it went to city offices. 1660 was built city offices. 1680 was legal industrial. it was an m zoning. it was not legal office. you're cheating the city out of funds. child care, housing and muny. thank you. >> supervisor safai: don't go away if you would be willing to stand for another moment. the chair will indulge me. >> supervisor peskin: i apologize for my ignorance. are you saying pursuant to the voter approved initiative of 1986 proposition m that because these were government offices --

explain the argument. >> before there was proposition m, voters huged the board of supervisors and didn't allow the downtown plan to be adopted until the board of supervisors adopted housing fee, the transit fee and a child care fee. this happened in '85 before the downtown plan was passed. it was hijacked by the people in the city. the board adopted fees that preceded prop m. prop m is different. but the fees is further from that. the fee have been the bas basisr the city since. it was blood on the floor for couple of years.

slow down number three, which is zoning. get the information. >> supervisor peskin: i heard that. i'm happy for more information. if these were built prior to 1985 when those fees were adopted, we can look up and see when they were constructed, they would have been exempt from said fees at that time. >> no, they were not office. because they were not preexisting office. they have been converted to office use. that is a way we get conversions of industrial to office in districts six and district nine. not district three. >> supervisor peskin: weren't

these office uses by the government? >> the whole thing around merchandise mark is city offices are not offices. they are public use. just because the city get a office anywhere it wants to, doesn't convert the space to legal office. legal office is separate. that has been a zoning administrator's determination. so the city offices do not make an office -- do not make a space an office. so the city can take over hundred thousand square feet and not have to pay fees >> supervisor peskin: this is interesting. i would like to -- ms. hester, we entered into a good faith

contractual commitment with a purchaser of that property which i earlier referenced. i would like to give the planning department -- i would like to hear what the planning department response is. >> supervisor safai: we're still on public comment. we can come back to that. my other members wish to comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. mr. starr, supervisor peskin has some questions for you on this. >> supervisor peskin: you heard the question. >> thank you for noting i'm not the zoning administrator. there are two issues. i think -- we discussed this at

the planning commission hearing. ms. hester was there. only disagreement we had was the city -- the zoning administrator determined that these are considered office per prop m. for them to change it to general office, they need to do a change of use application. whatever fees are subject to that change of use will be triggered at that time. >> supervisor peskin: they are still subject to the various fees that ms. hester brought to our attention? >> correct. >> supervisor peskin: ms. hester disagrees with that >> that's point of disagreement. i was just texting the zoning administrator. he confirmed that the old and new zoning, they confirmed that

yes, they are subject to change of use fees from going from public facility to general office use. >> supervisor peskin: in item three amendment to the planning code sane the zoning map, does not in and you have itself change the use. they would have to file a building permit which would trigger the change of use and trigger the fees? >> you're correct. >> supervisor peskin: ms. hester would you like to respond to that? >> this determination by the zoning administrator is not in your packet. it never came back and the planning commission. i have no idea what this is. i don't have a lot of confidence in the building department or that level. the planning department when projects are not rooted them. if a developer looks at a place

and puts a tenant in and converts it to office and doesn't -- building department is not going to look at anything other than, oh, there used to be city offices here. the building department is not going really grounded preexisting offices as offices. prop m does not apply to the city. the city can do anything it wants without a prop m application. that's the way it was written. preexisting office is a big deal on 1650 which i know -- >> supervisor peskin: that was helpful. thank you ms. hester. i certainly will be the first to admit that it is entirely possible somebody could come to

that change of use, relative to this property to the department of building inspection, they might not properly route it to the planning department. it could issue and any fees that are due and payable, might not be paid. i understand that concern. there may be, i'm now looking through the clair chair deputy y attorney, to deal with the subject ordinance to make it clear any and all fees are due and payable when a change of use is filed. should that issue and without the fees being paid, there will be an ordinance that clearly shows that the fees are due and payable. what do you think about that? i have alternatives. >> i'll respond one at a time. i think either way, -- i think

