on the timing too of how things have happened, right?

So one rents did, you know, um were high at the height of it.

Um it has taken a while for rents to come down to support smaller businesses.

Um however, our our uh formalized lease negotiation intervention team with the Office of Small Business that you know we established maybe two, three years ago, um, as well as some brokers that we have on hand to intervene in those negotiations as well as partners.

So again, we're using so many different tools.

So our partners are also creating a lot of it is just creating that relationship with the property owners that maybe they didn't know there, or maybe they weren't willing to at some point.

Now we're seeing that a little bit more, both through again our CBO partners, but also our staff on the ground, creating those partnerships with the property owners.

That's one, right?

To then open the door for negotiation so that when we have the pipeline of small businesses, we can put them in, or we say we have a pipeline.

Um so we also have a website where we have made those um those lead those uh opportunities for leasing public, whereas before it wasn't.

So now there's access, and again, that's a tool that we use to incentivize property owners that maybe weren't listing before.

Now it's like, hey, we have this to offer, and we can bring you a business, and you don't have to pay us.

We're doing it.

So those partnerships and those relationships go a really long way.

Then we have pilot programs such as the one that Mid Market is implementing, as well as other neighborhoods throughout the city where they are um through city funded, they are sub, you know, getting the space, sprucing it up, creating that attraction point, and helping um sublease to new businesses.

Again, reducing the risk factor to allow for them to come in.

Midmarket is providing support for you know first year of rent too to offset some of that.

Again, we need people to take the chances with a little bit of city funding to help stimulate some of those opportunities.

Obviously, in downtown we have our vacant to vibrant, which is temporary, temporary pop-ups, right?

And in other neighborhoods, we have more of the let's help support negotiation of a longer term lease, which is what our storefront opportunity grant program, right?

Is long-term leases and us supporting um startup costs for those.

So, yeah, we have a variety of different tactics and strategies and programs that we do to do that.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm just curious.

I just have a thought.

Um in my district, you know, I we just celebrated to um child care center.

Uh the child care provider was able to acquire or purchase their home with supports from um uh government and also support from uh um community partners, not uh foundations, um, that it's really uh helping a business model of like asset-based approach.

I'm really just curious uh at the moment that um has the department engaging with any of our small business community about you know long-term investment so that they can continue to build on their assets to to becoming like you know a more stable part of our um mid-market or market street uh corridor.

You mean ownership?

Yeah, more or less or home uh ownership, asset-based approach.

Yeah, the one program I can point to is the new market tax credits, right?

Um, of which you know, um one of the organizations was able to take advantage of that.

So in terms of the purchase, that's our program that we have.

We don't have like small business um like purchase options for like their buildings and things like that.

Um again, we have it when they're occupying a vacancy to move into a vacant retail storefront, but not for ownership specifically.

Not for ownership.

Yeah.

And on Marga Street, we don't have, but what about you know, in the tendering, we also have a lot of uh mom and pop, smaller one, uh they be in and in business for a long, long time.

Uh sometimes it could be, you know, COVID could hit them very bad, but if they are able to uh have rent relief or they own some uh their own property, then it might change that they continue to be able to operate and and with grants uh continue to you know different programs continue from our OEW department that they were able to be more sustainable.

I would say the challenge to that is the significant amount of funding that it would take to actually make it um feasible for them to own their storefront right now.

Our grants, you know, and again uh are gonna be less and less every year.

Um and so we have to really just kind of prioritize where we um you know, again, based on filling the vacancies, et cetera, the longer term, the ownership would cost a lot more money to actually make a significant impact for businesses.

Got it, thank you.

Thank you, Diana.

Thank you, OEWD for um your presentation.

Uh Chairman Garth, other questions go to public comment.

Land use and transportation will now hear public comment related to agenda item number seven, a hearing on transportation and economic development on market streets.

If you have public comment for this item, please line up to speak along that Western wall.

Let's have the first speaker first come forward now to the lecture.

Hello, I'm a Soma West resident and wanted to raise three points.

First, people, businesses, and private investment will not return to Market Street if street conditions are poor.

Much of Market Street is between the tenderline and Soma, which have the highest crime rates and most challenging street conditions in the city.

Southern Station, which covers Market Street, is one of the most understaffed police stations.

