petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery to and eerie victorian garden. my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context. so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect. a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i am not supposed to be in this room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up.

>> the ole andersonner -- oleander. this popular shrub is popular in warm climates. it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths. children are at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. a southern california woman tried to collect on her husband's life insurance by putting the leaves in his food. she is now one of 15 women on california's death rowan the only one who attempted to murder with a plant. >> people who may haven't been to their cons tore or been to -- do serve tore or their botanical garden, it gives them a reason to come back. you think let's go and look at the pretty flowers. these are pretty flowers, but they are flowers with weird and

fascinating stories behind them. that is really fun and really not what people normally think of when they come to a horticultural institution. >> "wicked plants" is now showing at the san francisco conserve tore of flowers. unless next time, get out and play.

>> you can see that it is

amazing. you can hear that it is refreshing. you reach for it because it is irresistible. and the taste. simply delicious. san francisco tap water. it engages the senses. 311 is an important resource for all san franciscans. shouldld

>> welcome to "culture wire." i'm your host meg. for years, free jazz concerts have been providing entertainment in downtown san francisco. people pay local musicians to perform for lunchtime crowds. the goal is not just entertainth. people in plazas are trying to create neighborhoods.

what began as a forum for performers who were paid by passing the hat has become a program that provides wide exposure and more than 500 paid gigs annually for local musicians. from july through september, people in plazas produces almost 300 free performances in the lunchtime hour. the mission of people in plazas generates social congregation. and by having these events, we encourage people to make these plazas everybody's neighborhood. >> recently, the san francisco arts commission was awarded a $ 250,000 grant for the national endowment for the arts. to establish an arts district in the central market corridor between fifth and 10th street. throughout the yearing the arts commission will partner with

people in plazas to activate the sidewalks along this stretch with art installation, opening events, live music, and new arts and antique markets at u.n. plaza. >> this area has been sleighted for many years, at least the past 25 years. i think that this redevelopment project and the n.e.a. grant are very positive signs that we have political will and a lot of momentum to really make the mid market area what it could be, which is a vibrant area where everybody is welcome and it's a place to be in san francisco. >> to get a feel for the future of the central market arts and culture district, be sure to catch out an upcoming concert. for locations and times, visit peopleinplazas.org. to learn more about the central market revitalization initiative, visit

sfartcommission.org. thank you for watching "culture wire." supervisor wiener: what we have here is a very important project and a very important mission and a completely reasonable objection of neighbors who are concerned about a five-story building going in on their block, which is something we see in san francisco all the time, and there is nothing exceptional or inappropriate about people taking issue with the size of a building. i grow up in the philadelphia

area, in new jersey, went to school up and down the east coast. i went to undergrad at duke university and law school at harvard. after clerking for a judge, i came out here and have been in here for the last 14 years. i always assumed i would go back to the philadelphia area because that is where my family is, but i was always interested in sanford cisco in terms of the city, culture, the amazing lgbt community -- i was always interested in san francisco. i am an attorney. i started off in private practice, doing complex litigation. in 2002, i moved to the san francisco city attorney's office, where our work on the trial team, doing trials for the city and doing my own cases and supervising a team of attorneys as well.

another huge issue confronting the city is the deferred maintenance on our infrastructure. we have a lot of infrastructure that has been deteriorating because we have not maintained it properly, from our roads to our sewer system to muni. we need to be much more diligent about maintaining our infrastructure. i have been interested in politics since i was a kid. i have worked on campaigns since i was a teenager. i was involved in campaigning against senator jesse helms when i was in college. when i came out here i was not initially involved politically. i was involved in community work, helping to build the lgbt community center, doing neighborhood work, and i eventually started doing campaigns and gradually got more involved in democratic party politics. ultimately, in 2004, i ran for the democratic county central

committee and ended up chairing the committee. it was a gradual process for me. by the time i started thinking about running for supervisor, it made sense because of my involvement in the community and the politics. i knock on about $15,000 -- i knocked on about 15,000 doors and a huge amount of people. the best way to learn about the city and what people want and what people's concerns are. i feel like i know so much more than before i started campaigning. i am a good liberal democrat. in the san francisco, miniature spectrum, i am considered pretty middle of the road. one thing about me is i am very independent when it comes to the issues, and i do not vote on party lines. i judge each issue on its merit. we have provided woefully

inadequate support for our transition-age youth, and when we do not provide that support, we end up causing other problems. it is not like it disappears. these are our youth, who are here in our community, and we need to make sure we are providing services for them. yesterday, we had a hearing on the dcyf budget, and i was very disappointed with one aspect of the budget, particularly the alt and backs were being eliminated -- that all add-backs were being eliminated on a number of different subjects. i do not agree with that. i am in discussions with dcyf, and i am is hopeful we will be able to work something out. my predecessor was always committed to making sure funding occurred, and i will continue to do that, so you have an ally in

