i do know that we have been told, by the mayor's office, that this is a priority to the city, to provide and keep up, keeping the development moving along. the economy moving along. we have expressed that to human- resources. the mayor's department has expressed that to human resources. i think there is recognition, it is just whether or not we can have the follow-up. >> do you think that a special hearing on this would be something to reinforce dhr? >> i do not think so. i think that this is an internal sort of issue. we would be glad to report back on what the development is. we could, given what needs to be cited today, we could request

for the 5241's, we could request the list tomorrow. i do not know how long it takes for them to turn it over. that is basically where i want to go. i am hoping that we can get some of these issues resolved that we need to, internally, to be able to do that. >> ok. we are aware of the situation and they are anxious to put those bodies in our department. we may entertain or look for ways to make that happen. can you express that? >> the term was a memo of understanding between the equipment installed. can we get the understanding that me? >> that is my goal. i have expressed that. the commission is very concerned about it. i have remarked many times in the mayor's budget analyst, who

has been here for the budget, and i suspect the fact that he is probably watching this. we are as determined as you are to get these positions on board. >> director? >> i wanted to say that we have an internal work order that can be reduced if we do not get the service. if we hire -- have to hire consultants in, we have to find a way to speed this up. we are meeting with the deputy director to hammer some of these facts out. they are sort of under the same constraint we are, short staffed, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. it does not help when we have these kinds of developments coming in daily. thank goodness it is still in

development daily, but it will hit us and we want to be prepared. that is why tom and pam are being proactive. as soon as we get a vacancy, we have asked to fill every vacancy that we have on the engineering list. >> the other thing i have been exploring is basically paying another department's human- resources to help us. so far, everyone is maxed out. that is the thing i am trying to do, the reach out to say -- can you help us for the short period of time? >> for the record, the deputy hrc director is? >> ted sfgov.o[unintelligible] 1 of the things that vivian

mentioned is that they are really busy. the last couple of months, we have in the city been in negotiations with 40 some odd unions. it has tapped out a lot of the people in dhr and my staff, my finance director, to participate on these. we are really trying to be cognizant that we are a city family. that we do need to work tightly together, but that we do have some unique needs right now. most other departments are not hiring as fast as we are right now. >> thank you, pamela. let's just keep the pedal flipped here. >> is there any public comment on items 10 a through g in the

director's report? seeing no one, questions and the matter is, item 11. a, inquiries to staff. at this time, commissioners make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices, and procedures, which are of interest to the commission. any comments? increase? >> this might be coming up anyways, but can we get a report back to see how many small businesses are planning for a fee waiver? >> that is definitely part of the agreement that we have, reporting back on exactly how much, from the department's standpoint and planning standpoint, it is mostly the two departments involved. that will probably happen in

july. >> ok. no other commissioner comments? any public comment on item 11a? 11b, future meetings and agendas. at this time, the commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a special meeting and or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and future meetings of the building inspection commission. the next regular meeting will be on the third wednesday of may, the 16th. sometime soon i will contact the clinic commissioners regarding nominations. >> the litigation committee is at 2:00 p.m.? >> on the 15th. >> at the building department.

>> yes. >> is there any public comment on item 11b? no public comment. item number 12, review and approval of the minutes of october 19, 2011. >> minutes are approved. >> there is a motion in a second to approve the minutes of october 19. all in favor? >> aye. >> public comment? sorry. is there any opposed? ok. the minutes are approved. item number 13, review and approval of the regular meeting of december 15, 2011. -- november 16, 2011. >> so moved. >> second. >> emotion in a second. any public comments -- a motion in a second -- and a second.

approved. item 14 is adjournment. is there a motion to adjourn? >> so moved. >> second. >> are all in favor to adjourn? >> aye. >> you are now adjourned. it is 1:00 to 0 6:00 p.m. -- it is 1:06 p.m.