The Market Street corridor has 80% of the city supportive services for vulnerable populations like the homeless.

We need to address the concentration of high acuity services and underinvestment and safety resources before we can expect market to be revitalized.

Second, the zoning and corridors around Market Street are such that it's difficult to develop housing and other um new development.

Industrial zoning is preventing market rate housing from coming in.

The NCT is only on 6th Street.

It's designed to prevent development.

And so we really need to change the zoning around the corridor and able to allow the revitalization that we need on Market Street.

Third, I'm a daily cyclist, and I'm asking you to schedule a hearing on reversing the 2020 ban on private vehicles on market.

The economic case for the ban has collapsed, and Market Street is paying the price.

The ban was a trade-off.

Lose private cars, gain a world-class boulevard.

But that boulevard is not coming.

The Market Street before better Market Street balloon to a $1 billion budget, which has been scaled back to $64 million in phase one.

And now MTA faces a $320 million budget deficit, as we just heard.

And we really need to change this policy in order to get some of the street traffic and activity back to Market Street.

We cannot revitalize downtown without revitalizing market.

And so I ask that you continue on this issue, schedule a hearing on car-free market.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, Supervisors Mark Gleason speaking on behalf of Teamsters Joint Council 7.

Our members, of course, are engaged in uh delivery logistics uh commerce uh throughout San Francisco.

And uh certainly we appreciate the focus today and I'm sure in the future of revitalizing and and improving uh the business sector of our city.

Uh that being said, you know, a aspect of our interest is always going to be, and really on behalf of those who don't have benefit of representation, but are engaged in deliveries of uh commercial uh small small parcels of uh office equipment of food services and others that are needed on on Market Street and the Market Street corridor to have a safe and efficient environment in which to work.

That would include the expansion of commercial loading zones, not just on Market Street, but also the Answell Streets of Stevenson, for instance, Ellis, uh Po Street, Geary, and so on, their diagonal two uh to Market Street, so that deliveries and goods and services can be delivered to this revitalized commercial corridor that we're all looking forward to.

So again, we appreciate the efforts today, and we look forward to being partners with those who want to expand and make the business commercial sector of our city thrive.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Susan Green.

I live in Noe Valley and I commute around town by transit and bike.

From 2011 to 2020, I commuted to work at Market in Maine, primarily by bike.

I'm retired now, so I don't bike that route daily anymore.

But last week I rode from Noe Valley to the embarcadero via Market Street to get to a medical appointment near Pier 27.

And I was struck by how little it has changed for cyclists since 2020 since 2020, despite years of construction.

If anything, it was worse due to more cars.

To make Market Street safer for cyclists, we need to get private cars off of Market Street.

To revitalize downtown, we need a vision for a market street that attracts people to a beautiful, safe, walkable, bikeable street with efficient mass transit, not unlike the original Better Market Street plan.

And finally, to achieve the mode shift goals in our climate action plan, we need protected bike lanes so that everyone, even 70-year-old retirees, feel safe riding their bikes down Market Street to medical appointments.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi there.

I'm Jamie Budget.

I'm the general manager of ATG San Francisco that operates the Olfium Theater, Golden Gate Theater, and um current theater.

Also proud employer of many ARTC uh members as well.

It's obviously no secret the challenges that we have in that area.

Obviously, uh some of it was mentioned today.

Um we just wanted to make sure that everyone uh heard our support for the supervisor's um plea for more investment in the area and especially his plans for an arts and entertainment district.

Um obviously all of uh those areas in questions are west of Powell as um as was highlighted, but we just wanted to make sure that uh our support was had.

Thank you for comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, supervisors.

Uh my name is Sean Auckland.

I'm a resident of Soma West Neighborhood Association.

Uh our association uh has the south side of Market Street from Fifth Street to Van Ness.

Uh Supervisor Mahmoud, I want to thank you so much for this hearing.

I think it highlights a lot of the disparities that we are well aware of uh, but that deserve attention.

And I agree that the corridor needs a vision from the city.

Um what I heard in the answers though ignores the foundational reality uh of this corridor that Market Street is currently being managed as a containment zone.

Tenderline to the north, Soma to the south, and Market Street as part of it in the middle.

