Transcripts For SFGTV Board Of Appeals 20240713

Its the only thing we have to fix it because if someone has alleged and shown there is work beyond the scope of permit, i guess what else could we do other than to correct that through the permitting process . But then again, it happens again. And there is mr. Fixit again, which enables it fixes it, but enables. Thats strike two. Right. So in addition to my, you know, dislike of section 317, there is also weaknesses in our enforcement process, whereby generally for assessment of penalties, its only if someone is nonresponsive. So if you speed, you get a ticket. And that ticket is going to cost you something. That does not exist in the planning code. At most, what we do and what the code allows, we can assess its for our enforcement time so time and materials and then 2,000 added onto the cost of the permit. And that is what we have in order to penalize. What i understand, this is happening once or twice, where is the penalty . How do we stop someone from doing this again . I dont have a mechanism in the code to allow it. If we see a larger pattern, we can refer this to the District Attorney office. We have done that in other cases and gotten a Million Dollars place from someone with pattern of violating the law. Im not aware of a pattern. And that wasnt enough for you know who were talking about. That wasnt enough for some. But we have someone who tore down a Historic Resource and we did a settlement there for a half Million Dollars. That is something that is more for the bigger violations. Here we have someone that happened twice, but they promptly came in to address it. And but you still they still, oh, gee whiz, i broke the law, mea culpa, you enabled them and they got their mistake rectified and they got what they want. Thats really again, im not attacking. Im just sitting here scratching my going you know, thats really bad way to raise a kid at the very least. But then where does the Humpty Dumpty factor kick in . So that then now we have a torn down facade of a potential historical building. And now were enabling again. Where is the Humpty Dumpty factor kick in where you say, enough of this, we let you off once, we let you off twice, now youre going to rebuild it the way it was in the first place because youve broken the law twice. No matter whether it was malicious or not, you know, oh, gee whiz, its the first time weve done renovations. The law is the law, the guidelines are the guidelines, how far do you go before the Humpty Dumpty factor kicks in and you say rebuild the thing the way it was and start over again. Arguably, they broke Humpty Dumpty twice, because he was broken the first time, they were putting him back together again and then they broke him again. There should be no third time. But in terms of additional demolition, the facade theyre proposing now is the same as originally proposed. The project with the excess and scope hasnt gotten larger and larger. Theyre still basically back to the same project that was approved in 2016, that went through neighborhood notice which was fine with everyone in 2016. I think really the main issue is here not putting aside the violations and exceeding the scope multiple times, which is inexcusable, the core it is the damage to the adjacent property and i dont know how that is addressed through these permits. Where im going to go. I like to show my hand in advance as you well know. And mr. Duffy gets to speak now. So the appellants counsel will the appellants will have a chance to prepare to answer this. But what do you think how do we cure this . What do the appellants want to cure this . Obviously the damage has been done. Youre doing your best to wrangle it given the limitations of the law. So what do we do . What do we go to fix this without enabling somebody who has broken the law three times . Exceeded the scope three times to get away with, aside from the alleged naivety about renovation. How do we hold them accountable . Can i interrupt for a second. When we see this, sorry, but when someone demos something by accident, oops, it fell out, we see Something Else being recommended to be replaced. A larger space, a different space. But you just mentioned that it really wasnt their error has not gained them larger space. It doesnt seem to be the case. I mean certainly its not like you knocked a wall out, and im going to change the design of this. Im going to change the facade, but knocked the wall out and hired the wrong contractor or whatever the situation may be, but theyre not getting an additional gain from this its not getting them into their home any quicker. Its not like the house that fell down by itself and then instantly came up to 7,000 square feet. They were generally approved for a building that large to begin with. Thats a separate. There was nothing really for the accident that happened, there was no there is no huge benefit here other than basically, you know, pissing in the wind and making all the neighbors mad . Yeah, if it is a demolition, again, the end result is there could be a sixunit apartment building. I dont know if thats the goal of the appellant. If it does get to the Planning Commission, i can see them wanting more density on the site and not having a singlefamily home. You said if it is a demolition. Youre saying if it were a demolition. Youre taking a clear position it is not a demolition. I believe, even mr. Buscovich has stated that tonight. I have a question. Is your position also affirm that the plans that were approved to lift the suspension dont materially differ from the original plans . S that my understanding from staff. In terms of what is proposed, i havent even necessarily heard that from the appellant. The scope of work at the end of the day, the end project will be the same as what was proposed in 2015. I think the concern is just how theyre getting there and they think its a demolition, in which case if it is unlawful demolition under the Building Code, there is a strict requirement where they cant build anything than what was there before for five years or so. That is very restrictive. If it was unlawful democrat under the Building Code. This is one of the problems with 317, if it is a demolition under the planning code, the Planning Commission is going to tell them, put more density there. One last question. Your position, your response to commissioner swigs questions about enabling, essentially what youre saying, if they presented the plans, were going destroy all this stuff and put it back the way it was, youre saying as far as planning was concerned, that wouldnt have been a problem in the first place . Right. Since it doesnt meet the 317 demolition, there is no additional process they would have to go through. If you want to demo your facade and rebuild it exactly as it was. The process that would have been saved for the facade is that it would have had to go through additional Environmental Review. I guess that is correct, there was if its even a benefit, but they would have saved time on Environmental Review of the demolition of the portions of the front facade because that would have required preservation review. Sure, but there is putting it back. It would have been asinine to do that. I just want to youre next. So, i just want to understand the history of this process, because what is at issue, youre maybe saying that the big issue seems to be the damage to the neighboring property. There is pictures, thats not in dispute, although its in litigation. Im trying to understand, there is alteration permit appealed in 2018 and then discretionary review for demolition and both withdrawn and didnt go to hearing. Would either of those issues present prevented the work outside of scope . It strikes me odd to kind of go after their neighbor on this and then to with draw twice and now were here a third time. Im trying to understand what the real issues are. And if any of the issues would have been resolved through taking the hears through. Hearings through. That was something i thought unusual as well. You know, typically people, when they pay the money to go through the process, they dont get a refund when they withdraw it, that they would go through the process and have the arguments heard. Unless they come to an agreement somehow and it could be resolved. I think the underlying issues are still the construction damage which i think has been known for quite some time. In terms of exceeding the scope, i dont know the exact time of the facade demolition, but that may have been after the appeal and the d. R. Certainly after the appeal seems to have been may 2018 was the appeal of the alteration permit itself. Yeah. And i think the first issue with the demolition was in the summer of 2018. And then the second demolition issue was the summer of 2019 if i recall correctly. Thats roughly when we had suspended the permits. Great, thank you. So in the spirit of Humpty Dumpty, and the facade, you just said, well the facade that was a mistake and seems theyre going to be rebuilding it the way it was before. Is that what you said . Its my understanding the facade is going to be put back as it was originally proposed. Are we out of bounds, is it within our scope opportunity this body when resolving this issue whichever way it gets resolved, to mandate and require that the facade be replaced exactly as it was destroyed . I dont see than it was before it was destroyed . I dont think there is an issue with that, because i think the plans show that. So it just be they follow the plans. Given the history of work beyond the scope of permit, whether there is reporting or monitoring they do. Im just responding. The few years that i have been here, even i have developed a gun shy attitude where even you know, im not believing anybody unless we mention it in the motion. So i just wanted to ask if thats appropriate. I dont see an issue why it wouldnt be. Not that i dont believe anybody, i just dont believe anybody. I dont believe anybody either. Okay, thanks. Scott, one last question. Is there a history of issues with this particular contractor . Ive only heard of one other issue that i just actually heard of tonight. But im not aware of a pattern. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well now hear from the department of building inspection. Finally. We get to hear from joe. Good evening, commissioners. So, as you all know, these are difficult ones, we deal with them occasionally. There was one, 42nd avenue, something similar, damaged the properties next door. When youre sitting here and listening to this and really bad management. Somebody wasnt taking care of stuff. There wasnt outreach. When you go to do a vertical addition on a zero lot land and you start jackhammering somebodys slab, youre going to see next door and you should have prepared for that. You can do your monitoring, but youre pretty much assured there is going to be some shaking. And the notice of violation on june 22, 2018, provide protection of a adjoining building. It caused cracks to 1977 broadway. Demo of slab and garage may have disturbed the soil. Stop until its cleared. Call for inspection before proceeding to prove protection is in place. You end up having the pictures of the cracking plaster and you talk about monitoring. Sometimes what this comes down to is the dollar amount. Obviously, its annoying and upsetting to have someone crack your plaster. There is a fix for that. I dont know if there is structural damage. I didnt see an engineer report on that. But cracking and plaster, it is going to happen. They should have been it should have been agreement before hand. Just like reflashing. Just like the portapotty on the street, the construction fencing. Maybe that wasnt done right. Now were here and sound like three years later, 2020, dealing with this. So i just wanted to say that first. If the contractor is no longer involved, then the new contractor will come in. Maybe a Liaison Officer or Something Like that that can deal with issues as they go on. The department now at d. B. I. , we have initiated something internally in the Building Inspection Division where an adenda is issued, we call somebody before the project and say before you start demolition, you must get a building inspector out there and discuss how much of this building youre going to take down. If you run into an issue where you have dry rot or something that needs to come down, do not take it down, get the building inspector, well write a correction notice, tell you to get a revision permit and then you can go back and take that part down if you need to. Since we started that, probably started last year, 2019, im the one that does the calls actually every month. I get a list of them and