talking about the next meeting? because we postponed that abatement appeals with that one case today, we will have to meet again as an appeals board on that day, and could i, because it seems that we have a pretty full agenda all right. is it possible for us not to schedule other abatement appeals for that date? >> you mean the other ones in addition to that? >> right. because otherwise, we will be in the majority of the meeting will become the abatement appeals board. that is my concern. >> i am not sure but i will speak to the staff and the other city attorneys for the abatement *. i will follow up on that for you. >> okay item should be ten. it is the discussion and possible action regarding ongoing litigation. item 11 a. is public comment on all

matters pertaining to the closed session. and item, is there any public comment before we go to the vote to go to closed session? >> and seeing none, item b, vote on whether to hold closed session with legal counsel. is there a motion to go to closed session? >> i move. >> second. >> okay. >> >> commissioners in favor? >> aye >> any opposed? >> we are now in closed session. it is 11:54 a.m.. >> item 11 d.

reconvene in open session to vote on whether to disclose any or all discussions held in the closed session. >> is there a motion to reconvene in open session. >> move to reconvene and not disclose. >> i second. >> okay. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> aye. >> any opposed? >> are we done with that item? item 12 is adjournment. is there a motion to adjourn? >> move to adjourn. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> thank you, commissioners. >> thank you. >> we are now adownedersinger, it is 12:10 p.m.

>> hi, i'm lawrence corn field. welcome to building san francisco. we have a special series, stay safe. we're looking at earthquake issues. and today we're going to be talking with a residential building owner about what residential building owners and tenants can and should do before earthquakes and after earthquakes. ♪ ♪ >> we're here at this wonderful spur exhibit on mission street in san francisco and i have with me today my good friend george. thanks for joining me, george. and george has for a long time owned residential property here in san francisco. and we want to talk about

apartment buildings and what the owner's responsibilities might be and what they expect their tenants to do. and let's start by talking a little bit about what owners can do before an earthquake and then maybe after an earthquake. >> well, the first thing, lawrence, would be to get together with your tenants and see if they have earthquake insurance or any renters insurance in place because that's going to be key to protecting them in the event of a quake. >> and renters insurance, there are two kinds of insurance. renters insurance coffers damage to goods and content and so forth. earthquake insurance is a separate policy you get after you get renters insurance through the california earthquake authority, very inexpensive. and it helps owners and it helps tenants because it gives relocation costs and it pays their rent. this is a huge impact on building owners. >> it's huge, it really is. you know, a lot of owners don't realize that, you know, when there is an earthquake, their

money flow is going to stop. how are they going to pay their mortgages, how are they going to pay their other bills, how are they going to live? >> what else can property owners do in residential rental housing before an earthquake? >> well, the first thing you want to do is get your property assessed. find out what the geology is at your site. get an expert in to look at structural and nonstructural losses. the structural losses, a lot of times, aren't going to be that bad if you prepare. an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. get in there and get your property assessed and figure it out. >> so, what is a nonstructural issue that might cause losses? >> well, you know, pipes, for instance. pipes will whip around during an earthquake. and if they're anchored in more numerous locations, that whipping won't cause a breakage that will cause a flood. >> i've heard water damage is a major, major problem after earthquakes actually. >> it is.

that's one of the big things. a lot of things falling over, ceilings collapsing. but all of this can be prevented by an expert coming in and assessing where those problem areas and often the fixes are really, really cheap. >> who do you call when you want to have that kind of assessment or evaluation done? >> the structural engineering community is great. we have the structural engineers association of northern california right here in san francisco. they're a wealth of information and resources. >> what kinds of things might you encourage tenants to do besides simply get tenants renters insurance and earthquake insurance, what else do you think tenants should do? >> i think it's really important to know if they happen to be in the building where is the safest place for them to go when the shaking starts. if they're out of the building, whats' their continuity plan for connecting with family? they should give their emergency contact information to their resident manager so that the resident manager knows how to get in touch.