A classic containment zone operates by funneling the city's most severe high acuity challenges into one specific geography, while simultaneously withdrawing its basic municipal services like police, public sanitation, and the very downtown recovery grants being highlighted here today that are being deployed east of Fifth Street outside the containment zone.

A few days ago in Mission Local, they asked our supervisor directly.

Is SOMA being treated as a containment zone?

That includes Market Street, and his answer was yes.

Look at the data.

Uh tenderline and soma together absorb 60% of the city's homeless beds and tragically have half of all fatal overdoses.

This is a deliberate policy choice from the city, and it is starving the corridor of private investment.

So the only actual solution to revitalizing market mid-market and market street is to economically integrate it with the rest of San Francisco.

That requires three immediate actions committing to true geographic equity by deconcentrating services, bringing cars back to Market Street to ensure vitality, and also ensuring that recovery grants are distributed equity equitably rather than withheld from the containment zone.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

I commute downtown every day by taking Muni.

Sometimes I bike if it's nice outside.

My coworkers and I walk to get lunch downtown on nice days, we'll walk all the way to the ferry building.

Uh car free market makes working downtown not only manageable but enjoyable.

The high service from public transit is incredibly convenient.

And I love being able to walk and bike around safely.

The annoying parts of market are parts where cars come into the equation.

The bice the bus or bike lanes tend to get blocked by cars illegally parked on market.

And high traffic intersections like battery front or uh the embarkadero highway tend to get blocked by cars and uh make intersections difficult to cross as a pedestrian.

I love Muni.

I want it to be expanded, but sometimes it feels like the city, even the SFMTA itself, does not want it to be expanded.

Issues like allowing Waymo's and other TNCs on car-free market right after cutting Muni service on market are what make me think this.

I don't understand how granting TNCs an exception to car-free market contribute to the revitalization of downtown in any way that we couldn't get from increasing transit service and doubling down on pedestrian and biker safety.

The pilot being run right now is meaningless when we're only seeing 10 Ubers an hour take advantage of it.

I don't need a pilot to tell you that these TNCs are going to worsen traffic congestion and worsen pedestrian and biker safety as they ramp up operations.

And as Supervisor Mogar and Machmood point out, the pilot is being exploited by private vehicles to illegally drive and park on market.

I urge the SFMTA to close the commercial vehicle loophole and reaffirm Market Street as a car free street.

Thank you.

Thank you for comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, supervisors.

Uh my name is Michael Halpern.

I'm a uh real estate broker here in San Francisco.

I have dealt with uh buildings in mid-market for the past 25 years.

Appreciate you having this meeting.

Uh of course, needed.

We've been here before.

Um I wanted to first just say thank you, OEWD.

These guys do a great job, and honestly, you guys should fund them even more.

Just a plug for them because as someone who works with small businesses exclusively, these guys have been front and center making that happen during our recovery here.

So you guys.

Um secondly, as far as midmarket itself, I mean the challenges there are there's just no people working in the buildings.

So as a broker, I've been trying to get folks back in those buildings.

The ground floor itself, when you look at the streetscape, most of those spaces are actually filled.

And they're filled with businesses that are trying to hang on the best they can.

And by doing so, um, I've been struggling.

And it's not just the rents, it's the customers.

Um a few years ago I came to the supervisors and I said, gosh, you know, mid market's troubled.

Would you feel comfortable having your 12-year-old go to Civic Center BART station or take Looney downtown?

And the same is true today as it was a few years ago.

The answer is no.

I have four children.

I would never feel comfortable having them get off at that station at Civic Center, even now today.

Those are things that need to be addressed slowly, they are.

They're the largest landlord and have the most tenancy in mid-market.

Those folks need to be here and represented, and they're not here.

So let's see those bodies on the ground, and let's see them going into these businesses, eating some sandwiches, going to Toulon, go into all the places that I know you enjoy and you spoke about.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Let's have the next speaker, please.

Uh good afternoon, Chairman Garr, Vice Chair Chen, Supervisor Matt Mood, thank you very much for calling this hearing.

My name is Fernando Pujals.

I'm the executive director of the Mid Market Foundation, Mid Market Business Association.