>> feel like it really is a community. they are not the same thing, but it really does feel like there's

that kind of a five. everybody is there to enjoy a literary reading. >> the best lit in san francisco. friendly, free, and you might get fed. ♪ [applause] >> this san francisco ryther created the radar reading series in 2003. she was inspired when she first moved to this city in the early 1990's and discover the wild west atmosphere of open mi it's ic in the mission. >> although there were these open mics every night of the week, they were super macho. people writing poems about being jerks. beatty their chest onstage. >> she was energized by the scene and proved up with other

girls who wanted their voices to be heard. touring the country and sharing gen-x 7 as a. her mainstream reputation grew with her novel. theses san francisco public library took notice and asked her if she would begin carrying a monthly reading series based on her community. >> a lot of the raiders that i work with our like underground writers. they're just coming at publishing and at being a writer from this underground way. coming in to the library is awesome. very good for the library to show this writing community that they are welcome. at first, people were like, you want me to read at the library, really? things like that.

>> as a documentary, there are interviews -- [inaudible] >> radar readings are focused on clear culture. strayed all others might write about gay authors. gay authors might write about universal experiences. the host creates a welcoming environment for everybody. there is no cultural barrier to entry. >> the demographic of people who come will match the demographic of the reader. it is very simple. if we want more people of color, you book more people of color. you want more women, your book more women. kind of like that. it gets mixed up a little bit. in general, we kind of have a core group of people who come every month. their ages and very.

we definitely have some folks who are straight. >> the loyal audience has allowed michelle to take more chances with the monthly lineup. established authors bring in an older audience. younker authors bring in their friends from the community who might be bringing in an older author. >> raider has provided a stage for more than 400 writers. it ranges from fiction to academics stories to academic stories this service the underground of queer fell, history, or culture. >> and there are so many different literary circles in san francisco. i have been programming this reading series for nine years. and i still have a huge list on my computer of people i need to

carry into this. >> the supportive audience has allowed michele to try new experiment this year, the radar book club. a deep explorationer of a single work. after the talk, she bounces on stage to jump-start the q&a. less charlie rose and more carson daly. >> san francisco is consistently ranked as one of the most literate cities in the united states. multiple reading events are happening every night of the year, competing against a big names like city arts and lectures. radar was voted the winner of these san francisco contest. after two decades of working for free, michelle is able to make radar her full-time job. >> i am a right to myself, but i

feel like my work in this world is eagerly to bring writers together and to produce literary events. if i was only doing my own work, i would not be happy. it is, like throwing a party or a dinner party. i can match that person with that person. it is really fun for me. it is nerve wracking during the actual readings. i hope everyone is good. i hope the audience likes them. i hope everybody shows up. but everything works out. at the end of the reading, everyone is happy. ♪

>> here we are at the embarcadero. we are standing at one of locations for the street artists. can you tell me about this particular location, the program? >> this location is very significant. this was the very first and only location granted by the board of supervisors for the street artist when the program began in 1972. how does a person become a street artist? there are two major tenants.

you must make the work yourself and you must sell the work yourself. a street artist, the license, then submitting the work to a committee of artists. this committee actually watches them make the work in front of them so that we can verify that it is all their own work. >> what happened during the holiday to make this an exciting location? >> this would be a magic time of year. you would probably see this place is jammed with street artists. as the no, there is a lottery held at 6 in the morning. that is how sought after the spaces are. you might get as many as 150 street artists to show up for 50 spaces. >> what other areas can a licensed street artist go to? >> they can go to the fisherman's wharf area. they can go in and around union

square. we have space is now up in the castro, in fact. >> how many are there? >> we have about 420. >> are they here all year round? >> out of the 420, i know 150 to sell all year round. i mean like five-seven days a week. >> are they making their living of of this? >> this is their sole source of income for many. >> how long have you been with this program. how much has it changed? >> i have been with the program since it began 37 and a half years ago but i have seen changes in the trend. fashion comes and goes. >> i think that you can still find plenty of titis perhaps. >> this is because the 60's is

retro for a lot of people. i have seen that come back, yes. >> people still think of this city as the birth of that movement. great, thank you for talking about the background of the program. i'm excited to go shopping. >> i would like you to meet two street artists. this is linda and jeremy. >> night said to me to print them -- nice to meet you. >> can you talk to me about a variety of products that use cell? >> we have these lovely constructed platters. we make these wonderful powder

bowls. they can have a lot of color. >> york also using your license. -- you are also using your license. >> this means that i can register with the city. this makes sure that our family participated in making all of these. >> this comes by licensed artists. the person selling it is the person that made it. there is nothing better than the people that made it. >> i would like you to meet michael johnson. he has been in the program for over 8 years. >> nice to me you. what inspired your photography? >> i am inspired everything that i see.

