overwhelmed how big it is the question is one of tyiming and phasing. how do you look at the scope of the project and the timing and apply for one or 2 grants and how do you break it up for your community to chew. >> there are 3 things our project had fit. it was limited in scale. as far as need to meet neighbor a -- create and meet with a core group of neighbors. the other was autoaccuratically initiated. we have the idead and the talent an art tech and developer in this building that could whip something up on paper and make it nice. also with the resources of asking the contractor what would

the material cost so we could fill out the application with a fair amount -- the things with a large grant is past experience. we didn't have past experience. we couple the credibility and knowledge and filled it in with confidence. au autocatically started is take ideas and not a big deal to sit down at lunch or after work and meet with neighbors much it was not spending all your time to find people to meet with to get thing off the ground is that?

>> uh-huh. >> right. >> you have to document your volunteer hours. that's your goal. not that wiit will help you get your grant. if you document you are building your business plan for your neighborhood. you are really figuring out who your out fits are when that type of organization you have. it seems tedious and i hate that recordkeeping that helps you understand who you are and what you can deploy and think about

what group you are. i think her final thing was to lament or i guess the follow up question of hers was that when the projects are lucky because they are an architect and buildy they is the idea and the means to make it happen which seems like it's easier. you are in a community that are diverse in ethnicity and economies and cultures so getting all the people in the room is difficult. and so when are you going to work on the idea and get the people in a room that can hold them all together. i encourage you to think you have a bigger out fit because you have a longer and more interesting journey on get there. potentially unexpected results

you might come up with an entirely different outcome than what you were expecting. it's a good thing. i encourage you to have alot of the conversations and start small. you know the largest infinity is from standing dead still 0-1. get anything moving can the hardest. once things are moving it's much easier to sustain and build things and you will feel that. i'm sorry you had a question a long time ago.

>> tell me more. >> very loosely. we really value innovation. encouraging people to be contact specific. it's not like dpw doesn't have a lot of rules. it's a city there are a lot of rules and regulations. >> space could be a bench or stool. >> we have had issues with things that are temporary you know like what we are looking at is permanent physical and sustainable improvements. but really there is your imagination and what's possible. >> go ahead.

>> right. >> no you can the volunteer hours before you put the application together? >> yeah. absolutely! >> really? >> sure. >> absolutely. one of the most like i said before the most difficult thing is to get from 0 to 1 that's the work that's the hartest work you should be rewarded. the reward is there is a value of your time. mind you that doesn't preclude you from still bearing up your end of the 5 year maintenance plan. in that case we would encourage you. a project like that you will have well beyond the percentage match required. a minimum of 25 percent match

for small grants. >> we need to see a 5 year maintenance plan. >> yes. if you say, we will do something in a park and park and rec will take care of it. we will not fund you. that's not acceptable to us. >> it was originally 250 thousand dollars. so we were well over that 25 percent match. we asked for nearly a hundred i think. 99, 999 i think. >> you know, there's several businesses that a combination of

my professional service were 30 grand i think. and businesses giving in cash grants and there was service people producing benches actual labor. there was i can't remember it breaks down for maintenance. maintenance is it's own thing. basically alot of cash from various businesses that pledged it. and there is a gap. i think, still. which is you know question mark still. may be more. [laughter] guesstimate. >> bases on that scale are expensive. anything that involved concrete is expensive much remoremoving . >> no, not in the end. >> was there a neighborhood

organization? >> there is a neighborhood organization that encomp uses that area the hayes valley neighborhood association which i am a member of. and they have been supportive. something they plugged into immediately because it's in the market/octavia plan. it's identifiable on their agenda for years. >> you would think but that's not what they do. it's about the neighborhood. all about the neighborhood it would be great if we could use their, say, we will have a work party day every third saturday of the month. >> may be the organizations are about policy and discussions and not or land use issues. you had your hand up. [inaudible].

>> right. >> i don't think you necessarily need a master plan. i would say he will give you a technical idea. >> september 21st is parking day. yes. >> take you know go to home depot and get turf on the place and show people want it would be like. >> it's establishing the conversation to figure out who the players are because typically what we see in the projects -- we do repeat funding

we have done repeat fundings of street trees. some neighborhoods started small and came out with 5,000 and literally get something in the ground and people say, oh , how do i get that. don't worry if it's small.

>> there is actually. many alleys in the mission at the moment are being permitted to have units built on the alleys for that reason. it's a naturally traffic calmed says and family friendly in on the flip side. and that in a way in certain neighborhoods they are typically more affordable.

the city is encouraging that. and it's difficult but -- >> garage? >> yeah. >> [inaudible]. >> yeah. >> right it's difficult you have to deal with issues of the historical pattern most of the alleys in the mission were if ice delivery with horses that's why they are small. and then garages went in in the 50's. we are used to them now does not mean it was that way. go to the library and look at the historical photographs of the neighborhood you can get inspired by realizing you can change things. like ice delivery. well, what do we do with it now?