me. the budget is the most eminent issue, and we do have a structural budget deficit in the city, so we need to deal, of course, with the short-term balancing our budget in a way that does not decimate city services that people rely on, but also to address our long- term structural budget deficit, and that means implementing some budget reforms. smooth out our budget process so it is not a boom/bust kind of budget. reforming our pension system and retiree health care system so that they are stable. we do a decent job providing low-income housing. we do a terrible job providing housing for low or middle class and middle-class people, people who are working and paying taxes that we need to have here for a functioning economy, so i am looking for ways to try to

fund that, particularly for essential employees like teachers, nurses, first responders. projects coming up in the city like the renovation of dolores park, which is a once in 50 years opportunity to define what the park is and what changes we want to make to it. that will be a very significant projects. [inaudible] when was the last time it rained? there are puddles. we elect our supervisors by district, and it is very important to pay attention to the district, to be engaged in projects in the district, but we also represent the whole city. any supervisor that just focuses on the district without addressing the citywide issues is not doing his or her job. every day, i'd make sure i am working both on the citywide

issues and on district issues.

. >> welcome to the department of building inspection brown bag lunch. this is our market tour. we're on market street on kearney and third. we're at the fountain, which was a major landmark at the time of the 1906 earthquake. this is a landmark because this is where people posted notices and notes to connect with people they were looking for. families and people in their business. most of this area was -- >> pretty much burnt out. >> pretty well burned out. we have pat with us, a structural engineer who has done work to upgrade the buildings around this area. >> or researched their history.

>> or researched their history. we will look mostly at buildings. we have a lot of other experts in the audience. i hope they will share with us. we have craig from the planning department. we have david bono witz, all kinds of folks here. feel free to chirp in. our plan is to take a couple-block tour and look at buildings, some of which survived the quake and some retrofitted. we will end up at 1230 at the mos connie center. we will look at them burning four model buildings. >> trying to burn. >> okay. where are we walking to. >> first let's know why we're meeting here. in 1906, this was the main drag into san francisco. this is how you came into san francisco. at this intersection, there were three major buildings. the call building, the examiner,

and the chronicle. and the three major papers at that time all wanted to be at this intersection. this building has been enlarged and a number of stories added so you can't see the historic character from this building from what it looked like in 06. it survived a fire as most steel framed buildings -- i'm sorry. survived the earthquake as most steel-framed buildings did. here is the chronicle building. it also survived the earthquake. the chronicle building is made up of two buildings in front. at the time of the '06 earthquake they were building the rear annex, which was the tallest building west of the mississippi. this building survived until the fire came. the fire did a lot of damage here. there is the examiner building.

it also survived the earthquake, and the fire came. >> really interestingly, steel-framed buildings were a newish thing in the turn of the century. how many do we have in the city? >> from that vintage, that are actually still here, we probably have 30 or 40. but what was interesting is, the robeling steel institute sent a team out here. there is a document where they went through the buildings. all the buildings they reported on went through the earthquake just fine. >> one didn't. the williams building. >> interestingly enough, the williams building was not in the book. they chose to ignore that. it was like a statistical throw out. >> all the ones they looked at were great. >> great. the one building they didn't

include did poorly. in the '89 earthquake i was the engineer retrofitting that building. it sustained a lot of damage. we did some research, and we're able to actually find the daughter of the engineer who built the building. according to her, the building was severely damaged. instead of going hmm not a good idea we better change it. they pulled out the building and rebuilt it to the same specs. >> after the 1906 earthquake the codes did not change and the standards didn't change and people generally rebuilt buildings as fast as they could without substantial seismic upgrades. can anybody tell us what is going on here with the building? here we have craig. go ahead. >> speak this way and loudly. >> what is going on here is an 8 to 14-story addition on the top of the historic building.

first of all, you should know the original building here is steel and terra cotta building that in the '60s was clad with metal panels on little steel panels to give it that look. some of the terra cotta was scraped off. the current project will restore the facade of the historic building designed by burnam and root, a famous chicago architectural firm, with one of our most renowned architects working on the detail. the addition will be setback and made of a different color brick. the building will be changed from office use to a mix of hotel, time share and residential units. that is the story on the old chronicle building. >> we have a question over here.

hold on. >> when is it due to be complete? >> my guess is, i don't know for sure, but on the order of a year and a half from now. >> this is affordable housing? >> surprisingly what it did was generate the restoration of another landmark two blocks up designed by the reed brothers, all the affordable housing component will be two blocks up the street in a landmark building. >> when people do development, there is trade-off for affordable housing. it is not always within the ritz carlton itself. it can be relocated or paid into a fund and used another way. >> we will walk a block down this way down commission street. we are down here at the corner of third street and mission street. there is lots of construction going on. some old buildings. this is not