the greatest thing about being a photographer is being able to show other people what i see. i have mostly worked in cuba and work that i shot here in san francisco. >> what is it about being a street artist that you particularly like? >> i liked it to the first day that i did it. i like talking to mentum people. talking about art or anything that comes to our minds. there is more visibility than i would see in any store front. this would cost us relatively very little. >> i am so happy to meet you. i wish you all of the best. >> you are the wonderful artist that makes these color coding. >> nice to me to.

>> i have been a street artist since 1976. >> how did you decide to be a street artist? >> i was working on union square. on lunch hours, i would be there visiting the artist. it was interesting, exciting, and i have a creative streak in me. it ranges from t-shirts, jackets, hats. what is the day of the life of a street artist? >> they have their 2536 in the morning. by the end of the day, the last people to pack the vehicle probably get on their own at 7:30 at night. >> nice to me to condemn the -- nice to meet you. >> it was a pleasure to share

this with you. i hope that the bay area will descend upon the plaza and go through these arts and crafts and by some holiday gifts. >> that would be amazing. thank you so much for the hard work that you do. >> i am the director of visual arts programming at intersection for the arts. intersection for the arts is

based in san francisco and has always been an organization that looks at larger social political issues through the lens of practice, and we are here today at our exhibition of "chico and chang." the original inspiration was drawn from a restaurant chain in new york city. half of their menu is -- what struck me was the graphic pictures and a man in a hat on a rig truck carrying take that time is containers and in the black sea to representation of a mexican guy wearing a sombrero and caring a somali horn. it struck me that these two large, very subversive complex cultures could be boiled down to such simple representations. chico and chang primarily looks

at four topic areas. one of the man was is whose stories are being told and how. one of the artisans in the show has created an amazing body of work working with young adults calling themselves the dreamers. another piece of the exhibition talks about whose stories of exhibition are actually being told. one artist created a magnificent sculpture that sits right in the center of the exhibition. >> these pieces are the physical manifestation of a narrative of a child in memory. an important family friend give us a dining table, very important, and we are excited about it. my little brother and i were 11, 14. we were realizing that they were kind of hand prints everywhere on the bottom where no one would

really see, and it became this kind of a weakening of what child labor is. it was almost like an exercise to show a stranger that feeling we had at that moment. >> the second thing the exhibition covers is how the allocation is defined, a great example on the theme, sculpture called mexicali culture. another bay area artist who has done residencies in china and also to what, mexico. where immigrant communities really helped define how businesses look of a business' sign age and interior decoration, her sculptural piece kind of mismatches the two communities together, creating this wonderful, fantastical

future look at what the present is today. first topic is where we can see where the two communities are intersecting and where they start colliding. teresa fernandez did a sculptural installation, utilizing the ubiquitous blue, white, and read patterns of a rayon bag that many communities used to transport laundry and laundromats to buy groceries and such. she created a little installation kind of mucking up the interior of a household, covering up as many objects that are familiar to the i and the fabric. fourth area of investigation that the exhibition looks at is the larger concerns of the asian and latin communities intersecting with popular cultur one best example -- when he's exemplified is what you see when you enter into the culture.

>> this piece refers to restaurants in tijuana. when you are driving, to speak chinese and you read chinese characters. you see these signs. i was trying to play with the idea of what you see and the direction you read. when you start mixing these different groups of people, different cultures, i like the idea. you can comment on somebody else's culture or someone else's understanding about culture. >> one of the hopes we have for visitors is that they go away taking a better understanding with the broadest and the breadth of issues impacting both the asian and latin communities

here in california and how they spell out into the larger fabric of the communities we live and work in. >> what if you could make a memorial that is more about information and you are never fixed and it can go whereverit