You heard um through OEWD's presentation about some of our great work to really spur positivity in the area, and I invite anyone to take a walk with us so that you can see all of the great incremental momentum that we've had, especially over the last year.

Um I also want to thank the departments for their presentations.

It seems you know everyone is doing really good work with approaching limited resources.

And I don't really have to say much because all I heard today is that everyone really truly agrees how critical mid-market is to the city's future.

So goes mid-market, so will go San Francisco.

Um what we don't seem to see is a really coordinated, unified focus and an increase in public investment commensurate with the need.

Um so that's really what I'm calling on here today and really asking for.

We've done great work, um, and especially again, kudos to OEWD with really minimal investments.

We're having a great impact.

And if you really want to know some of the data you are asking for, let's hear it from the businesses.

Take a walk with me and let's hear it firsthand.

They're they're they will tell you things are a little better, but they're barely hanging on.

Um great chronicle article this morning that you can read on some of those people that are making the investment.

We've also seen a wave of new investment in properties, and many of the property owners are signaling that they believe in this area as an arts and culture and entertainment district, and they want to find uses and put people in their spaces, and they're willing to be to be creative and do what they can and put their own investment into filling those spaces, both on the ground floor and the upper floors.

Uh so thank you again for calling this hearing.

I hope that in several months we can come back with a unified plan from all the departments and get through the budget process with earmarked investment for this area, and that the private sector will also come to the table in that in that regard as well.

Thank you again.

Thank you for comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Cash.

Uh I own Warm Planet Bikes on the shittiest corner on Market Street.

I'm sure you all know where that is.

Um The problem is not that there aren't cars on Market Street.

I've been here since 86.

I raised my kids in the neighborhood.

I remember what it was like when it was a traffic sewer.

It did not help to have cars on Market Street.

What helps is to clear the sidewalks of bad behavior.

I am begging you, I don't see law enforcement here, and I have the greatest respect for Officer Gamble and uh Captain Sullivan at the Tenderline Station.

They've been trying to clear my corner, but they don't have the resources to be there 24 hours.

If you want to know why people don't walk from the Orpheum down to Union Square, it's because they're harassed when they get to the corner of market in Jones.

If you clear that corner, then you are going to see a blossoming of all those empty storefronts that I I looked at 10 years ago when I moved in there, and they were empty then and they're empty now.

My landlord is desperate to rent.

He brings prospective tenants every couple of months.

They tour the property, they walk outside, they look at the shit show of drinking, drug dealing, and bad behavior, and they walk away.

It's not because the landlords don't want to rent.

It's not because people won't pay.

It's because they know that their customers are going to be harassed walking in and out of the businesses.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Let's have the next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, land use and transportation committee, Griffin Lee here, uh representing Connected SF staff and membership.

Thanks, uh Supervisor Mahmood for calling for the hearing today.

And thanks for the different departments representing.

I'm feeling sort of speechless.

Um I think there needs to be a higher level vision for the mid-market.

I I do think that actually starts we do actually think that starts with investment and maybe alerting the D DC to start paying attention to the mid-market.

Um so much of their focus and attention today is focused on downtown.

Taking a step back though, I I think it if you went to the DDC, for example, they would say, Oh, I never go down there today.

And you'll they'll they'll probably say, why?

And it's it's street conditions and street cleanliness.

It's not about bikes transportation, cars.

These are single-focused issues.

We need to think bigger picture to get mid-market back on track, whether it's like the Twitter tax break back in 2010, whether it's activated spaces, which I think Supervisor Mahmood is starting to address.

Um but all these special interests behind me, they're here for one reason.

I'm here for we're here for San Francisco and Mid Market, and we need to think bigger.

And there needs to be better coordination between these different departments in behind me as well.

So thank you for paying attention.

Thank you for Supervisor Mahmood for calling for this hearing.

About to make some progress.

Thank you for comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hi.

Good afternoon, almost good evening, Barry Toronto, San Francisco Taxi Workers' Alliance.

Uh first I want to say uh two days before Passover last year, Mayor Leary decided he was going to ruin our celebration by putting us into slavery by announcing uh this elimination of uh of car-free market street.

The other the other thing is um we the Sam's Taxi Works Alliance joined the uh Keep Market Street Moving coalition to uh to to bring attention to the safety and and the fact that using using um the car free market street as a scapegoat is the wrong message.