that your suggestion is doable. tomorrow rather than than today. it would be a statement that effectively -- any change of use, the property owner and project sponsor will be required to pay the feeings required by the code. sound like you're suggesting maybe those fees are not paid that the zoning changes made in this ordinance would be rescinded. i don't think that's something we can do. >> supervisor peskin: i was not suggesting that. i was suggesting a written instrument that would make it clear that in the event change of use issued and the fees weren't paid that the intent of the city was to collect them and that sue hester or somebody can bring to our attention that her fears were realized and that the

property owner still owes the city. >> yes. >> supervisor peskin: we don't like crafting words on the fly. colleagues, i think we have couple of choices. one is to continue item three for a week in this committee. the other is to send it out as a committee report and have language that we would introduce as an amendment tomorrow. i think either one of those is fine. mr. starr, if we can get a letter or electronic centr elecm the zoning administrator. if you can draft language like this for introduction tomorrow, i will be comfortable in sending all three items out as committee reports today.

>> i think that makes the most sense. >> supervisor peskin: for the record, ms. hester has a storied history making sure that the city is properly paid in many planning instances and we owe her debt of gratitude for millions of dollars that we have collected. want to thank her for bringing this to our attention and hope that language should be enough surety to make sure that is indeed what we all intend and will happen and with that, i will make a motion to send all three items, items one and two with recommendation. item three as committee report without recommendation subject to the amendment that he will prepare by tomorrow. >> supervisor safai: can we do that without objection? >> clerk: item four is ordinance to change zoning code for

nonretail sale and service uses in the c3r zoning district. >> supervisor safai: supervisor peskin. i will hand it over to you since this is your legislation. >> supervisor peskin: thank you chair safai. this has been heard in committee for a number of times and i know that you are familiar with it. for our new members edification, i will talk little bit about the fact that this is the product of a couple of years of informational presentations and collaboration between the planning department, my office and the always of economic and workforce development. really entered around trying to preserve our destination retail zone in san francisco and union scare, commonly referred to as the c3r zoning district. which has been under pressure from the amazon effect and particularly as it relates to

the push to convert upper floors historically have been retailed to office. last monday this committee adopted an amendment that seeks to actually achieve a compromise for applications to convert office space on the third floor buildings which was the source of concern, contention from property owners in the c3r zoning district. the complie compromise is a poly choice that really prioritizes retail and permitted uses while allowing limited conversions when the physical characteristics of the site are not conducive to retail. just by way of background, we do duplicated the file. this one has a $4 conversion fee that's supported by a study

that's referenced in the legislation. we had a duplicate file that has a $6 conversion fee which requires rereferral to plan napping is not before yo -- to . by unanimous vote we imposed interim zoning controls pending the approval of this legislation and what's before us, lift internal codes at the board put in place by.a year. i want to thank all the parties involved for reaching this compromise and hope that subject to public comment and any statements that mr. starr has made repeatedly is welcome to make again that we can move this to the full board with a positive recommendation. >> supervisor safai: supervisor peskin, can you remind us why you chose the third floor? >> supervisor peskin: a lot of this actually -- mr. starr, you might want to jump in -- lot of

this really came -- there were slew proposals to convert upper stories in the union square c3r zoning district to office ranging from properties macy's own and macy's men@ç store, properties on 200 block sutter street. at that time, the department really expressed concern about doing that and we looked at the building topologies. the first incarnation of this actually said no conversions of the third floor. we made them impossible. my office really listened to the union square business improvement district and others as well as retail brokers and really sought to have some flexibility in the limited physical circumstances that were the subject of last week's amendment.

i will defer to mr. starr if you want to add anything to this long-running conversation. >> you covered well. the staff report was initially to prohibit floors. the commission felt that we needed more flexibility on the third floor given the nature of retail and the dealty of leeing spacespace -- leasing spaces ou. >> i understand they felt what was the difference between third and fourth or fifth floor. why did they not like it being capped at the third floor. >> my understanding, retail -- people generally don't want to go up elevators or escalators to go shopping. third floor is difficult to rent to retail operators because of

disconnection from the street. we're very concerned about preserving union square as a destination shopping centre. we don't want it to be degraded either. we don't want the buildings to be vacant. >> supervisor peskin: they did survey and found a relatively healthy occupancy rate. i think that kind of went into the staff's original recommendation for a strict r prohibition at the third floor. we rhet struck a compromise lan. >> supervisor haney: how floors defined?

