Information request: Van Ness BRT and the Polk Street bike project

From: Mary Miles

Sent: Friday, October 7, 2016

To: Edward Reiskin

Cc: Caroline Celaya; SFMTA Sunshine Requests

Subject: IMMEDIATE DISCLOSURE REQUEST

FROM:

Mary Miles (SB #230395)

Attorney at Law

San Francisco, CA 94102

TO:

Edward Reiskin, Director

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

One S. Van Ness Avenue, 7th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94103

DATE: October 7, 2016

IMMEDIATE DISCLOSURE REQUEST

Having attended the Polk and Van Ness Construction Open House October 5, I request the following pursuant to the California Public Records Act and the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance:

1. A list of all the City staff, consultants, and contractors, including MTA, DPW, City Attorney, Walsh, Barbary Coast, and any others who attended the Open House, by name, title, and entity.

2. A list of the collateral materials distributed at the Open House or produced for the Polk Street and Van Ness BRT projects, including coloring books, crayons, earplugs, hand sanitizers, flashing lights, pens, sunglasses, and other items, the quantity purchased, and the cost of each item, including imprinting them with the MTA logo. 

3. Are the MTA-logo-imprinted earplugs supposed to be MTA's "mitigation" of the noise impacts on residents, businesses and travelers who will endure several years of 24-hour construction on Van Ness Avenue and the surrounding areas? Or are they MTA’s idea of a joke? Please provide the full name and title of the person or persons who came up with the earplugs idea. 

4. The cost of the photographer who attended the Open House and the number of photographs taken. 

5. The specific Van Ness construction schedule, including the date that the Van Ness median trees will be removed. 

6. Records related to implementing the recent Board of Supervisors resolution urging the SFMTA "to fully explore the costs and technical feasibility of reuse as well as replication of the Van Ness Avenue Historic Streetlamps, including feasibility of retaining the cast iron fittings and lamps mounted on compatible replacement poles," including the cost and design of the currently planned replacement lamps and poles, and all plans to rehabilitate and/or replicate the existing Historic Streetlamps. 

7. The number of accidents, including deaths, on Polk Street and Van Ness Avenue since 2005, categorized by mode, date, the number of people hurt, and the party at fault, including all of the following:

a. accidents involving automobiles or other vehicles since 2005, including the date, the number of people hurt, and the party at fault;

b. accidents involving Muni buses since 2005, including the date, the number of people hurt, and the party at fault;

c. accidents involving bicycles since 2005, including the date, the number of people hurt, and the party at fault; and

d. accidents involving pedestrians since 2005, including the date, the number of people hurt, and the party at fault. 

8. Current mitigation plans for construction of the Polk Street and Van Ness projects, since it appears that both projects are now planned to be constructed concurrently, including the Traffic Management Plan approved in July 2016.

9. The approval action, body or person approving, and date of the approval action to construct the Polk and Van Ness projects concurrently, along with any approved revision of mitigation measures and the mitigation monitoring report. 

10. The budget, contract, scope of work, and/or task order to Barbary Coast for work on the Polk and Van Ness BRT projects.

I'll let you know if I need anything further. Please mail me the requested materials on a CD. If you will not immediately provide the requested records, please state in your response which record(s) you are providing, referring to the specific item numbers in this Request, and provide the exact date when you will provide the items not immediately provided referring to the specific item numbers in this Request. 

If reference is not made to the Item numbers in this Request in all of your responses and on the disc, I will deem that a denial of this Request. Please advise me if the cost of providing copies of these records will exceed $10. If I do not receive a response to this Request by 4:00 p.m. on October 10, 2016, I shall deem this Request denied.

Thank you for your attention to this IMMEDIATE DISCLOSURE REQUEST.

Sincerely,

Mary Miles

cc: Caroline Celaya, Custodian of Records

See also from 2013 Comment on the FEIS and the FEIR on the Van Ness BRT project.