call the people. Everyone is grateful for the call and we havent had anybody else. And what we do, we document that we had the discussion with them when we make the call. Put it on the spread sheet. If they come in a year and say, oops, we took down some of this, then guess what, things are going to change. Its not like oops anymore because you were told before hand. A wall may fall down accidentally, we did get that recently, it was a big stormy weekend and the building, the shoring just completely failed, but we were able to put the wall back up. But what im saying, things are going to get better. Were hoping to see less and less of this. They are tricky projects, because our favorite 317, section in the planning code, keep so many of these old walls and try to building around it. When youre finished you have what is a new building anyway. From the d. B. I. Point of view, were working and discussing with planning, affidavits are coming into play and drawings where someone is going to have to undertake that theyre understanding how much of this work is staying and how much is going. So there are efforts being made. I dont think were going to see as many of these in the future thankfully. Just talking about the penalty on this. The penalty on this is the holdup. The delay in getting this project done for these people, i dont know what the situation is, but my experience is, that you hold it up, you hold it up, and theyre sitting there a long time. As a matter of fact, the last permit taken out was to tarp the building for the winter. As we speak, its on a tarp. I know theyve done wrong and contractor done wrong, but hold is up forever is not the answer either because its a just a monument with a tarp on it. They need to figure out the cost of the damage at the property next door. The permit was it looks like its been properly reviewed and issued. As i said, it definitely is a troubled project, but im not really i mean, revoking the permits, where does that put you . Just means another permit. And i do think that maybe when up go back to the main permit, there was no really objection to the addition. I did hear the owner of the adjacent property speak they wanted it put back to less of a project. But that ship has sailed. They had their chance, now youre coming back four years later and asking for that again, they need to have a bit of good faith here. And thats my speech. Im available for questions. I have a question. So i think that good faith went out the door when it wouldnt open. Same question to you. Is there a history of issues with this particular contractor . I think this contractor has been in business in San Francisco for some time . Ive come across Cook Construction before. I only know of one property, some workers went on an adjacent roof. I know, it involved somebody near and dear. But i was d. A. S. Patched out there dispatched out there this happened three times. On demo . Well, possibly. And that did happen, i agree with that, but there is obviously when you hire someone like mr. Buscovich, he is going to file complaints and hes right to do that. Somebody is watching this one and they got caught. I dont know who is managing it. I dont know what the contractor was thinking. But if i was doing a project and i knew the neighbors next door, there was damage, you know there is going to be a lot of scrutiny. Come on. I dont know if the contractor, if there is someone new coming in and they want to be doing it better. By the way, there has been nine different inspections and there was a big holdup in the project and we have been out there. We were out there in 2018. Im glad to hear that a lot of the concrete seems to be in. The monitoring is good. If it didnt move that much, that means the foundation didnt, it was more cosmetic. But i may be wrong. I didnt see an engineer report or recommendation. You would like to see the extent of the damage, was it hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars . What did the engineer recommend . And i didnt know if that was in the brief or not. Well ask that question. Thank you, joe. Any Public Comment on the item . We will move on to rebuttal. Oh, there is, sorry. You okay, madame director . The worst cold that developed in the hearing. Im both a neighbor and friend of the porters. I live two blocks away from the construction site and it has been a construction site for years now. And to my knowledge i believe its been about a year and a half of delays that occurred. And theyre a growing young family and want to bring their kids there. They have young sons they want to bring home. They have another one on the way. And theyre good citizens. Theyre trying to do a good job. They hired someone that wasnt good. Theyre trying to come to resolution here and move on and get their home finished. As a neighbor, it is an eyesore. Year and a half of sitting dormant is not great for anybody, all the neighbors included. So anyway, i hope that we can come to some sort of resolution to help them get their house built. Question, if you were the neighbor, the next door neighbor, what would your opinion be . In regard to . Them going further. If you lived next door and your front door didnt open and the reason why its gone on for multiple years is because of multiple mistakes. Understood. Would you be trusting of that neighbor after that point . Ill answer to the trust of the neighbor, you have to know the person, right . I dont know how well these neighbors know these neighbors on a personal basis. I know these people on a very personal basis. You know them well and this happened three times in a row, youd still be, well be good. Of course, you have to have discussion around it. They said theyre going to move on, i think thats a sign of good faith. Im just asking because youre giving a character reference. I think knowing these people, they are good people. And they will make right whatever situation happened. Thank you. Thank you. Any other Public Comment . Are you part of the association . An officer in an officer . You can approach, thank you. You have three minutes. Good evening. My name is lewis bowman, im owner of 1969, the middle unit. I wasnt going to speak until this last person came up and spoke essentially giving a testimonial for the porters. I dont know the porters. Ive never met them. I saw them here tonight for the first time. Because theyre not there. But i do know by my involvement in the association and having followed this case obviously closely and involving communications, i can say this. That from the moment that they took control, ownership of this property, until today, the relationship between the two Property Owners has been extremely tense and acrid. And the primary reason is from the very beginning, if you were going to be doing a major renovation of an adjacent property, it seems like, at least i would want to reach out to the other party and discuss the project with them. And talk about what we plan to do. And try to bring together some kind of consensus. The opposite has happened throughout the entire history of this project. And we have been treated weve been treated with such arrogance the entire time this project has been going on, that you have no rights, were doing what we damn well please, and to hell with you. That has been the atmosphere since the beginning of this project. And you need to know that. And that easement issue that has been resolved is a case in point. That easement has been laying in place for 50 years since that property was condominiumized and they through their lawyer said you will get a better bargaining position if you write a letter and disavow the easement that puts a threat on our property from a market point of view, because the only way you can have a second fire escape is through that easement. So we had to spend a year and a half negotiating a settlement on this easement that was already ours just in order to preserve the Property Value of our property. This is the type of people that weve been dealing with. And you are now seeing theyve broken the law three times. If you grant this permit, it will be broken again. I assure you. Sir. Question. So were your interactions only through the h. O. A. , or did you deal with them directly . Did you deal with them directly . No, i have not. Everything youre aware of has been through the h. O. A. . Yes, it is. Your interactions were with counsel . Interactions through counsel primarily. But also they have written personal notes to the head of our h. O. A. Who has shared the communications with us. Thank you. Any other Public Comment . Okay, well move on to rebuttal. Well hear from the appellants. You have six minutes. There is an old adage, that its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission and it seems to have been embraced by the c contractor here and were asking that the board of appeals not accept that. First i would like to address a few of the assertions that the foundation settlement, the damage there has been stabilized. That is categorically not the case. This photo that weve shown you on the overhead, this one was taken recently and that was new damage, i believe it was december last year. So damage has continued to occur. The foundation has not been stabilized. And to address mr. Duffys question, which pat will go into detail, were looking at damage to the foundation itself, not just cosmetic cracks. Were looking into six figures to repair it. And this quote has been with the Insurance Company since early last year. The survey monitoring result have shown up to a half inch of settlement to this building. And while markers were placed on the clients buildings, they were placed without knowledge and consent. It was only after we started asking questions that we saw the results. Weve heard a lot of trying to blame the contractor for everything that happened here. And say well, theyre not going to work with them anymore, but as recently as november 2019 and this is those under appeal, cook general contractor is still listed as the contractor associated with the project. So to move on to the meat of the issue, why we believe this is a demolition, youve heard from mr. Buscovich, this is very much on the cusp of one of the planning code definition of a demolition which is 50 of the vertical and horizontal elements being demolished. But because the plans are inaccurate, its more than that. It refers back to the Building Code n. The Building Code, demolition is something involving the alteration or removal of twothirds or more of the interior elements. Here we have 100 of the interior elements being removed. On that basis, its a demolition under the Building Code. This triggered the threshold under 11b2 which requires neighborhood notification for the removal of more than 75 of the interior elements. Finally to address the really big issue which the damage that occurred to our clients property. This is significant. And to draw a line between these permits and the damage, the very real concern is that if work resumes on this project without the damage being addressed, were going to see further damage occurring. And id ask the board not to trust the superior court is going to resolve this. This action was filed two years ago. And just yesterday i had to go down exparte to oppose one of the subcontractors trying to push the trial out to october. So its by no means a sure thing were going to get relief. Were asking for the plans to be correct so that the Planning Department and the Building Department can assess what is appropriate here. And were asking that work not resume on this project until there damage has been addressed. And ill if youre not sure whether you can actually uphold the appeal on that basis, i might suggest we continue this until maybe april, after the superior Court Decision should have been released and we can address the next steps for the project Going Forward. I believe mr. Buscovich wants to address you. Counsel, i want to seize the moment. Can you stop the clock . Im getting confused here. I dont see the benefit can you enlighten me as to the benefit of what you are arguing other than the money piece . I understand the money piece. Your client wants to get aid for the damage. If i was your client, i want to get paid for the damage. Your client wants to be assured that theyre not going to have their next door neighbor finish their be able to finish their building and then be left high and dry stuck with hundreds of thousands of dollars. I understand that. What i dont understand is the if im also your client and they want to postpone until this financial settlement or legal settlement could be resolved, theyre living next door to a blighted horrible situation. Thats number one. Number two, if