Because what happened, you admitted that it maybe not brought a lot of Waymooser or uh Uber Black or Lip back to Market Street, but it brought a lot of scafflaws.

You saw that.

Balomud, please describe what you saw last Wednesday when you went on that ride, and thank you for doing that.

Thank you very much, and thank you for calling this hearing.

However, uh the thing is is is you should you should hear from parking enforcement uh why they don't have more enforcement, particularly at night.

The the major activity along that area right now is at night.

You have the orphium, the war field, the strand, uh the major venues in that area.

And and I've never heard of any attacks at the war field, and there are police all over the place for Warfield and Strand Theater.

They're all over the place.

The chances of having something happen will be slim to none.

So I urge you to please do a resolution urging the SFMTA to close the loophole and not allow these these scaffold uh uh uh for hire drivers on there.

And the fact is we gotta not have the bicycles forced to go into the center lane for safety purposes and for purposes of not interfering with transit.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for comments to the next speaker, please.

Sorry.

Hello, I'm Evelyn Ingle with the San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance.

And um I want to start with saying taxis are taxi drivers are very appreciative of the access we have to Market Street, and we believe that it's a privilege we deserve.

Uh we have for years been regulated by the city.

All of our trip data is reported to the city.

Our location data is reported like every six seconds or something like that.

And um we we support all the efforts, some of the ideas to revitalize Market Street to help the small businesses.

We are ourselves small businesses.

Each taxi UC is either an independent contractor leasing a vehicle or an owner of a vehicle, uh a taxi medallion who has paid a lot of money for that privilege.

I want to address part of the uh misunderstanding of providing different transportation options.

We know this very well that these new transportation options, whether they're Waymo or TNCs, do not enable people to go someplace where that they would otherwise not be going.

It is not going to help people come downtown who aren't all already planning to come downtown.

And we know that because taxis are one of the highest substituted modes uh for TNCs.

Uh Waymo is relatively new, but there's no reason to think they're they will be any different.

And the data so suggests that the most substituted mode uh in California by Uber and Lyft is transit, not taxis.

And the last thing we need is to uh replace sustainable trips with automobile trips, and we don't think that will help downtown.

It will lead to congestion, uh wear and tear in the roads, greenhouse gas emissions, all the bad things that we had before Carfree Market Street.

So please remove the uh loophole in the transportation code.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's have the next speaker, please.

Hello.

Um my name's Renata Vimirkevic, and uh I'm a taxi driver for 33 years now.

And I remember how the uh traffic was on Market Street before the uh several years ago before they banned uh all cars except taxi, bus, bike, and trucks.

And up until 2019, the the traffic was thousands of bikes day and night going back and forth using Market Street as to get to work and back home again.

Thousands.

And we the cab drivers, we were always into having to be in the middle lane because it would just and it was hard even for us to turn right.

And my issue is that y'all think maybe you want to put Waymo out there.

Waymo is not going to handle the the the what's coming with how many bicycles are going to be coming when everybody comes back to work again, and you open up all the businesses again on Market Street.

The Waymo is not going to handle it.

I was behind a Waymo the night the power went out in the city, and uh Waymo didn't know what to do.

It was stopped there at 6th and Market.

I was behind the car.

Finally, I had to work my way to get around and out of it because it's it didn't know.

When the something issue happens, those cars freeze up, they don't know what to do.

And then I'm driving, I have customers I pick up a lot of times on Green and Jones, and those Waymo's are circling with each other like three to five cars.

They don't know what to do.

They're following each other.

How well how are they going to react on Market Street?

Are they going to be following?

They're gonna let you want to let them fifty cars of those go up and down Market Street, and the bikes, it's not gonna work.

It's not gonna be manageable.

It it'll be a worse chaos than when we used to have all the cars on the streets because the Waymo's all know what they're doing.

Otherwise, put drivers in those cars.

Speaker's time is concluded.

Thank you for coming.

So the next speaker, please.

Um thank you, Supervisor Melgar, for the trip down memory lane.

I'm old enough to remember sitting at that lunch counter of Walgreens and the shoeshine guys and the magazine stands.

However, I want to uh my name is Mary McGuire, by the way, and I want to address Waymo.