>> well, yeah. the maintenance plan that's in part with the conversation with, for example, for the projects that take place on at a school. it involved a conversation with the principal and with the pta. so, for example, the pta of jefferson which was already very involved in a gardening program. so, you know, like i said, neighborhood beautification. the wheels in terms of bringing the community together to transform this space were already moving. i was able to hop on that band wagon and so basically i created a letter of agreement with the

pta and the principal. that the principal signd and the pta president signed saying they will take responsibility for removing graffiti that come up. that was a big issue. murals get tagged. i have done 60 of the projects and 3 have been tagged. it 's surprising to me how i hae not had a problem with vandalism >> on the one at 19th and everybodying the door next to the mural has been tagged the bus stop is tagged. they climbod top of the bus stop to tag the stop the star bucks build you but left the mural alone. why in i don't know. may be their siblings worked on the mural. may be they decided to leave it alone. it's a cared for space. that's a key thing if people see that a community's going to come back and remove the vandalism it

sends a powerful message. that's one of the key things. that was part of the conversation and involving the community. >> yeah. with the painted mural there is a varnish called sheer coat it's catalyzed varnish. the tricky part when you remove the graffiti you replace the varnish. with tile it's easier to remove spray paint because you can use solvants and remove the paint. not -- i had 3 projects that have been vandalizede and one o

the murals. >> people have done things. on the back of the mission the safe way market safe way. and that has been tagged very infrequently. it's another example of a cared for space. it has been deemed by shopping carts. it needs tlc. she works with a guy who has done a lot of technical fundraising. his strategy was to have sort of the mural printed up in a long form and they sell that as a package that has the history of the mural on the back and who everybody is. we gets on the muni line that goes past the safe way and talks

about the mural to muni riders and sells that package. it's a wonderful spiral it gets the money for the maintenance and it also makes more people aware of the mural and the neighborhood cares about it and it's a community benefit. and i always liked that idea. so, we actually funded them to do some they received funding to implement the mural and we funded them to do some maintenance work. part of the match was his time. mona's time and the neighbor's time and the money they collected from muni riders, there is a lot of way to roll stuff like this. >> yeah. >> the standpoint of looking at

stake holders through our community meetings. are you excited about this plan? yeah, great. are you excited enough to donate money up front or will it be worth it to you to say 20 dollars a month because you live, work in front of this pla place. are you interested in the spiritualy and financially enough to contribute to it. that's going to the community benefit district is to create an informal but binding subscription, if you will. yeah. i think -- i think it's going to be a bit of both. it will be we who i don't work there anymore but the people that are still in that lyndon building are the

primary tenders. they will pick up trash and replace plants that get stolen or vandalizeded. whether it's tree pruning or paving repair that might need to be done by an ouder a outsider for. there will be a fund established. like in a homeowner's association. >> but that's a very complicated project. there are much smaller projects. what come to mind is a project i worked on at caesar chavez and gererroro. this house was delomolished. it was concrete and now it's a dumping ground. because in the absence of any

plantings it as a freeway connecter came tire land and encampment and the cattate a rat and -- it built. so we pulled it down and planted it. getting resources in the neighborhood. there was a little old lady across the street that lived there forever. when she sees anybody out there doing something she yells at them. we passed the plate around and got a hose and sprayer. she waters and when she's on vacation she talks to her neighbors on either side. it's not rocket science. i encourage to you walk around

your neighborhood and look at where there is too much concrete. there are a lot of ridiculous concrete things that are crying out for something. you know planters or garden spaces. those are the things that make neighborhoods liveable and the process of doing something with them also what makes neighborhoods liveable. go ahead.

>> well, i would, the question is, where do you start if you have a big problem how do you scope it? and i would again go back to talking to your neighbors. so, in my neighborhood -- we have not been ccg funded in my neighborhood the big issue was traffic. gererroro street takes up a lot of cars on the freeway and there were many intersections that didn't have traffic controls. any time you wanted to cross it was 6 lanes doing 70 a lot like 19th avenue. we downloaded dpt has a traffic calming request form. and we went door to door and asked people to sign it and in a month we got 300 signatures.

it was hard to get out of people's houses in less than an hour because they hold me hear stores. i got to know the neighbors and they got to know me. in the process we learned who got which skills. peep will say i don't have money but i can do this and i have a truck. that's how you answer that question. you could work hard to figure out on how to raise the money to get it professionally done that will not build your neighborhood. you have to start small and figure out who are the few care takers and you become the planet as you get bigger you attract for matter around you.

>> what's the -- >> did everybody hear that question? >> the question is, if you are looking at the case of tree planting and you have an area in which there is a high population tenants only 30 percent of san francisco owns homes.

the property owner has to sign off on the tree planting but the property owner may not live in the building. if the renters are interested and the property owner is not the property owner wants but the renter wants to park their car. how do you deal with those issues. >> i have been a renter and been involved in plantings as a renter. i think -- start with the assumption now as a homeowner i think, renters they don't have anything anything invested in the neighborhood they are here today and gone tomorrow. that's not true. they're just as invest instead neighborhood because of living there and they can pull the strings on who has to sign and release the magic reliability

form to the city. >> it goes back to finding the stake holders. most of the people on the pta's and our schools are renters. they are very concerned about the state our schools and the quality of our education for their kids and are willing to put in time and energy to doing that. the other thing i would say is i mean, planting a tree is about a lot more than planting a tree. it's taking back your neighborhood. putting a mural on a vandalizeded wall is more than art it's about you know, and -- finding stake holders. >> yeah i would say that's my experience to gererro there are many blocks because of all the traffic it'sal a's all tenants. because the sidewalks are so narrow and there is no street

scape it's a hostile place to live with few exceptions everyone, regardless of whether they own or not want to see a liveable city and greening. my experience is the tenants are the ones that go to the property owners and say we will take care of it can we have a tree much the property owners the way you get them will say, look it will raise the value of the property you can raise rent. there are various ways to appeal to what it is that will get somebody to sign o. if your tenants say the balance of my lease i promise to water the streets or pick up the dog poop that accumulates in it. one group to bear in mind in all of this conversation is most [inaudible] you have to have a

physical sponsor that will help you with your grant amount. that is actually an incredible boom there are terrific fiscal sponsors in the city. there's the san francisco clean city coalition that runs the san francisco tool lending center. there is liveable city. there is the friends of the urban forest. the neighborhood parks council. the reason i bring these up now is part of the conversations with stake holders you have are with the fiscal sponsor. many of the fiscal sponsors have technical skills and lots of experience with the city that they will absolutely shar