some of the places have a very open atrium. the second floor might not be up until 40 feet. i'm curious how the floors were defined in instances. >> t >> there are definitions for floors. based on that definition, there's a mezzanine definition. i think in some cases that counts as a second floor. it depends on certain characters of the building. >> supervisor haney: union square boundaries, i understand you have them laid out here. physically where does the union square downtown zone end? does it end at market street? does it capture the west field mall across the street. is not capturing the mall? >> i believe it does extend to west field and the old

bloomingdale. it's not just union square but the neighborhood we know has union square. >> supervisor haney: what would happen to the upper floors potentially? >> they could convert to office on some of them. >> supervisor peskin: on the third floor, with this compromise along, that's before you. >> supervisor safai: men's clothing tend to be on the up floors. bloomingdale, nordstrom, they all tend to be on the upper floors. >> i think that's changing there. they got rid of the macy's men.

>> supervisor haney: can we write in the amendment to protect men's clothing? >> supervisor peskin: about the boundingries of the c3r, we can pull up the map. >> supervisor haney: let's do that. >> supervisor peskin: you can go to planning.org and tab on the like has the zoning map to pull that up.

>> it has a movie theater and the office. >> supervisor peskin: there it is. well done aaron. i don't mean this aaron.

there you go. i want to show that cursor around union square. >> it's this area here. this lighter pink. it does include the properties across market as well. >> supervisor peskin: those are the two parcels.

if you get sfgov tv. through go. there's the answer to your question mr. chairman. >> supervisor haney: thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you mr. starr. we'll open up for public comment. please come forward if you wish to comment. state your name for the record. you have two minutes. >> my name is william levine. i'm a fifth generation san franciscan. i was not aware of your compromise. i think the compromise is excellent. anything above the third floor will be disastrous. we used to have a store building union square that question did e

did rent. it's very hard. trends and fashion changed in the last 20 years. i remember when i first started working, everybody wore suits. now hardly anybody wear suits anymore. >> supervisor safai: just us. >> i think only in department stores, do you want to go anything above the third floor. i think the third floor is a good compromise and you're allowing that situation to occur where you can have offices on the third floor standard type buildings. not department stores. i commend you for that. any other cleaning in that let m--change in that let me know. >> supervisor safai: next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors. i'm karen flood executive director of the union square bid i want to say thank you to

supervisor peskin for working with us. i know it's been a long road up. did hear us on the third floor. it makes a difference. we care about union square. we wanted it to be as much retail as possible. it creates vibrant downtown especially on the lower levels. this has been really important to us and we appreciate the introduction of the fee for conversion from four to settlement. tha-- fourto six. so thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. >> supervisor peskin: i thank my staff who did all the hard work. >> sue hester. basically i'm a broken record. please use every opportunity you have to require the landlord to

install lighting on the exexterior aexsteer-- exterior . the landlord, the building owner, should have to install exterior lighting. assumption that everyone had that the zoning of the first floor was retail. it's not safe now. if you're not firm especially if you're older, dark sidewalks are really impediment to feel comfortable in the public realm. the persons that have to do the

improvements are the landlords. not the tenants. they should have to install led lights or whatever to light the sidewalks and not relay on interior lighting anymore from retail. you have an opportunity, use it. if building owner is going to take advantage of having more lucrative space, put the burden on them to light the sidewalk for the public. thank you. >> supervisor safai: any other members wish to comment? public comment closed. supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: i want to say that, this will raise million dollars for improvements in the c3r. i want to >> president turman: thato put . i want to acknowledge my staff and parties planning.