And um the fact that at your last meeting you had those the executives here, and um they didn't answer any of your questions.

Um it was regarding the power outage and the safety on December 20th.

They did they weren't they didn't answer any questions, and um just simple ones like how many Waymo's are operating in San Francisco?

So I wonder if you ever got the answer to that.

Uh I also recall reading a statement from Mayor Lori last summer when this issue was coming to the forefront about Waymo's, and he said uh he wanted to attract the right kind of people to Market Street.

So um I do support this plan.

It's terrific, but adding more Waymo's uh and unlicensed vehicles is not going to further the plan.

Um regarding entertainment district, um the way the big theaters and the Broadway shows, they're just they're they're having very short runs now.

And that has nothing to do with Market Street.

It has to do with the national economy.

It's expensive to go to those shows, and they want to fill up, they want to fill up the bill, you know, every seat.

So they have two week runs now, sometimes one night, one night at Golden Gate Theater.

Uh also there's a heavy police presence around there at night and daytime as well.

Uh so I I'm just wondering if the Waymo's come to Market Street.

Will that require a permanent police presence in order to protect the vehicles?

Um citizens are getting more angry, and there's hostility toward AI.

We're seeing that.

I've seen vandalism, painted spray paint and windows, then all the cars are gonna stop there.

Um I just want to reiterate or tell you that Market Street should be opened to uh regulated vehicles only.

And it should be open to the people, the people that make who need to take the buses, the disabled.

Let's have the next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, Chair Melgar and supervisors.

Thank you, Super Mahmood, for calling this hearing and joining the Keep Market Street Moving Alliance on our infrastructure ride last week.

My name is Jody Medeiros, and the executive director of Walk San Francisco.

We are a member of the Keep Market Street Moving Alliance, and I participated in the Better Market Street plan for close to 10 years.

Before the street became car-free in January 2020, we all know this.

It was chaotic and dangerous for everyone, especially pedestrians.

At the time, five of the city's top ten most dangerous intersections were a Market Street.

But with the removal of private vehicles, conditions have improved dramatically.

Traffic fatalities and serious injuries are down by 40%, and that's progress towards the board Street Safety Act in the Mayor's Street Safety Initiative.

Since the allowance of ride hail and AVs have been allowed on there, we've seen an increase in passenger vehicles.

We saw that a lot on the ride last week.

And this is, as you said, an abuse in compliance.

There is no way to enforce private versus commercial vehicles.

The Better Market Street plan explored this over and over and over during the 10 years of trying to figure out that plan, and they came up with it's going to be impossible to do that.

So we think that it's time now to really close this loophole in the city's transportation code that allows the uh commercial passenger vehicles on Market Street while still allow allowing commercial vehicles making active good deliveries to businesses on Market Street.

Lastly, we heard from the mayor that this was supposed to be an economic recovery plan to allow more vehicles, and what we heard today is the economic development isn't really being measured.

And there are, as you said, Supervisor Millgar, very little measures of success from this pilot.

So as we continue to do this pilot, we are putting more and more people at risk as passenger vehicles are being allowed on Market Street.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, supervisors.

My name is Robin Pam.

I'm with Streets for All San Francisco.

We are also part of the Keep Market Street Moving Alliance.

I bike on Market Street regularly, and I know I'm not alone.

In the past few months, the numbers of people biking and rolling on market are growing as people return to the office.

We heard that today from SFMTA.

It's 25% higher than it was a year ago.

But we're also seeing a lot more private vehicles, double parking, driving on the street, and parking in the loading base.

This makes it less safe for everyone.

Streets for all wants to see a vibrant economically thriving market street, and we also know that transportation investments alone cannot solve economic development challenges.

There's no parking on market itself, so anything we do has to really focus on bringing people there and improving fruit foot traffic, storefront conditions, and the neighborhood amenities.

So I'm really glad to see planning an OEWD here to be partners in this endeavor with SFMTA.

Thank you to all the department staff because we need everyone working together to solve this problem.

SFMTA just cannot do this alone.

On transportation, though, we're here to urge you not to backtrack but to build on what's working.

We do have a good plan, Better Market Street, that took 10 years to get together.

And there are elements of that plan that we can use today.