and have emergency supplies on hand. the tenants should be responsible to have their extra water and flashlights and bandages and know how to use a toilet when there's no sewage and water flows down. and the owners of the building should be proactive in that regard as well. >> so, george, thank you so much for joining us. that was really great. and thanks to spur for hosting us here in this wonderful exhibit. and thank you for joining us >> hi, i'm lawrence. welcome to building san francisco. we're doing a special series, stay safe, about staying in your home after an earthquake. let's look at issues related to water and sewer. ♪ ♪ >> we're here at the san

francisco spur urban center on mission street in san francisco and i am joined today by maryellen carol from the puc who is going to talk to us about water and sewer issues which are major issues after an earthquake. >> absolutely. >> so, what are the things we should be concerned about about water? we have no water. >> so, you want to be prepared for that scenario. and the recommendation is to have stored one gallon per person per day that you would be out of water. we recommend that you have at least three to five days stored for each person and also keep into consideration storage needs for your pets and think about the size of your pets and how much water they consume. >> we have this storage which is using tap water. >> yes. >> so, of course at the puc we recommend that you store our wonderful delicious hetch hetchy tap water. it's free. comes out of the tap and you can store it in any plastic container really, clean plastic

container, for up to six months. so, find a container, fill it with water, label it, and rotate it out. i use it to water my garden. >> and then, of course, everyone has plastic bottles of water which we are not really promoting, but a common way to store. >> yes, it's an easy way to pick up a cart of bottleses to store just to make sure you check the label. this one says june 2013. so, that's convenient. you have it and date on it. >> and then there are other places where people have water stored in their houses. >> right. so, if you have a water heater, access to the water heater for your house, your building, you can drink that water. you can also drink the water that is in the tank of your toilet. not the bowl, but the tank behind. >> most people are not very happy about that. >> probably a last resort, but in desperate times may call for desperate measures. in any case, if you're not totally sure about the age of

your water or if you're not sure about it's totally clean, you can treat water at home. so, there's two ways that you can treat your water at home. and one is to use basic household worse, which i think we have some here. * bleach the recommendation is 8 drops of bleach for every gallon of water. you add 8 drops of bleach for every gallon of water, shake it up, it needs to silt for 30 minutes. after that you're good to go. the other option is to boil water, bring it to a rolling boil 5 to 10 minutes. after an earthquake that may not be an option as gas may be turned off and you may not have power. the other thing about that is that the puc will provide information as quickly as possible about recommendations about whether the water is good, okay to drink, or if you need to treat it. we have a number of different

ways to get information from the puc through twitter and facebook and our website sf water.org. >> people should not drink water from pools or spas or other source he. they could use that water to flush their toilets if the water was off, if the sewers are not broken and working. let's take a look at a toilet and talk about those issues. >> sounds good. so, sanitation is another issue that -- and something people don't usually or like to think about, but it's the reality that in very likely, without water, you can't flush. and the sewer system could be impeded or affected during an earthquake. so, you need to think about how you're going to deal with sanitation. the options are fairly simple. we recommend a set up if you're able to stay in your building or your house to make sure that you have heavy duty trash bags available. you can set this up within your existing toilet bowl.

and once it's used, you take a little bit of our bleach which we talked about earlier from the water. you seal the bag completely, make sure you mark the bag as human waste and set it aside, and wait for instructions on how that will be disposed by the puc. be very cognizant and very aware of cleanliness and making sure that you have either wipes or other cleaning solutions to make sure that folks are able to wash up after dealing with the sanitation issue. >> great. so, thank you so much maryellen for coming and helping us out here. and thank you all for joining us on building san francisco and >> i tried to think about this room as the dream room, where we dream and bring some of those dreams to life. i feel very blessed that i have been able to spend the last 31 years of my life doing it my

way, thinking about things better interesting to me, and then pursuing them. there are a lot of different artists that come here to work, mostly doing aerial work. kindred spirits, so to speak. there is a circus company that i have been fortunate enough to work with the last couple of years. i use elements of dance and choreography and combine that with theater techniques. a lot of the work is content- based, has a strong narrative. the dancers have more of a theatrical feel. i think we are best known for our specific work. in the last 15 years, spending a lot of time focusing on issues that affect us and are related

to the african-american experience, here in the united states. i had heard of marcus shelby and had been in join his work but never had the opportunity to meet him. we were brought together by the equal justice society specifically for this project. we were charged with beginning work. marquez and i spent a lot of time addressing our own position on the death penalty, our experiences with people who had been incarcerated, family members, friends of friends. pulling our information. beyond that, we did our own research. to create a picture that resonated with humanity.

it is the shape of a house. in this context, it is also small and acts like a cell. i thought that was an interesting play on how these people make these adjustments, half to create home. what is home for these people? the home is their cell. people talk a lot about noise -- very noisy in prisons. that is interesting to me. looking at the communication level, the rise of frustration of being caged, wondering, where does redemption fit into the equation here? [singing]

i think both of us really believe the death penalty is wrong, and is flawed for many reasons. the list is as long as my arm -- about several others. we feel this is important for both of us, personally, to participate in the debate of this issue in a way that we can help people frame it for a conversation.