it goes that thinks a demolition this is a demolition and the next door neighbor, if theyre being portrayed as the meanies that they are, im not going to agree with that, then if they go along with demolition, what we heard from the Planning Department, is that your clients could have a brand new home sf sixunit apartment building. Is that what they want . So i dont understand i understand the money piece, but i dont understand why you want to live next to a blighted building and why you want to risk the affirmation that the demolition that would enable a sixunit brand new home sf Affordable Housing unit to be built . Can you give me some feedback on that . And then mr. Buscovich. So for my clients, its not just about the money. This isnt about someone writing a check. Its about the fact that for two years their home has been destabilized and that damage has not been repaired. They have a real fear based on what has happened every step of this process, that if work resumes on this project, its going to present yet another imminent life safety risk to their property and wellbeing. Thats why were asking that this work not resume until the damage is able to be repaired. So in fact, what youre putting us in position to do is look towards a continuance, because if we find for the i dont understand why, but a continuance therefore would enable the superior court judgment, continuance would enable that this continuance has a stipulation that proper safety and stabilization elements be in place to further prevent the building from suffering grievous harm, correct . Yes, i agree with that. I dont understand why did your client file a discretionary review, appeal, withdraw both of those and theyre here the third time deciding to go through. If they were concerned about the issues, why were those not addressed through the means available at previous junctions . At every step, i can assure you i dont like coming here. I would rather work things out cooperatively and my clients would rather work it out. Thats not the question. Why were those not pursued . We did pursue those remedies. I cant get into the discussions, but there were reasons why those appeals you had the appeals, managed to work it out, you withdraw the discretionary review, so youre here now asking us to work it out for you . Essentially . Great thank you. I interrupted because i didnt trust my senior memory. You have a minute, 43 seconds. You were about to say something, pat. You can use your minute and 43 any way you want to. So im not here for a demolition because im not sure theyre there. I think theyre very close. If it is a demolition, what probably is going to happen, its going back to the Planning Commission, theyre going to say put the Building Back and add a unit. Not six units. What i hear, theyre so close, theyre 72 of the floors are gone. They say theyre 36 or 37 percent of the walls. I think its 45. Once you get into the 40s, the threshold to review increases. Where people are looking at this building a lot more to make sure whatever else youre going to do, youre not going to cross that line. Im asking you to ask the Planning Department to look at the garage, the concrete stairs, the parapet, theyre all included in the calcs and you see that the number is closer to 45, 48. It may not cross the line. If the drawings are correct, theyre close enough that they should be recognized as truly where they are. Theyre at 45 . And scott can tell you, at that level, planning would move this building a lot closer. In terms of joes comment, when you dig in loose sand this soil is well known, youre supposed to send a letter to the neighbor. No letter. They posted stickers without permission and settled the building. And, yes, minor cracks are okay, but these cracks are huge, the footings need to be replaced. If they get the calcs right, theyll be paying attention to how close to work with demo. I have questions for counsel. For the appellants. Youre the litigation counsel, too. Yes. I think you said because the contractor is not playing ball, it keeps going place. Why isnt the h. O. A. Covering the damage in the meantime. Because most Insurance Companies have exclusion for damage caused by Earth Movement and that that apparently applies even when the Earth Movement is caused by someone elses negligent action. Really . What insurer is that so i dont use them [laughter]. You have an ongoing case in superior court, a judge overseeing the dispute and presumably you have evidence in that case related to the damage and how it was caused, why couldnt you seek relief we cant provide, which is a judge overseeing the construction through some sort of injunction . Yes. We could seek that relief. Because we cant do that. We cant have ongoing monitoring. We cant have you come back every 30 days. We cant have experts testify. Thats no what we do. My solution would be that the relief the board can provide is exclusive to the remedy of the board of appeals. If the court provides that, the only other remedy we have is revenge. Essentially what your claim would boil down to. So the court cant order the city unless we join the city, not to issue permits for this work to occur. And so thats why were seeking relief in this form. And i think there has been some frustration from my clients because were seeing insurance litigation counsel playing this proceeding against the superior Court Proceeding and everyone is pointing fingers in the opposite direction and our clients are here out of a sense of desperation, there has to be some remedy here and were asking the commissioners to provide that. Thank you. Well now hear from the permitholder. Thank you. First of all, commissioner, i was not the attorney first involved with the easement issue. When i did get involved, we did address the easement issue as as fast as we could. I am not the attorney right now in the litigation. There is an Insurance Company can counsel. Were monitoring and encouraging a fair result. And how we do that remains to be seen, but there is a trial in april, april 4 and hopefully the case will resolve. In advance to that, i talked to the lawyer today and encouraged continued conversations with the association. You know, the remedies in the superior court action are such that if a showing was made of interim or danger to the property, an engineering report could be provided, the court could issue an injunction and the project could be stopped. The issue here is there is no engineers report as has been mentioned. There is a fear of Additional Movement. I understand that completely. Ive not seen the evidence to support that. I do believe that the foundations have been stabilized because of the concrete finished, but, yes, there has been Additional Movement that needs to be addressed and i understand that completely. The best way to address that is to get the project started again, and get the contractors in to protect their property. I have no problem agreeing with the other side to do that. We just want to get the project started again. Were not intending to build a larger project. We want to build a project that was permitted and the project approved by the Planning Department. Mistakes were made. We concede those. Three mistakes were made, two actually, i dont want to count any of it. Were obviously aware that if it happens again, ive got no credibility, no one has credibility coming in front of anybody. So but, the commitment that is being made by my clients toys finish the is to finish the project permitted. And if there is litigation over that, there is a process in place to cure that. As far as the demolition issue, i think weve demonstrated that the calculation on the vertical is 36. 6 , i dont believe that mr. Buscovich is correct in his consideration of the garage. But if you take into account all the things that mr. Buscovich, either add or subtract from the calculation, the calculation is 39 . Were not at 40 . Everything i heard from everyone out at the site, my conversations is that theyve looked at this with a finetoothed comb, as well they should. And theyve determined there is not demolition. And that the project should move forward. I do believe if d. B. I. Or the Planning Department had a concern in that regard, wed be dealing with them and theyd be telling us we can move forward. We can move forward appropriately and correctly to build the project as permitted in 2015 and to encourage and deal with the resolution of the civil case. We dont dispute the property damage. We do say that were here to protect their property moving forward, about but we do need to move forward. I have a few questions. There was assertion that the contractor that has been much maligned during this hearing was pulling from as recently as last november . I can. The client is in the process of selecting a new contractor. We did ask Cook Construction to pull the permit to protect the property in the interim. As you can imagine when youre trying to find a contractor to take over a project, its always a little tricky. And the contractor is looking at this project knows there is challenges. Has the new contractor been identified . Its not been selected yet. Were still in the process. Theyre in final negotiations. My client can answer that question. I think thats something that would, you know, under our purview, as a neighbor, from their perspective, it would be give pause if its released to the same contractor that is the root of many of the issues. You can assured that i have advised my client under no circumstances should this contractor continue on the project. There is assertion from the appellant that markers were placed on the appellants property without their consent, knowledge. Thankfully, they were there because it did note the half inch of settlement. Can you speak to the process by which the markers were or were not placed . All this was before my retention. My understanding what normally happens in these projects, a neighbor agreement is entered into. You approach the you mind if i since you werent there, can we get your client to explain. Weve heard from both sides. Your attorney started after. Id like to answer her question first, but then to go into, can you start from the beginning, how you acquired the property, has happened what has happened, what your communications are like . So maybe start with so i guess to pick up on commissioner hondas question there is an assertion that the relationship has not been great between the neighbors. Youre not living there, so youre not there living and sleeping and being neighborly this that way. Did you provide notice to your neighbors when you began the construction work, hey, were going to be doing that renovation . We did. Mr. Honda, ill dovetail. We purchased the property january 2015, we met a gentleman at a baseball game and he lived in the home for 30 years and was looking to sell it to a young couple, starting a family like they didnt have kids, but thats who they felt they wanted to sell their home to. Someone who would enjoy it and live in it for a long time. Once we took ownership, we had a couple of barbecues and everything in the back. And john, we actually had a good relationship, traded barbecue food, wine and discuss what we were doing. We discussed in detail what we were planning on doing. Obviously, i have not done this before. And as we started doing plans, youd be working with an architect who would come up with a neat idea and we would say, well, that seems cool, why dont we add that . And wed ask, is that difficult, does that take more time . They said, no, this is not that big of a deal. Im a lot smarter than i was yesterday based on experiences, but you know, we were just kind of flying by the seat of our pants. We didnt have intention of filing multiple permits because theyre pretty expensive. Indeed. Not to interrupt you, you moved in, you had the relationship, you began the project. Did you notice your neighbors when you were beginning to the project, when the permits were issued and you started construction . We discussed when construction was starting based on the date. I dont know if we gave them an official notice that we were starting. There was notice, because there was 311 notification. Right, we met a couple of times at the house and the meetings were about an hour, they asked questions, what were you doing, following ahn on those. Up on those. We sent them the plans to show them the scope of work we were doing. And in regards to the markers placed on the property. I dont know how detailed you were with the contractor at that point, awere you aware they placed them . I dont know if they did that. And would you say in terms of the relationship an communication improving or deteriorating, how did that go