makes it impossible for the people to use that area because they can't sit down there or use the space if it is not a flat area. number two, it is going to attract a lot of newspapers and other flying objects that will fly around and you will have one employee spending most of their time picking the junk off of those things, i think that a flatter type of foliage would be practical and if you are going to have a few taller trees and paik them some of it less apt to catch garbage and also maybe make them month minimal and there will more space and light. because you are trying to capture as much light as you can. the same token, i think that there is a rendering of the space between floors, where you have some planters and it looked kind of wild grass coming out of there, again a little tall. you might be better be having

more colorful like annuals these are just minor points and i think that it will lighten it up a little as is typically the case in many areas, we don't have as many in san francisco, we we have planter boxes outside of window and they are colorful in cities and it adds to the nature and the color of the building. i like the board and batten exterior, i think that is very attractive. the only place that i would comment on is in the actual corner, the rendering that shows the corner of grove and goff. i believe at the very top of the building it is two different levels, there and you have a divider that is not glazing, but it is sort of the same color as glazing. and i would think that it might be better if that was either the color of the battens or a darker color to provide differentiation between the two

floors. and it might also tend to there was one comment about the height and i think that the height is... i think that it might tend to individualize the units a little bit more and it will not interfere with anybody's light. those are the only things that i saw that i would want to comment on. with the concept of forsale condos with on site affordable units and i think that this is a really good project. >> commissioner hillis? >> i would agree, i think that the design is great. i have the privilege of working with the neighborhood while i was with the city and coming up with the over all disposition plan with the freeway parcels and a lot of what we heard is that they want to see good, modern in-fill architecture, kind of leading the way, in

good residential projects for redevelopment. and the affordable projects. and the baker's project are great and the cedar woods project parcel, it was great too. and it is good to see these projects happening and you know, the haze valley plan, kind of coming to life. the transportation issue i think is real. there are definitely issues around haze and goffs and haze and franklin and make your way to octavia. and this project pays into the market. octavia and the quality improvement fund and have we seen anything come from that yet? >> our transportation should be a priority of improving and making pedestrian improvements in the haze valley. >> because a lot of them have not come in yet, but turning haze into two way because one

small project. >> and some, i think that a lot more on the street we made improvements for the landscaping and the islands on the top of the street and on pearl street as well. >> yeah, i think that was it, and i don't think that is... >> that is not impacting. >> the process of impacting and that comes south >> the recommendation of the community, advisory committees that gos and that make the recommendation and then it goes to and comes to the commission itself and goes into the capitol budget and then as programmed, as any, capitol project would be programmed. >> it would be good to get an update with an e-mail or a memo what kind of funding is in there or what cac is recommending i would agree that those kind of improvements are needed in the area. >> thank you, commissioner, sugaya? >> yes, i think that with all of the community plans that

have community benefits, they depend on development and so ironically. and so i think that unless the development is happening, there aren't community benefits fees come ng and therefore, you can't count on that source as need to be making in the structure and improvements and other things and so that is one of the cunundrums here. i think that it is a good project and i don't, commissioner moore has something to say, but i am going to go ahead and make a motion to approve the project with conditions. >> second. >> commissioner moore? >> i was going to make a motion to approve the project. >> but project speaks for itself and it is what we envisioned and has my full support. >> a bit of reason that we have not had the impact youth come in because of the referal program. and so if it is remembered from our budget discussion today there was a big jump next year that we are expecting in the impact fees because of the

backlog, if you will, from the (inaudible) program and the new projects coming in. so we should see a big jump in the impact fee money in the next year or two. >> to approve with conditions. >> commissioner antonini, aye. >> borden, aye. >> moore. >> aye. >> sugaya. >> aye. >> wu. >> aye. >> fong. >> aye. >> that motion passes 7-0, voting administrator. on the close of the public hearing, we grant the asked variances for the standard conditions. >> commissioners, it will place you on your final calendared item, public comment i have this speaker cards. >> is there any public comment? >> seeing none, i would like to i can't believe that the commissioner antonini did not do this, but i wish the 49ers good luck this weekend in the

super bowl. and on nbc tomorrow morning, they are going to do a live shot from the ferry building, with al roker and yours truly will be the one who is giving al an explanation of how san francisco tailgates. >> what time? >> 6:00 a.m.. >> >> yeah. >> all right. meeting adjourned. thank you. >> hi, i'm with building san francisco and we have a special program of stay safe today. but we're going to talk about

what you can do to your home after an earthquake to make it waterproof and to be more comfortable. ♪ ♪ >> we're here at spur in san francisco, this wonderful exhibit of safe enough to stay. and this is an example of what your home might be like after an earthquake. and we have today with us ben latimer. thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure, good to see you. >> we're going to talk about things that you might do ...