So first closing the loophole that allows commercial passenger vehicles is important.

We have a lot of existing quick build infrastructure that could be hardened, the plastic paint or plastic posts and paint.

This was explored a little bit in Better Market Street.

It wasn't implemented at the time because of the volume of transit vehicles on market.

Now would be a great time to explore that and give us a lot more design flexibility in how we separate modes on Market Street.

We can also reevaluate some of the ideas for separated and biking and rolling infrastructure if we do this.

And additionally, as the departments discussed, investing in placemaking and greening inspired by that Better Market Street design composition.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

So the next speaker, please.

Hello, supervisors, chair.

I'm Dylan Fabris, community and policy director at San Francisco Transit Riders, which is also a member of the Key Market Street Moving Alliance.

I'm also a resident on the car-free portion of Market Street.

I'm here today to ask you to take action to close the loophole in the 2019 Better Market Street Resolution that allows commercial passenger vehicles free reign for Market Street.

As someone who lives on market and travels multimodally along the corridor, it's clear that markets problems will not be solved by transportation changes alone.

And in fact, the recent transportation changes may actually exacerbate the problems on the corridor.

Last year at the same time, the SFMTA cut service for the five, the six, and the nine on Market Street.

Uh, Mayor Lurie leveraged a loophole uh to invite a wave of commercial vehicles, including so-called autonomous vehicles and luxury SUVs into the car-free portion of market, uh, which is a blatant privatization of the spine, as we heard today, the spine of San Francisco's uh transportation um.

And that's on top of all the Muni cuts that have already been made up since the start of COVID-19.

Uh so now when taking a trip down Market Street, it's not uncommon to count more luxury limos in private cars than munibuses.

And we haven't even seen the influx of autonomous vehicles uh that we fear as more and more companies start getting uh into the market.

This can't be the future of the heart of our city.

Market Street needs help to make it more of a destination for San Franciscans and for visitors, but taking space from transit riders and giving it away to corporations and private companies benefits only a few.

There's no evidence indicating that inviting more cars back to market has actually improved the economy.

Um no matter how accessible Market Street is to handful of people in Waymo's, we can't expect recovery while Muni and BART still only run till midnight.

So I ask you today to please close the Waymo loophole, invest and uh invest in restoring and growing Muni service on Market Street and come up with a long-term interpretive market departmental plan to make Market Street more fun, vibrant, and livable.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

Let's have the next speaker, please.

Uh good afternoon, Chair Melgar and supervisors.

My name is Rachel Clyde.

I am the senior community organizer with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

First and foremost, thank you, Via, thank you, Supervisor Mahmoud, for calling this hearing and for your willingness to ride along Market Street with us last week to thoroughly experience what it feels like to bike on the corridor right now.

SF Bike leads the Keep Marking Street Keep Market Street Moving Alliance, a group of over 20 organizations and individuals who share the goals of an economically thriving corridor that prioritize sustainable transportation like Muni, taxis, biking, and walking.

On our ride last week, we saw that there are so many people biking, scooting, and walking on Market Street now.

More than we would have seen a year ago.

Life is rapidly coming back to the corridor, but not because luxury ride hill services are on the street.

We didn't see a single one on our ride, which is consistent with what we've seen since they were invited back.

They're simply not deploying on Market Street.

Yet Market Street continues to revive and not because of cars.

What we do see is that since luxury passenger services began operations, the loading bays are regularly blocked by vehicles without commercial plates.

Mostly these are private vehicles driving illegally on market streets, creating confusion and dangerous circumstances for pedestrians and people on bikes.

The time and resources that have been poured into accommodating luxury commercial passenger services will be better spent improving transit, increasing street safety, and investing in making Market Street a place where people want to be.

Please take action to close the loophole and better Market Street's legislation, allowing only commercial vehicles making active deliveries of goods to businesses on Market Street.

Thank you for your time.

Give your comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon, uh supervisors.

Tracy Everwine, executive director of the mid-market community benefit district, uh, which represents over a thousand property owners at this point, many of them on Market Street with a 24-7 stake on that corridor.

Not Monday through Friday, not three days a week, peak commute times.

So thank you for having this.

And you have illuminated, even for us, how much more collaboration is needed amongst the city departments.