from what seemed to be an amicable relationship . It seems like you were speaking mainly through attorneys. Right, there was an easement issue and i guess we were not aware there was an easement on the property. And we sent there is a letter that went back and forth with each of them. Then we got a call from their attorneys. And then immediately they served us with a lawsuit. I reached out a few different times. Saw them in person and asked if they wanted to have a meeting to discuss this to see what the issues were and how to resolve this. And the next thing i knew, we had a lawsuit, that was sent to me and served with papers. After that, we tried to reach out again to try to figure out, what is going on, can we resolve this . And they just said talk to our attorneys, talk to our attorneys, we dont want to deal with you directly. So i followed suit and hired our attorney and hes been representing us since. Can you speak to the issue with the contractor . I know its difficult to find a contractor these days. There is a lot of competing projects bigger in scope than yours. How is that search . Its going well. Eve looked the a weve looked at a couple that we had looked at prior to selecting Cook Construction. We had three bids in the beginning. We dusted off the other two folks, checked where they are in stats on projects. It seems like theyre both good. So similar question, when these accidents started happening, sir, i mean what were you thinking when the first one happened . And what was your conversation like with greg . I was very well, first of all, i was clearly very upset, but second of all, i did not know they took out more of the house than they were supposed to. How did you find out . Well, i found out in the first one, is i guess with the first floor, in order to dig out the basement area, they said well weve got to bring these tractors in because we cant do it by hand. I said are you sure more time and more expensive. Right. And we went through this whole thing where its going to cost more to have manual labor than this and well replace the wood, so were not trying to i asked him the question, are we allowed to take out this area . Absolutely, we do this all the time, this is not a big deal. Well be putting the same wood back to where famous last words, right . Lot smarter today than i was. Thats what happened the first time. And that was the first issue. And the second . The second one, i had no idea they took out the front of the house. We were out of town that week. And all of a sudden, we came back and saw the red tag, or got the letter and we asked them what happened . And it was a similar story. Well, we were working to put this piece of steel here and in order to do that we have to do this. I said, but weve been through this once, did you have a permit to do that . They said, no method and means of construction and that is normal. I said does the city know about that idea . And i said because the last time you told me that and where are you when this happens . Where are you in the room, standing up and telling them about this method and means idea. The same thing happened the second time. My wife and i both distraught, upset, frustrated, because we dont know what it means for the future of the project. And weve been working through it the best we can to get there. Thank you. Okay thank you. Anything further . Okay. Counsel, can i ask a question . I didnt want to ask it of your client because it felt inappropriate to do so. So, heres where im having my im not disagreeing with your point of view, but the track record stinks on this. Every promise that has been made has been broken. Every the statutes are clear. You dont take out this and yet its been taken out. There is no reason my apologies to the Property Owner, but you know, the credibility of the Property Owner has been vanquished. The only leverage left to get the next door neighbors their money to fix their building is to hold up the situation unless your client wants to arrange for a letter of credit to cover the damage personally. Thats a big obligation and im sure your client is well overspent on this project at this point. Or to personally financially indemnify the next door neighbor against further damage and damage inflicted. What other way out of it, given, you know, the credibility issues that now exist, what other way out of it is there . I wouldnt i would be real uncomfortable to see this project go forward, finished, these guys have a brand new home and the guys who have been damaged are still dealing with some insurance settlement situation . I mean, i feel real uncomfortable. I understand that completely. Again, ive said before, i dont know. The second time, its hard to stand up here with a lot of credibility. But i do think this. A, the owner strictly liable for the damage to the neighboring property. Second, there is a Legal Process. And the Legal Process is in the courts on how you enforce damage claims. Ive been in front of this group before. When we talked about the difference between going to court and issues in front of this board. So we have a process in place. I communicate with the lawyer defending the lawsuit on a regular basis. Im in communication with the Insurance Company. I will tell you, without getting into a lot of detail, but we have been and i think it was in our brief weve been asking for a settlement demand and a specification of the damages for months. And we got one last week. Im going to ask that question after because it was not in the brief. We got that last week. Its in my declaration. The demand was sent over to insurance defense counsel. Directly. There have been communications as recently as today with respect that demand and setting up a process, perhaps mediation to try to get it resolve. There is a process in place. We talk about hundreds of thousands of dollars of damages. Yes, i believe theyre claiming hundreds of thousands, whether its really truly what was the specific damage claimed . Im going to say the demand was in the 450,000 range. I cant remember, that sound about right. But whether the case is worth 250 or 500, now is in a place where we can have that conversation where we couldnt before. Where is the leverage . The leverage is the lawsuit. The leverage is the trial. Well, no, im uncomfortable at this point, and maybe you can ease my discomfort, where is the leverage if we allow this permit to move forward . Im not saying that we didnt uphold the appeal. Im saying deny the opportunity for this to move forward at this point. If we dont do this, where is is the leverage for the neighbors to get assurance theyre going to get paid, that theyre going to get their building refreshed at no cost or obligation to themselves . Again, i would have to say forget the courts. Well, there is two places. Number one they didnt ask for this. Theyre not in a horse race. They have to be assured theyre going to get fixed. So if the leverage disappears, we move forward on this permit, where is the leverage that these neighbors now have . There is two things. Leverage can be a specification that there be engineer on site to ensure that the project is built further without further damage to the property. I have no problem i know my client would have no problem in any kind of specification that an engineer be on site to ensure the safety of the project, visavis the neighbors. So that the only thing were dealing with Going Forward is past damages and how we get the property repaired in the lawsuit. I think if youre talking about leverage and assurance youre not going to have increased damage to the property, that is one remedy. Other than that, you know, again, thats why we have is your question answered . Yeah, it would seem to me, it would seem to me that the suggestion of postponing this decision tonight and moving this forward to later point is the only leverage that is there to keep the heat on your clients to get this thing settled an get these people paid. Other than having an engineer on site, i think there is no control over the Legal Process. The courts could decide there is no room for us on april 4. There could be further continuances. I cant control that. Thank you, counselor. Just to be clear, your clients dont have settlement authority. No, theyre being defended by an Insurance Company. And the Insurance Company defends, we have to stay out of the way. Thats what the policy says. Regardless of what we do, we cannot prompt them to settle sooner or later. Last question, are your clients doing this as a spec project or theyre planning to live there . Theyre planning to live there. Lets move on. Thank you. Well hear from the Planning Department. Be brief here. Just mr. Buscovichs comments about having additional review of the demolition, this had very thorough review of the demolition calcs. They sent a lot of time there, reviewed the revised plan and with other senior staff that specialist in demolition. Were comfortable with how it has been handled on our end. Second, correct the record, i misspoke earlier when i stated how that would be a possibility. It not be because of the existing residential unit. Im sorry . Home sf would not be available to the site because of the existing residential facilities. Thank you. Well hear from the department of building inspection. Commissioners, ill be brief as well. Im sure you saw in the brief, you know they showed the photograph of the really wide crack. The other photos, if i could have the overhead overhead please. This is typical of a project next door. You will get this if you live next door to someone who is digging in sand. Its unfortunate. It does happen. But it needed to be discussed before hand. This is a pretty minor crack. But it looks like i just the other crack, im not sure what they have to do to fix it all. Again, without an engineering report, Detailed Engineering report, im disappointed not to get that and the monitoring, thats important. The other thing im not sure about here tonight, are they finished pouring the concrete on that site . I didnt hear that. Maybe they did. Maybe they said it and i didnt understand it. Are they done with the concrete . That means there probably wont be much more movement of the property, settlement. Thats important to know. If they have ongoing monitoring moving forward and obviously that should be submitted to d. B. I. , so we can have a d. B. I. Engineer look at that as well. Because we are normally on site if there is monitoring, if requested. We had one here at the board where we wanted it for the next 12 months sacramento street . I believe it was. And that worked well. And that was terrible. What is your suggestion with regards to engineering report if we were to postpone decision on this tonight, can we attach that to getting a suitable engineering report on the project . Or is it water under the bridge and were too late . There should have been one already. Someone has a report somewhere on the extent of the damage if someone has calculated how much it is, its just not in the paperwork. The monitoring reports. Someone said it moved half an inch. Should we be asking the appellant or the sponsor of the project . Whoever did it. The damage to the property, its usually provided by the property that is damaged. But obviously theyll be recouped for that whenever this all comes out. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioners, this matter is submitted. I want to start for clarity we have two matters, alteration permit and release of suspension. We have do deal with them separately. Ill start just kind of generally. I dont know that ill make a motion to start out, but just kind of to express where i am. I am not inclined to continuing these items. Im inclined to figuring out the permits. I believe the court system is the leverage. Theyre going through a Court Process that will have the decisions heard and deal with the damage. I belief the damage is beyond the scope of this board. I dont think delaying this helps anyone. It delays resolution and has no bearing on whether or not how much is paid for the damage that has been done. So i am looking at notes made around monitoring, engineering report, ongoing monitoring on the neighboring property. Perhaps even though it may go out saying, just for everyones benefit to say the facade will be rebuilt as per plans to reflect the way it was previously constructed. I dont know if we can think about the permit not being issued to the specific contractor, but maybe that is too much in the weeds. A liaison or project manager that the neighbor would have Contact Information of. So there is someone they can talk to and is the direct point of contact. Those are things im not sure which permit needs to be conditioned, but thats the laundry list was making and the perspective i have. That would be on the alteration permit. I think. Yeah, look, i think this is incredibly frustrating for the appellants. And really difficult thing theyve been through and i think it needs to be and will be worked out through the Court Process. That is the most appropriate place to address past damages as well as the potential for any sort of monitoring or safety on the site that a court can oversee. I support conditions that we can impose. But you know, i think theyre here because they want to stop the construction period. But i dont mind adding conditions. And it sound like the permitholder is amenable to them. So i concur with both my commissioners. Agreed with commissioner santacana in regards to it would be pretty crappy to live next door and have that kind of damage done to your home without resolution. At the same time, the resolution that theyre seeking is not in the hands of the permitholder. Its in the hands of a third party Insurance Company, who they are notorious for trying to get the best bang for their buck. You know, when you come in front of here, we look at the briefs, we look occasion. Thats why i asked is there multiple issues with contractor . I asked planning and building who are knowledgeable and have been in the city for quite some time. And there really hasnt. Did an accident occur here . Yes. Was the game significant . Did they dig out so they can increase their floor height and add additional Square Footage to their house . No. And to me, i really despise when contractors and professionals come before us and they lie about their permits and as the counselor said, they dont ask for permission, theyre asking for forgiveness. Oops, we added an extra garage door. Oops, we added an extra floor. In this particular case, there is no gain here. I asked was there gain . Did they get an extra floor, extra room . Was there a mistake . Yes. What im sad about is that you have to live next door to each other. Thats the worst portion of it. But for us, if i felt that there was ill gotten gain and there was a reason why the permitholder knocked down the facade or additional space, trust me, we penalize hard here. They knocked down the space, but theyre not going to change the facade, to me, that makes a big difference. So at the end of the day i would not support a continuance either. I think that having a construction site on the block and create that issue for ongoing issues. Having them not repair or do further work is going to cause more damage. And so what are the two permits before us . We have one permit before us. Thats it was a revision to the two earlier permits. So the second matter is a release of suspension of the two earlier permits. So how would that be we would do one at a time, but i see what direction youre, but i would like to ask the department of building inspection if one of the conditions was that an engineer be on site . I think that monitoring be done by the department, but that was kind of commissioner tanners, but one liaison be added. Even the permitholder himself said i didnt know. Liaison with the permitholder or contractor . They dont have a contractor. That needs to be established soon. How much time do you need to get a contractor . Can you come to the podium, sir . How much time do you need what this board could do is continue this for four more months and youre looking at a graveyard where your money is parked. How much time do you need to actually contract and get a contractor . How close are you . Im pretty close. I heard they can start in march. Which is not bad. And are you identified three, identified one . Two ive identified two. Can i have the names . Lucas eastwood, eastwood development. And were looking at m. Projects. Okay. Thank you. I think the monitoring, ongoing monitoring to have the monitoring that has happened and will happen also be accompanied by the engineering report, so its not just the monitoring itself, but what is the analysis and that would be available to the department and to the appellant. Is that my understanding . That is your cue to come up, old wise one. Yes. The ongoing monitoring would be good. We typically, youd want to be getting them monthly for maybe until the Structural Foundation and framing is all done. After that, you can go it could go to twice a year. And then so monthly reports and ongoing monitoring. And that monthly report would be provided by a Structural Engineer . Monitoring the surveyor . Surveyor. And its usually submitted to d. B. I. To the to the neighbors engineer. If i understand, it should say monthly monitor big the surveyor during the time the structural work is being done. Correct. And up to maybe 12 months after construction is completed. Once more, 12 months after . Yes. Like the pictures youve shown, even new construction after its completed, youll see that type of settling. I tell friends that all the time. Just one note on the contractor of record, they want sta are the the they cant start the work until. It doesnt matter the time. Thats on them. If they decide tomorrow to go back to work, they cant until they have a contractor that puts his name on the switches his name on the permit. Do you understand that . Your attorney is saying yes. You have appraising and engineering on site . That should be part. Every time we have special inspections. Isnt that part of the permitting . Not always. Thats just special inspections so when they do the pouring, the inspector is there to make sure the rebar matches what the engineering does and theyre there to test and make sure the po pouring is correct . Im not sure on the project. I dont know how much they had to do. I dont want to overkill on the reports. I think we got a report from an engineer monthly. And the structural work was done, we got a monthly report. It was a short report from an engineer. Only until we get to the all of the framing and structural work is done. Thank you. So that is have very good point that you bring up that no construction can begin even if we move forward and approve the permit, until they have a contractor. So this gives me some comfort because it allows time for something to get done to protect the neighbor. So would you please advise this body as to what in the intermediate period, between the thyme the contractor is time that the contractor is hired and puts their name on the permit, what would you advise this body as far as conditions to be placed on the approval of these items . They cant do any work. They wont be able to do any work. I understand, but is there anything in the intermediate period that would benefit the appellants . That could be done to give them some comfort and further assurance that theyve covered all their bases . If once well, that would be i think there is some things done by the new contractor. He has to get the faith of the people next door. That has to happen. There should be a meeting between the contractor and the guy who is doing the work. Im a big fan of news letter or outreach to let them know the schedule of work, what the work hours are, what is to be expected. And the contractor should be definitely giving them that. And they also should have a condition that at d. B. I. Be involved before any work resumes. They cant just start up again. They have to schedule another start of work inspection before they resume the work. Can you give us you were about to give us specifics, but it was still too broad for me. Can you give specifics as to what we should establish as d. B. I. s involvement before construction begins again . The district. They should have these are for conditions. A building inspect inspection needs to take place before work resumes, mandatory building inspection. Anything else . Nope, im okay with that. That should be fine. And is there anything before construction begins . Apart from the other items i mentioned, the monitoring. And before building resumes and before that permit, the permit is made whole by virtue of a new contractor, is there anything that we should stipulate as conditions for the protection of the appellant . You might want to ask them that. Im stumped on that. If we get this new contractor in place, hes going to have to be very good because there is going to be a lot of eyes watching. The reason i ask, is because youre the man who does this every single day and you know people become vulnerable. And im asking you to suggest these things to limit the vulnerab vulnerablity of an appellant that has been harmed in process. The building inspector will be on site for inspections take place. You cant have a building inspector there every night of the week. We only go out when there is progress. Im not sure i can give you move much more than that. I definitely think the contractor needs to have there should be better outreach. I dont know how you put that condition. A schedule of activities. A presite meeting with d. B. I. Present as well. Thank you, joe. Same question to mr. Sanchez. Since were going in this direction and given the obvious unintended abuse of the next door neighbors, what conditions do we place upon this as youre hearing that were Going Forward . That protects the abused party. It goes without saying, but should be said that any additional demolition, they need to first obtain a revision permit before undertaking any additional demolition of the property that they simply cannot demolition, that will turn them into a de facto demo. Period. Theyre at the line. If they do any more demo, its de facto highlighting that as an issue and making them aware theyre close. 49. 6. Our calculations are little less than that, but all the same, admonished, they need to obtain the permit. I think its a good point to add even though its obvious. Okay. The first the first one was engineer on site who can provide a monthly report which is sent to d. B. I. And you want that we need to amend that. With the engineer, there is a monthly engineering report that goes to d. B. I. And to the appellants. Okay. So strike the on site. Monthly engineering to the h. O. A. To the homeowners association. Up to d. B. I. And the homeowner association. And then the second one was monthly monitoring by a surveyor with a report regarding the Structural Foundation that would be sent to d. B. I. And h. O. A. And that would be ongoing monthly and then ongoing twice a year and ten 12 months after construction is completed. Okay. Semiannually. After construction is completed for one year. Semiannual . So its monthly until the structural and framing is done. And then once theyre occupied, there is one more report after a year. To see what else has happened. And then we had the facade would be rebuilt to the way it was represented to the way its represented in the plans. Predemolition. And then we also have a requirement that the permitholder provide a liaison to the appellants. Which include phone number and email of that person. Which includes phone number and email. The monitoring could be done quarterly. Apparently monthly is a little severe. And thats from mr. Buscovich. I was going to say quarterly because it is quite a youre just causing you know its dinnertime. The survey monitor. You can change it to quarterly. Im not going to repeat this. We have it on the record. And then we have a liaison, as you said, that will with the permitholder and the permitholder must provide the appellants with a phone number and email address that they can contact this liaison. We have the additional suggestions by mr. Duffy. Construction to begin without new contractor being on file. Right, okay. No construction begins until a new contractor, not cook, or any variation of cook. Cook is cooked. Yes. And then prior to beginning work, there has to be a meeting with the contractor and the h. O. A. With d. B. I. Present i believe. And that the permitholder provide, or the new contractor provide a schedule of the work, the hours and what is to be expected to the appellants. And also that prior to the work commencing, d. B. I. Should inspect the property. Youre good. You were play of paying attention. We have one more that Scott Sanchez suggested. Any additional demolition requires a permit. On what basis are you making the motion . On the basis that this is not a tantamount to demolition but these measures help to protect the appellant and the permitholder. First determination. 