>> hi, i'm with building san francisco. and we have a special program of stay safe today where we're going to talk about what you can do to your home after an earthquake to make it waterproof and to be more comfortable. we're here at spur in san francisco, this wonderful exhibit of safe enough to stay. and this is an example of what your home might be like after an earthquake. and we have today with us ben latimer from tvan. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> we'll talk about things you can do you don't have to be a professional contractor to make your home more livable after an earthquake. >> i want to talk about things a homeowner can do. we have comfort and we have

things like a little bit of maybe safety if your front door is ajar and waterproofing if you have a leak in your roof, or if you have broken glass on the window. >> so unr, one of the most important fib use is keeping outside out and inside in. let's look at windows. >> let's assume this window is broken in the earthquake. we have wind and rain blowing in. one of the most important things you need to do as a homeowner is secure the plastic properly. if you just take staples or nails and put them into the plastic, we're going to get a strong wind and rip it right off. what i'm going to have somebody do is they're going to have -- this is an old piece of shingle. you might have -- everybody has a piece of wood in their basement. it doesn't have to be fancy. they take out this rusty screw begun, and hopefully you have one of these. >> there is one at the neighborhood support center. >> at the neighborhood support center. you're going to wrap this plastic around this board, take your screw.

and then screw that in. >> you need a permit for this? >> you do need a permit for this. and you can contact the former head building inspector to get that permit. that's it. now when the wind blows, it's tight and it's not going to pull through, having a single point of contact. >> great. what about this door? take a look at this door. what can you do? let's say it doesn't shut tight. what can you do? >> for the sake of argument, we're on the inside. i can't lock my door at night. i have a very similar, very similar idea. i'm going to take my 2 by 4. i can put it across the jamb in the door. one. two. maybe i want another one up here, maybe another one down there. but i can go to sleep. and that quickly, i can get it off in the morning. >> terrific.

what about the roof up here? we see people throw blue tarps over their roof after an earthquake. that seems reasonable. >> i think the blue tarp is reasonable. the things that people want to know that they need to know is if you have multiple tarps, how you overlap. starting from the bottom and moving up so that you're overlapping this way. so, rain running down doesn't slide under your tarp. >> right. >> and the same technique we did over here, as silly as it may sound, wrapping the end of that blue tarp with your board and then securing that if you can underneath, if you have to on top is fine. but making sure that you don't have an area where the wind is going to get under and bill owe that tarp. >> the wind can rip it right off. >> and then you're back up there again. >> let's go inside and check out what we can do inside. >> old fun. here we go. >> so, ben, i see you have nails, universal tool right here. >> man's best friend. duct tape. let me show you a couple things we can use this for after an earthquake. this window right here, because it's off kilter, we have open

seams all along. i have a lot of air coming through. i want to stay comfortable at night. i want to keep that air out. it's as simple as that, all the way around. >> excellent. >> now i don't have any air coming in. let's say this one is one that would annoy me. everything is a little off. my doors won't stay closed. i take a piece of my favorite duct tape here, close it up. and at least it will stay out of my way when i'm trying to live throughout my day. if we're not talking about pressurized water, we're talking about just the drain, sometimes they're going to get a crack here. >> right, sure. >> and you're going to get a leak. duct tape around that is going to help us get through until we can get a plumber out and get that fixed as well. let's say we only have electricity in one room, so we're running extension cords across the house. if i'm going to run an extension cord from one room to the other, i don't want kids tripping on it. i don't want to trippon it. i take my trusty duct tape, tape it to the floor, and i don't have to worry about it getting kicked. >> great, great. look at this.

let's look at the duct tape here because we see a big -- >> yes. in the event of an earthquake, i don't think we're going to have too many -- too much debris that's safe to put into a plastic bag, even as strong as it might be. these are called vice bags. this is what they use to put rice and things when they ship it. this is something where i take my glass, i can take broken pieces of wood, i can take anything sharp and fill it. and it's not going to puncture and come out. it's not going to fall all over the floor. i've not going to have it sticking out, maybe scratch myself, cut myself or anything like that. these are a great thing to have. >> you have a little go-to box for emergencies. that's great. thanks very much for joining us, ben. it's really been interesting. and i want to thank you all for joining us here at the spur urban center. and we'll see you again

>> hey, san franciscans, here with the weekly buzz. it's the first week in february, and we have things that won't break the bank, they for all free. this tuesday, february 5 is free admission date for top museums. the dm and the leg end of honor. and after the trip to the museum, take a trip to the zoo,

and offering free admission to residents. enjoy seeing all species in their surroundings, and other activities throughout the day. and if you are a baseball fan, i have a giant treat for you, this saturday at at&t park. the event will feature autographed sessions with the players and a chance to take pictures with the one and only championships. the event is free but get there early as the lines may be long. that's the weekly events. check us out on