>> 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

>> hi, in san francisco we're doing a special series called stay safe, about staying in your home after an earthquake. and today we're going to be talking about the neighborhood support center to help people find new resources when they stay in their home. ♪ ♪ >> we're here at the urban center in san francisco with sarah karlewski, deputy director of spur. we're talking about the shelter, a safe place to stay, exhibition at their center. and part of being able to shelter in place in your home is to be able to find a place nearby where you can get the services that you might not have in your home. and that's what this little neighborhood support center is for. >> that's right. >> what are some of the

services that might be provided in a neighborhood center like this? >> yeah. so, we think of the neighborhood support centers as really being homes away from home. so, after a major earthquake there is going to be a lot of confusion. people are going to need to try to meet up with other people. they're going to need a lot of information. so, a lot of what the neighborhood support center is going to provide is that information. basically we're going to be like a hub where people can come to get services, help, information, et cetera. what you see here on this table are a whole variety of did you ever rent things from tools, some walki-talkies. this helps people know what is going on in their neighborhood. over here you have a whole variety of water and canned goods. we're really hoping that people will stock up for themselves at

least for the first 72 hours if not more. i know that i have a ton of canned food and other sorts of things such as water within my own home. and everybody should, but there's going to come a time where people are going to end up running out and needing more. so, that's what we've got right here. >> so, this neighborhood support center, this doesn't look to be a major city sponsored fully stocked space. it can be a small commercial space, even somebody's garage as long as they have the information, a guide of information, who to call for what, communications equipment, some power, have a generator. >> that's right. >> thinking of lights and charge your cell phones and so on. and probably be operated by volunteers. >> volunteers, maybe members of nert could help out, people who live in the neighborhood that have some building skill could be helpful. so, if there is a structural engineer living nearby or even an architect, they could really help people kind of understand

what has happened to their homes and what sort of repairs might be needed. >> here we are with some of the things that you might find in a neighborhood support center. one thing we learned from hurricane katrina, people really rely on their portable electronics and their phone. we say here's a charging station tied up to the generation. the essential coffeepot. >> yes. >> maybe a computer, you can check your e-mail with. >> yes. we have our charging station here. and then over here you can see we've got a whole variety of things, including the all-important different tags. so, lawrence, do you want to talk a little about the tags? >> sure. people want to know what do these tags mean. is my building safe or unsafe. these are the city owe initial tags. staying in your home doesn't require that you get a tag. it just means that you use common sense and maybe get help from people who might be around who can help you evaluate

whether it's a safe place to stay. >> you might want to know because regular city services are disrupted, you might want to know when trash pick up is, if you need to get clean water, et cetera. also in the neighborhood support center, that kind of information would be available and we've got a little of that up here. >> trash pick up resumes regular schedule on wednesday. >> that's right. >> please mark your human waste. >> that's right. >> so, this is kind of an information center, communication center, also a center that hopefully will show people how to relate to their neighboring communities, what else is happening city-wide. and, of course, this is sort of the ubiquitous form of communication. my cat is missing, call me. >> exactly, because a lot of times, even if you do have a cell phone, and people do if you're really trying to save some of your precious energy minutes, et cetera, or it's not working as well as it normally does, it is helpful to have a message board that you can get information to other people.

and, so, that's what we're showing here. you can see people are going to be looking for their pets. they're going to be looking for rides. people are going to need to be sharing resources a much as they possibly can. another thing that you can see here is they're going to need to be fair tools and some of the things that people are going to need in order to be able to stay safer within their homes. so, we're just showing sort of a gesture to that with all these different tools here. but then also tarps, people are going to need to cover their windows if their windows are cracked, if their roofs are broken. so, ideally, the city would be able to know where all these neighborhood centers are and help deliver some of these supplies. >> they could come from a neighbor, maybe not. thank you so much for allowing us to come in and share this wonderful exhibit. and thank you for