6a . Yep. So on that motion, commissioners, santacana aye. Honda aye. Swig aye. So that motion carries. And now were on to the next determination which is the release of the suspension of the permits. I think ill move to deny that on the grounds that the permits should be suspended. Properly issued. Right. There is no irer. So error. So we have determination is properly issued on that motion, commission honda aye. Tanner aye. Swig aye. So that motion carries. And this concludes the hearing. Still a lot of people wonder since the trees have a lot of issues, why did we plant them in the first place . Trees are widely planted in San Francisco. With good reason. They are workhorses when it comes to urban forestry. We have begun to see our ficustrees are too big and dangerous in San Francisco. We have a lot of tree failures with this species in particular. This is a perfect example of the challenges with the structure of the ficustrees. You can see four very large stems that are all coming from the same main truck. You can see the two branches attached to one another at a really sharp angle. In between you cant it is a lot of strong wood. They are attached so sharply together. This is a much weaker union of a branch than if you had a wide angel. This is what it looks like after the fi c. U. Resolution s limb. We see decline. You can see the patches where there arent any leaves at all. That is a sign the tree is in decline. The other big challenge is the root system of the tree are aggressive and can impact nearby utilities, and we can fix the sidewalk around the tree in many cases. We dont want to cuts the roots too severely because we can destabilize the tree. In a city like San Francisco our walks are not that wide. We have had to clear the branches away from the properties. Most of th the can canopy is one street side and that is heavyweight on those branches out over the street. That can be a factor in tree limb failures. A lot of people wonder since these trees have a lot of issues. Why did we plant them in the first place . They provided the city with benefits for decades. They are big and provide storage for carbon which is important to fight Climate Change and they provide shade and really i think many people think they are a beautiful asset. When we identify trees like this for removal and people protest our decision, we really understand where they are coming from. I got into this job because i love trees. It just breaks my heart to cut down trees, particularly if they are healthy and the issue is a structural flaw. I have also seen first hand what happens when we have failures. We have had a couple of injuries due to tree failures. That is something we cant live with either. It is a challenging situation. We hate to lose mature trees, but Public Safety has to alwa r so today, we have come wa r together for a historic day. Today, we gather to honor 50 years of pride. Yes, 50 years. [applause] this anniversary was hard fought from the days of the Freedom Freedom parade to compton cafeteria riots, to all the work across this country that we continue to do for freedom. And if we look, our theme for this years pride is future of hope. And if we look to the next 50 years, we have a lot to be hopeful for. We look at our past and marriage equality, to the first day at city hall when the first couple was married. We recognize lesbian and lgbtq folks across the city. We remember the work that we have to do across the country as trans kids are being refused access to bathrooms in our schools. We remember the families that standup for them, and we remember the work that we still have to do because this generation is hopeful. This generation will continue to be hopeful, and theres so many reasons why we have this hope. Some of that comes from our elected officials, some of that comes from our own journeys, but we know we cannot do this work without the leadership in our city, and i am so proud to work for a leader in this amazing city whos not only spear headed the work of so many of us and supported so much of lgbt quality here in San Francisco but also is continuing that effort forward, our mayor, mayor london breed. [applause] the hon. London breed first of all, thank you, claire. Thank you to the freedom ban of frisk. Thank you to s. F. Pride and supervisor mandelman and so many elected leaders and Department Heads here in San Francisco to celebrate the beginning of pride in San Francisco, 50 years of what i think has been an amazing accomplishment, so thank you to the Board Members, to the president , caroline. Thank you to our new executive director. Like, so many great things are happening in this city and so many great things are happening with pride. And i know i get really excited, because even though its february and we are not expected to have a number of activities, especially the parade, until june, its going to be so exciting that we have to announce it now. We have to get everybody excited about whats to come because there is nothing that we do better than celebrate in San Francisco. We celebrate our history, we celebrate our diversity, we celebrate what makes San Francisco so unique. And we know that this in this city was the epic center of what has occurred that has led to so much to support our Lgbt Community, and im really proud to be in a position as mayor to help support and carry on some of the many policies that we know are necessary to continue to make sure that there is hope for future generations. In fact, trans home s. F. Has been an amazing accomplishment in this city, and thank you, tony newman, for our leadership. Weve got one of our first buildings, and theres lots more to come, along with Wraparound Services for our trans seniors. [applause] the hon. London breed and in San Francisco, we do celebrate a new record low of new h. I. V. Infections, less than 200 last year. Thank you, dr. Brent colfax, for your leadership in the department of health. We know we will continue to make those investments that well get to zero. We know that we did the count around homeless youth. About 50 of the youth that are homeless in this city identify as lgbt, and we want to make sure that we help the next generation of young people growing up in this community so that they have hope. So many great things but also so much more work to do. And i am really confident in the leadership of this city to really help us move forward on so many different levels. As we think about just the attacks that we have been under. I mean, we just had a visit from the other number 45 here this weekend, and i cant help but think about not only our city being under attack, but also our Lgbt Community, where we continue to fight for things that we shouldnt have to at this point. You know, when i think about just what were celebrating in the month of february, black history month. Black history is American History. Were celebrating lunar new year. Chinese American History is American History. Lgbt history is American History. We are all a part of the fabric of what makes our city and our country so great. So we will not be silenced. We will continue to lift our voices and celebrate what makes us so great, what makes us so unique. And during the month of pride, we will just do it with that much more flair. So thank you all so much for being here. Heres to 50 more incredible years for future generations to come. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Thank you, mayor breed. And one other note im just so proud of, thanks to the mayors leadership, weve invested over 1 million in the next year to seniors. So thank you to the department of aging and adult services, and thank you to all of those in our city who made sure that we were brought to this 50 years and continue to be brought to the right place. So now, a leader that we know will continue to bring us forward in the next 50 years, our new director of pride, fred lopez. [applause] hi. Good morning, everybody. How are you . Excited . S. F. Pride, sfpride50. Before anything else, i just want to convey our sincerest gratitude to the mayor, to supervisor mandelman and all these elected officials today for coming out today to start the celebration right. Every City Department that is present, we want to thank you for your unwavering support for San Franciscos most iconic went. It may cost millions of dollars to produce, but it wouldnt happen without the amazing work of our departments, employees, and volunteers. [applause] as claire said, the theme for San Francisco pride is a generation of hope, and it was originally suggested by pride member larry nelson. That spirit of hope will become visible at the beginning of june when the rainbow flags go up along Market Street, much of Market Street now newly car free. On saturday, june 37, civic center will once again become a site of celebration. All weekend, with crowds in the tens of thousands were expecting. Its going to be a big year, and were excited for it. Then, as clair has mentioned, for many of us, the center piece of pride, the parade, on june 28. 50,000 marchers are expected to be in the parade, all cheered on by more than 100,000 spectators its going to be quite a spectacle this year. [applause] if your organization or group is thinking about marching, we encourage you to register soon because we think the parade might run out of space earlier as it has in the years past, so thats great. For the past two years, our partners at cbs bay area have live streamed the parade so that people around the world can see it live. Wear something cute, and call your mom, because youre going to be on t. V. Thats exciting. Thank you to our friends at kpix. [applause] thats not the only new development for 2020. On april 17, an exhibition entitled labor of love, the birth of San Francisco pride, 19701980 opened at the gobt museum in San Francisco. Itll be up in the museum until january 2021. Further, starting may 7 in the city hall in the north light court, the Historical Society and San Francisco Arts Commission will mount a photography exhibition called 50 years of pride, so make sure to check out the amazing history that we can learn from. Our entire team at San Francisco pride is working hard to ensure that we are ready for this monumental event, and here are some ways in which our communities can help. Applications are now open for our volunteers who provide power during the event. I want to acknowledge that in this room, there are some former Community Grand marshals and honorees, like our board president , carolyn, was once an honoree, and others. If you want to raise your hands, folks who have been honored in the past. Thank you for all of your tireless work. That spirit of tireless volunteerism is at the core of San Francisco pride, and that commitment goes both ways. In 2019, we were pleased to go nate more than 203 donate more than 203,000 to ongoing bay area nonprofits, which adds to our total of more than 3 million since 1997. [applause] finally, 2020 may be the 50th anniversary of pride as a march and a celebration, but San Franciscos pride began way before 1970. The compton cafeteria riots took place in 1966. As we look forward to the next 50 years, lets always remember the valuient struggles of previous valiant struggles of previous generations, and as hectare remilk said, all give them hope. And here at pride, we always will. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you, fred. Were so excited, and we know that pride is in great hands. Thank you. So it is my honor to introduce our new pride chair, carolyn wisenger. Thank you, fred, thank you, mayor breed, thank you to my aunt who has threatened bodily harm if i dont mention them. As fred mentioned, the board is excited about completing our threeyear theme with this years generation of hope. While we are excited about the events leading up to the pride weekend, we are most excited about what that word hope represents. As a community, we are in challenging times, and being in pride, its so different. There is more required now that we are headed into 50. The organizational needs arent the same as they were in 1970, and either are the needs of the community that we represent. Theres more required in the way that we represent community, there is more required in the way that we support our community, and theres more required in the way that we are supported. Now the last leg to 50 is always the hardest leg. Some of you may have been married 50 years, and you know its hard getting to 50. It doesnt get easier as we march in these last months to 50. As someone who grew up in a church thats now 75 years old, i remember in 1995, and how hard that last road to 50 was. I remember the struggles, and i remember the squabbles, and i remember the day it seemed like it would all fall part. We are in a crunch time now, but we as a board continue to believe that it is important to have a celebration that is reflective of the community we serves, and important to be reflective of all of those voices, and to make all those voices be heard. I remember when Bishop Carlton pearson said we have to remind them of the hope, so thats what were going to do, and we ask you to join us for that. [applause] thank you. So 2020 is kind of an incredible year. Also, its not the 50th anniversary, and also, we need to get out there and vote. Every one of you matters, so lets get out there and do that. So now, its my honor to introduce our only out gay supervisor who has been doing some incredible work not only in his district but for the Lgbt Community at large and in San Francisco at large. Please welcome supervisor raphael mandelman. Supervisor mandelman good morning, everybody. It does you know, february does feel like a slightly odd time to be celebrating time, but i will say theres never a bad time for the Queer Community to take the mayors balcony, so we are happy to be here. And madam mayor, i think it is just worth noting the extraordinary collection of queer Department Heads you have, from clair farley at the o. T. I. , and grant colfax at the department of public health, and jeffrey tumlin, and sherreen mcspadden. You have a very queer administration, and we are quite appreciative of that. [applause] supervisor mandelman the trustees never get acknowledge them, so im going to acknowledge them now. We have our past president , Alex Randolph of the college board, and our current president , tom temprano of the college board, doing great and important work. You know, as i and then, i also do want to congratulate fred lopez. Thank you, fred, thank you, carolyn. Thank you to the whole board. Pride has never been easy, but it is important, so i this year is particularly important and seems to be particularly challenging, and i know you will get through it, and i am grateful for what you are doing to get us through what will be an amazing 50year celebration, so thank you. [applause] supervisor mandelman i was trying to think about that 1970 gayin, the people who participa participated in that. The next 50 years, what did they imagine it would be like . Did they imagine that in a few years, a gay man would get elected supervisor in San Francisco . And after that, rainbow wave after rainbow wave would come crashing down until the last election when we got a Record Number of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people elected, even in virginia. They would not have imagined the Extraordinary Community response that would come to it. Tom and i were just over at the airport where the quilt is getting brought from atlanta. It is finally coming home, and theres going to be a fantastic rollout of panels of the last ten years on april 3, 4, and 5, and everybody should come. But the resilience of the gay community, responding to that crisis and building an aids movement, they had no idea. And would they have imagined same sex marriage . No matter how you feel about pete buttigieg, would they have imagine that a gay man would be one of the leading candidates for president s this year . And gay c. E. O. S, and so much of what they imagined would have come to pass. I dont think they would have imagined that the mayor of San Francisco would have been an African American woman who grew up in the projects, and i do think they would be particularly amazed and delighted at that prospect, because harvey milk talked about the uses and those who had been left out of the power structure in the 70s, and those who had just begun to imagine that there might be a universe where they can take power. So its amazing with our Department Heads and our mayor i dont remember, San Francisco and our mayor, San Francisco is living up to the hope. I feel like i have generationally benefited so much. And in a lot of ways, the work is about building, acknowledging the institution like the lesbian gay freedom ban. That was a great moment for the city, but some of those other great moments, a second building, and now having purchased a third site and affirming lgbt senior housing. Thank you, mayor, for that. Theres just around the corner from that, the gay mens chorus. They are becoming the national lgbtq center for the arts, and we got some help for them into the budget last year. Again, thank you, madam mayor, and thank you to my colleagues on the board. We have inherited so much, and so i think Going Forward, obviously, the obligations to move forward on that, and to fulfill the unfulfilled promises. In 1970, we knew that people had been left behind, and in 2020, we know that people have been left behind. We need to eradicate the epidemic. We need to reach folks who have not been reached, and so the work of justice which they know we needed to do in 1970 and 80 and 90, and they know the work that we need to do. It was the work of 50 years, so it was exciting, and now, fred lopez is going to come back. [applause] thats a great way to sort of summarize all the Amazing Things that are happening in San Francisco. We are so incredibly fortunate to live in this amazing place and be supported by all of these amazing people and institutions that surround us. I do want to say quickly that i make sure i acknowledge the Board Members of San Francisco pride who are here. Give us a wave. [applause] and San Francisco pride wouldnt happen without a really talented teams of contractors or staff. If youre a contractor or staff, give us a wave. [applause] great work. Finally, as raphael said, it is a little we have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. This is a huge catalyst for change. It will be over 530,000 gross square feet plus two levels of basement. Now the departments are across so many locations it is hard for them to Work Together and collaborate and hard for the customers to figure out the different locations and hours of operation. One of the main drivers is a one stopper mitt center for permit center. Special events. We are a one stop shop for those three things. This has many different uses throughout if years. In 1940s it was cocacola and the flagship as part of the construction project we are retaining the clock tower. The permit center is little working closely with the Digital Services team on how can we modernize and move away from the paper we use right now to move to a more digital world. The Digital Services team was created in 2017. It is 2. 5 years. Our job is to make it possible to get things done with the city online. One of the reasons permitting is so difficult in this city and county is really about the scale. We have 58 Different Department in the city and 18 of them involve permitting. We are expecting the residents to understand how the departments are structured to navigate through the permitting processes. It is difficult and we have heard that from many people we interviewed. Our goal is you dont have to know the department. You are dealing with the city. Now if you are trying to get construction or special events permit you might go to 13 locations to get the permit. Here we are taking 13 locations into one floor of one location which is a huge improvement for the customer and staff trying to Work Together to make it easy to comply with the rules. There are more than 300 permitting processes in the city. There is a huge to do list that we are possessing digital. The first project is allowing people to apply online for the a. D. U. It is an accessory dwelling unit, away for people to add extra living space to their home, to convert a garage or add something to the back of the house. It is a very complicated permit. You have to speak to Different Departments to get it approved. We are trying to consolidate to one easy to due process. Some of the next ones are windows and roofing. Those are high volume permits. They are simple to issue. Another one is restaurant permitting. While the overall volume is lower it is long and complicated business process. People struggle to open restaurants because the permitting process is hard to navigate. The city is going to roll out a digital curing system one that is being tested. When people arrive they canshay what they are here to. It helps them workout which cue they neat to be in. If they rant to run anker rapid she can do that. We say you are next in line make sure you are back ready for your appointment. We want it allinone location across the many departments involved. It is clear where customers go to play. On june 5, 2019 the ceremony was held to celebrate the placement of the last beam on top of the structures. Six months later construction is complete. We will be moving next summer. The flu building the new building will be building. It was designed with light in mind. Employees will appreciate these amenities. Solar panels on the roof, electric vehicle chargers in the basement levels, benefiting from gray watery use and secured bicycle parking for 300 bicycles. When you are on the higher floors of thing yo of the buildt catch the tip of the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear day and good view of soma. It is so exciting for the team. It is a fiscal manifestation what we are trying to do. It is allowing the Different Departments to come together to issue permits to the residents. We hope people can digitally come to one website for permits. We are trying to make it digital so when they come into the center they have a highquality interaction with experts to guide then rather than filling iin forms. They will have good conversations with our staff. K hard you have worked to win a state championship. It is an absolutely incredible accomplishment. Dont correct my grammar because i went to galileo high school, and you went to lowell. You did it focused as a team, and it matters. You are going to look back on this time in your life, and you are going to think wow, this was the best time of my life. It may not seem that way right now, but a few years from now, youre going to look back, and youre going to really remember your teammates, youre going to remember the excitement when you played, and yes, the challenges, because we know it takes a lot of hard work, both physically and mentally to get to a place where you can win a state championship, and i wanted you all to know how proud we are in San Francisco that these incredible women that are sitting before me today achieved this incredible milestone. So i wanted to take the opportunity to honor you here at city hall because im really proud of each of you for what you were able to do. I want to ask your coach, coach sung, to come up, and say a few words. Is the coach here today . There you go. Come on up, coach. [applause] the hon. London breed wait a minute. You look like youre a student at Lowell High School. You know, not too long ago, i was at lincoln. The hon. London breed lincoln . Too nice. And not too long ago, you guys beat lincoln. Not when i was playing. Come on up, coach, and congratulations to everybody. [applause] good evening. My name is kelly sung, and i am the varsity coach at Lowell High School. First, id like to thank mayor london breed and her staff for inviting us here tonight. Its so amazing to be recognized for all our hard work. Growing up and attending lincoln high school, the aaa teams never made it far in the post season. In the beginning of this season, our goal was to win our section title and to get past the second round of norcal. We were able to accomplish that and so much more, but i will let marie go kind of speak to that. What i wanted to touch on is how proud i am of these girls. Before practice or tournaments, you could find them studying for their tests or getting ahead of homework. It is hard to balance academics and sports at such a prestigious school. Our team held the highest accumulative grade point average of any team at Lowell High School. Telling teams that they are your Favorite Team is sort of bad practice, but in my nine years of coaching, i have to admit this is one of my Favorite Teams to coach. Not only because of the success they had, but because of their love for volleyball and each other. I hope you all remember how much of an impact you have made on not only Lowell High School but in womens sports. You are the first team at lowell and the first team in aaa to win state titles. Continue to lastly, i want to thank the parents for your support this season. Having to leave work early or wake up at 5 00 a. M. For tournaments is not easy, but just know that we would not have accomplished this without your unwavering support, so thank you so much. And next, were going to have our team captain, mari mariko tanaka. Good evening, everyone. My name is mariko tanaka, and i am a senior at Lowell High School. This past Volleyball Season was one of the most amazing experiences ive ever had, and i am so thankful to be a part of this team and so proud to be able to accomplish something even beyond my imagination. At