>> it has been amazing. the people have been so gracious and so supportive of what we're doing. the energy here is fantastic with so many couples getting married. it's just been an absolutely fantastic experience, so wonderful. >> by the power vested in me, i declare you spouses for life. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> to actually be able to get married and be a part of this time in history and time in our history is amazing. >> this is a momentous occasion for us to be able to actually have this opportunity to have equal rights. >> we have been together for 14 years. everyone is so welcoming. it's been all set up and people have guided us from step to step. it's been easy. there was live music.

people are so friendly and excited. so excited for us. >> it's really great. >> yeah. >> and salvador is party a here to known as party a. >> on the out it looks pretty simple. you come in, you made your appointment. you pay. you go here for your license. you got there to get married. you go there if you want to purchase a certified copy. behind the scenes, there was just this monumental just mountain of work, the details into everything that we had to do and we quickly realized that we were not ready to issue the numbers of licenses that people are anticipating that we would need to issue. we definitely did not want people waiting in long lines. this is somebody's wedding. you want to be able to plan and invite your family and friends. know what time you are able to get your marriage license, know

what time you're going to have your ceremony. >> thanks for volunteering. >> we got city volunteers, we got members of the public volunteering. we had our regular volunteers volunteering. we had such an overwhelming response from city employees, from the members of the general public that we had way more volunteers than we could ever have hoped for. we had to come up with a training program. i mean, there are different functions of this whole operation. you were either, you know a check-in person. you were a greeter. you were part of the license issuing unit. you were deputy marriage commissioner, or you were on the recording side. each one of those functions required a different set of skills, a different oath of office if they needed to be sworn in as a deputy county clerk to issue marriage

licenses or as a deputy county recorder if they were going to register the marriage licenses or the deputy marriage commissioner if they were going to be performing ceremonies. >> donna, place the ring on her ring finger. >> the marriage commissioner training was only about a half hour. it was very simple. very well run, very smooth and then we were all sworn in. >> they said we would get our scheduled sunday night and so 7:00, 8:00, 10:00, you know, i got it at 11:00. this person who was orchestrating all of the shifts and the volunteers and who does what, you know, said from her office sunday night at 11:00. they are just really helping each other. it's a wonderful atmosphere in that way. >> have you filled out an application? >> not yet. you want to do that. >> take this right over there. >> all right. >> take it tout counter when you're done. >> very good. >> congratulations, you guys. >> for those volunteers, what a

gift for them as well as us that they would take up their time and contribute that time, but also that they would in return receive so much more back because they're part of the narrative of someone else's love and expression of love in life. >> this isn't anything that we had budgeted for, so it was basically we asked our i.t. director to do the best you can, you know, belling, borrow, steal if you have to and get us what you need to do this. and he knew what the mission was. he knew what our goal was. and, you know, with our i.t. grids and our software vender, they really came together and pulled it together for us. it made it possible for us to be able to serve as many couples as we have been. >> so once you're ready, you and your husband to be or wife need to be need to check in here and check in again, ok. are you also going to get married today? >> yeah.

>> let's process you one by one. do your license in, exit and re-enter again check in at that desk. >> our wedding is at 3:00. >> as long as we get you in today. >> we're getting married at 2:30. >> don't worry about the time line. we're greeting people at the doorway and either directing them to the services they need on this side which is licensing or the services on this side which is actually getting the ceremony performed. >> this is an opportunity to choose to be a part of history. many times history happens to us, but in this case, you can choose to be a part of it. this is a very historic day and so i'm very, very proud to be here. >> i have been volunteering. last monday i performed 12 different marriage smones. the least amount of time that any of the couples that i married have been together is two years. most of the couples have been together eight, nine, 10, i'd

say 70% have been together at least that long if not longer. >> there is a lot of misconception about who gay and lesbian people are. it's important that people see that we love our husbands and wives to be and love our children and have the right to have families just like everyone else. >> it's important that we have experienced our own families, our own friends, and the excitement of the volunteers when we get here has made us feel wonderful and accepted and celebrated. >> there is a lot of city agencies, city departments, divisions that offer up their employees to help us out since overwhelming response, it's unbelievable at how city government works. this is the time that san francisco city employees have really outshined san

francisco's clerk's office didn't need to hear from the mayor to say what's your plan. they offered a plan and said here is our strategy. here is what we can do. we can add all of these computers here and there. we can connect our databases, we can expand our capacity by x. we can open up early and stay late and stay open on the weekends. it's unbelievable. we can coordinate all of the training for our volunteers and them in as deputy marriage commissioners and make sure it's signed and certified. that's an example and a model for others. this is -- what happens is when people prove that things can be done, it just raises the bar for what is possible for everyone else. >> it kind of went cooled plan and this is what we planned for. in some respects, people have kind of commented to me, oh, my god, you were a part of history and how many couples did we

mary? how many families did we start? how many dreams did we make come true? the whole part of being part of history is something that we are here and we are charged with this responsibility to carry out.