So we thank you for your leadership there and Supervisor Dorsey's leadership there.

And I think in addition to real estate not being represented today, neither was the Department of Public Health.

So we hope that you will include us in that future collaboration.

Our team is incredibly well resourced.

We have real estate professionals on staff.

We have a transportation planner on staff.

We have an artist on staff.

And if we don't have the expertise to support the needs of the city agencies, we'll find it in our board members.

So thank you again.

And I want to just give a huge shout out to our neighbors in the south of market who are doing advocacy work.

We've dreamed about for years and haven't seen anything like before.

And we're in San Francisco, so that's saying something.

Thank you.

Thank you for comments.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, supervisors.

My name is Micah.

I bike down Market Street four or five times a week.

I was hesitant to comment because I found the whole thing so frustrating, the whole hearing.

I expected that it would make my head spin, but there was so much nonsense that we heard today.

There are so many more private vehicles coming down Market Street than they were 18 months ago that I see them every day.

There are people shooting up drugs in the bus shelters on Market Street.

I see that almost every single day.

A few of the other com a few of the other commenters talked about the people in the groups that aren't here.

The other groups that aren't here are the rideshare companies.

And we know based on the ethics filings that they are lobbying the highest levels of our government constantly, hundreds of times last year, including dozens of times specifically about Market Street to get access to this.

So to hear our city officials say that nothing has changed, and to encourage more ride share because we haven't seen them come onto Market Street is nonsense.

And it's the same nonsense that we heard back in December at the SFMTA board meeting where they said that the companies weren't moving on to Market Street, and so we're gonna expand the plan to bring more of them.

It's it just it makes my head spin, and I think about it every day, honestly.

So I have nothing else to add.

Please uh let's find a way to reverse these changes that make no sense, make market street safe for everybody who's traveling down it, whether that's walking, biking, or on a bus.

Thank you.

Thank you for comments.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening.

My name is Paris Lane.

I'm a co-founder of Periled Entertainment.

We're located at 1067 Market Street.

Um not only am I an owner of an entertainment company, but I'm an Emmy nominated actress and singer, and I'm an international award-winning film director.

We hired musicians.

One of our bands, the back y'all party kings, have performed through the mid-market when their budget was cut.

We weren't we weren't able to have the ban back out there because of the budget cuts.

Um being on Market Street.

The drugs, it's just overwhelming.

I come out of my building sometimes after 10 p.m.

because I'm working with people that are in India.

Um, and you have to walk past people smoking crack or or smoking the meth, and the smoke is in the air.

There has not been any research on how that affects people.

No, I wouldn't want my children walking down the streets until you clean up the streets.

No child should have no adult should have to walk through that kind of environment.

It puts you in a state where you're you feel as if you're surviving only by covering your face because you don't know what effect it may have on your health.

Um I wasn't planning to speak, so I'm gonna hurry up and say what I have to say.

But there are many ways to build up Market Street, and I think the largest problem when it comes to the entertainment, you don't think out of the box.

You think in the box.

And until you think out of the box, you'll have people coming in to attractions, things that attract people, because it's more than just having Broadway shows.

There's more different forms of entertainment.

So I just want to share that with you.

Speaker's time is included.

Thank you so much for your comments.

Madam Chair.

Okay, public comment on this item is now closed.

Uh thank you again, Supervisor Mahmoud, for calling this hearing.

Um it has been really illuminating, and I'm glad we have this conversation.

I do uh think there are some updates that are needed to some of our uh resolutions and policies.

Um thank you to the departments for uh your hard work uh over the years and for the presentation.

Um uh thank you to the folks in the community who uh came to speak in public comment and always advocating to make our um city better and holding us accountable for all of it.

Um so with that, what would you like to do with this?

Uh Supervisor Mahmoud, would you like to make a motion to file?

Yep.

Uh I'll make a motion to file uh the hearing.

On the motion offered by Member Mahmood that the hearing be heard and filed, Vice Chair Chen.

Chen I, Member Machmood, Mahmoud, I.

Chair Melgar.

Aye.

Melgar, I.

Madam Chair, there are three ayes.

Okay, that motion passes.

Do we have anything else on our agenda, Mr.

Clerk?

There's no further business.

We're adjourned.

Thank you.