the beginning of this season, winning state was something i never thought my team would get an opportunity to achieve. Our main goal was to win aaa section championships and advance past the second round of c. I. A. Norcal playoffs. The team stayed focused on reaching this goal, and with the hard work came reward to go undefeated in league play and win our city championship. After this, keeping focus was extremely hard, but with the encouragement of our coaches, kelly and j. J. , we won the first and second and then third round against burlingame in an extremely close match, knocking off the number one seed on their home turf to win the championship is indescribable. We are under dogs again in the c. I. F. Playoffs, but we were able to bring back the first state championship in volleyball in San Francisco history. [applause] individually, everyone on this team is very different, but we managed to find a way to gel together in the most perfect way possible. On behalf of this team, i would like to thank mayor london breed for having us and would also like to thank all friends and family for all the support you showed for us this season. Thank you. [applause] the hon. London breed thank you. All right. Thank you. That was great. Whos the next speaker here . Oh, the principal, yes. And again, let me just say, i notice that theres some members of the press here. I hope you get the word out about the incredible students at our school that are achieving great things because we need to continue to shine a light on all the work that they do to accomplish such a great thing here in San Francisco. So with that, come on up. [applause] i would also like to thank london mayor breed mayor london breed. I know that she was a galileo lion, but now that she is the mayor of this great city, someday she has to be a mission bear or a washington great eagle, but today, i would like to have her as a lowell cardinal. [applause] this was an incredibly exciting season. Every week, we would advance a little bit. I would come back to the office, and they would say, they won again, they won again. And i was there at that burlingame game. That was a very exciting game. There were moments when the opposing team looked like they were set up to get some wonderful spike, and no, didnt happen. So what i could really see was our young women here had the most incredible focus, and they were looking at each other like this; you get it. And thats what won the Championship Team work. I couldnt be prouder of these young women who brought home a championship and on top of that maintained the highest g. P. A. , continued to do so well in their academics. We will say goodbye to the ones who graduate this here, but we have a great young team coming up, and i would love to come back here next year. Thank you so much for bringing lowell to city hall, and thank you to our mayor for having us. [applause] and now, i believe the mayor will give the certificates. The hon. London breed we have jennie lam, who is a teacher and an elected member of the school board. What she does, she makes sure, along with the school board, that you have the tools you need. So with that, ill turn it over to you. Thank you. First, were going to acknowledge our players and then the coaches. So first, id like to acknowledge kaly bucmongla, katey yee, heather wu, carly lu, kelsey mah, pearl vermilia, gabrie gabriela kwak, alexandra chow, eliana ellie brown, alina qi, aleti edmonds, mariko tanaka, kylonni wong, assistant coach joshua jong. Last, but not least, head coach kelly sung. Can we get a Group Picture with the mayor at the podium, and then last with players and coaches. [applause] the hon. London breed well, its that simple. That concludes our program, and again, i want to just thank all of you and congratulations to this incredible team. Thank you to the parents and the family members who are here today. We appreciate your support, and well, i would say continue to get good grades, but you guys go to lowell so i dont have to say that. Continue to just remember that you all as champions are leaders. People look up to you because of what youve been able to accomplish, and so continue to hold your heads up high, do all the great things that you are meant to do, and who knows what may end up happening in the future. You could end up mayor. So thanks for coming today, and congratulations. [applause] the San Francisco playgrounds hitsvery dates back to 1927 when the area where the present playground and center is today was purchased by the city for 27,000. In the 1950s, the sen consider was expanded by then mayor robinson and the old gym was built. Thanks to the passage of the 2008 clean and safe Neighborhood Parks bond, the Sunset Playground has undergone extensive renovation to its four acres of fields, courts, play grounds, community rooms, and historic gymnasium. Here we are. 60 years and 14 million later, and we have got this beautiful, brandnew rec center completely accessible to the entire neighborhood. The new rec center houses multipurpose rooms for all kinds of activities including basketball, line dancing, playing pingpong and arts can crafts. You can use it for whatever you want to do, you can do it here. On friday, november 16, the dedication and Ribbon Cutting took place at the Sunset Playground and recreation center, celebrating its renovation. It was raining, but the rain clearly did not dampen the spirits of the dignitaries, Community Members and children in attendance. [cheering and applauding] once i got the hang of it a little bit, you know, like the first time, i never left the court. I just fell in love with it and any opportunity i had to get out there, you know, they didnt have to ask twice. You can always find me on the court. [ ] we have been able to participate in 12 athletics wheelchairs. They provide what is an expensive tool to facilitate basketball specifically. Behind me are the amazing golden state road warriors, which are one of the most competitive adaptive basketball teams in the state led by its captain, chuck hill, who was a National Paralympic and, and is now an assistant coach on the national big team. It is great to have this opportunity here in San Francisco. We are the main hub of the bay area, which, you know, we should definitely have resources here. Now that that is happening, you know, i im looking forward to that growing and spreading and helping spread the word that needs that these people are here for everyone. I think it is important for people with disabilities, as well as ablebodied, to be able to see and to try different sports, and to appreciate trying different things. People can come and check out this chairs and use them. But then also friday evening, from 6 00 p. M. Until 8 00 p. M. , it will be wheelchair basketball we will make sure it is available, and that way people can no that people will be coming to play at the same time. We offer a wide variety of adaptive and inclusion programming, but this is the first time we have had our own equipment. [ ] [ ] i am the supervisor of district one. I am sandra lee fewer. [ ] i moved to the Richmond District in 1950 mine. I was two years old. I moved from chinatown and we were one of the first asian families to move out here. [ ] when my mother decided to buy that house, nobody knew where it was. It seems so far away. For a long time, we were the only chinese family there but we started to see the areas of growth to serve a larger chinese population. The stress was storage of the birthplace of that. My father would have to go to chinatown for dim sum and i remember one day he came home and said, there is one here now. It just started to grow very organically. It is the same thing with the russian population, which is another very large ethnic group in the Richmond District. As russia started to move in, we saw more russian stores. So parts of the richmond is very concentrated with the Russian Community and immigrant Russian Community, and also a chinese immigrant community. [ ] i think as living here in the richmond, we really appreciate the fact that we are surrounded three natural barriers. They are beautiful barriers. The presidio which gives us so many trails to walk through, ocean beach, for families to just go to the beach and be in the Pacific Ocean. We also also have a National Park service. We boarded the Golden Gate National Recreation Area so there is a lot of activity to do in the summer time you see people with bonfires. But really families enjoying the beach and the Pacific Ocean during the rest of the time of year. [ ] and Golden Gate Park where we have so many of our treasures here. We have the tea garden, the museum and the academy of sciences. Not to mention the wonderful playgrounds that we have here in richmond. This is why i say the richmond is a great place for families. The theatre is a treasure in our neighborhood. It has been around for a very long time. Is one of our two neighborhood theatres that we have here. I moved here when i was 1959 when i was two years old. We would always go here. I love these neighborhood theatres. It is one of the places that has not only a landmark in the Richmond District, but also in San Francisco. Small theatres showing one or two films. A unique they are unique also to the neighborhood and San Francisco. Where we are today is the heart of the Richmond District. With what is unique is that it is also Small Businesses. There is a different retail here it is mom and pop opening up businesses. And providing for the neighborhood. This is what we love about the streets. The cora door starts on clement street and goes all the way down to the end of clement where you will see Small Businesses even towards 32nd. At the core of it is right here between here and 20 tenth avenue. When we see this variety of stores offered here, it is very unique then of the any other part of San Francisco. There is traditional irish music which you dont get hardly anywhere in San Francisco. Some places have this long legacy of serving ice cream and being a hangout for families to have a sunday afternoon ice cream. And then also, we see grocery stores. And also these restaurants that are just new here, but also thriving. [ ] we are seeing restaurants being switched over by hand, new owners, but what we are seeing is a vibrancy of clement street still being recaptured within new businesses that are coming in. That is a really great thing to see. I dont know when i started to shop here, but it was probably a very, very long time ago. I like to cook a lot but i like to cook chinese food. The market is the place i like to come to once a year. Once i like about the market as it is very affordable. It has Fresh Produce and fresh meat. Also, seafood. But they also offer a large selection of condiments and sauces and noodles. A variety of rice that they have is tremendous. I dont thank you can find a variety like that anywhere else. Hi. I am kevin wong. I am the manager. In 1989 we move from chinatown to Richmond District. We have opened for a bit, over 29 years. We carry products from thailand, japan, indonesia, vietnam, singapore and india. We try to keep Everything Fresh daily. So a customer can get the best out a bit. Normally during crab season in november, this is the first place i hit. Because they have really just really fresh crab. This is something my family really likes for me to make. Also, from my traditional chinese food, i love to make a kale soup. They cut it to the size they really want. I am probably here once a week. Im very familiar with the aisles and they know everyone who is a cashier cashier here i know when people come into a market such as this, it looks like an asian supermarkets, which it is and sometimes it can be intimidating. We dont speak the language and many of the labels are in chinese, you may not know what to buy or if it is the proper ingredients for the recipe are trying to make. I do see a lot of people here with a recipe card or sometimes with a magazine and they are looking for specific items. The staff here is very helpful. I speak very little chinese here myself. Thinks that im not sure about, i asked the clerk his and i say is this what i need . Is this what i should be making . And they actually really helped me. They will bring me to the aisle and say this is battery. They are very knowledgeable. Very friendly. I think they are here to serve not only the Asian Community but to serve all communities in the Richmond District and in San Francisco. [ ] what is wonderful about living here is that even though our july is a very foggy and overcast, best neighborhood, the sleepy part outside on the west side is so rich with history, but also with all the amenities that are offered. [ ]