representatives of the property owners in the c3r and would like to make a motion to send this to the full board with a positive recommendation. >> supervisor safai: great. can we do that without objection? it is so moved. any other items before us today? >> clerk: there's no further business. >> supervisor safai: we are adjourned. thank you. [adjourned]

sustainability mission, even though the bikes are very minimal energy use. it still matters where the energy comes from and also part of the mission in sustainability is how we run everything, run our business. so having the lights come on with clean energy is important to us as well. we heard about cleanpowersf and learned they had commercial rates and signed up for that. it was super easy to sign up. our bookkeeper signed up online, it was like 15 minutes. nothing has changed, except now we have cleaner energy. it's an easy way to align your environmental proclivities and goals around climate change and it's so easy that it's hard to not want to do it, and it

doesn't really add anything to the bill. >> hello, everyone here i am a london breed. i am the mayor of the city and county of san francisco, and i am so very excited to be here with each and every one of you here. many of you probably know i grew up not too far from here on eddie and laguna in public housing that was managed by the san francisco housing authority. we knew this property here was joe's has been managed by the san francisco housing authority, and some of you who have lived here for years have been frustrated with the elevators,

with the pipes in the bathrooms, and some of the challenges that exist and we know that too often too many of our residents who live in public housing have not been given the support and the resources, and the things that they need to be able to live in dignity. today we celebrate the renovation of 138 units, of housing for seniors and people with disabilities. and i am proud of the work that we have done to help to lead the way to renovate over 3500 units of public housing throughout the city and county of san francisco as i said before kata, i grew up in public housing, and i lived in plaza east for over 20 years of my life. the frustration that came with making the phone call to get something fixed, and waiting weeks, and sometimes months --

sometimes months for things to be fixed, my grandmother raised me, in just the challenges we experience with having to get basic service was so frustrating and when i first became a member of the board of supervisors, one of the things i asked mayor lee to do is to work with me with focusing our attention and resources on the rehabilitation of the thousands of units that exist citywide. so many amazing people helped lead the way in moving forward and what i think is an amazing amount of time to get these units rehabbed so you have a safe and affordable clean and nice great place to live, to grow, and to thrive. i am grateful that as mayor, what's happening now is we are seeing the fruits of our labor

over the past couple of years, and in mayor lee's owner, i want to celebrate this, because not too many mayors would have taken the kind of risk that he did to do exactly what we are doing here today. i just felt strongly that we couldn't wait another 10-15 years, we couldn't continue to weight and say, we will figure it out, we will get the money, through our program, we have been able to get creative about solutions to invest the dollars in you, to invest the dollars and making sure that the places that you live in are great places to live in, just like anywhere else in san francisco. i am excited about this, the jfk tower, in the 2698 california are both great examples of our rad program which has had a tremendous success. i'm looking forward to doing even more of these developments, and i want to thank mercy

housing, the john stewart company, bank of america for the financing, the mayor's office of housing, and the housing authority, the u.s. department of housing and urban development , also known as h.u.d., because in trying to do exactly what we have been trying to accomplish here, it does take a village. it also takes the will, it also takes a great community partners , and i hope you enjoy your new double paned windows, which i actually don't even have i hope you enjoy your great community space and how beautiful and clean and bright and more open it is, i am looking around, i can't even believe what i am seeing right now. this is absolutely amazing, and it belongs to the residents of this community. congratulations on this great success project, i am so looking forward to doing so many more throughout san francisco and i would like to take this opportunity to introduce your

representative, the person who continues to advocate for resources for district taught about where you reside, who is a great member of the board of supervisors, a great advocate for communities, and will always be there for you, ladies and gentlemen, your supervisor, catherine stefani. [applause] >> thank you mayor breed. we are so lucky to have her leading our city. good morning, everybody. her remarks were absolutely amazing, and it is the r.a.d. program, it is reshaping public housing in san francisco for the better. the program has provided so many people across the city with rehabilitated quality and affordable housing. i cannot state how thrilled i am to be standing here today for the grand opening of this renovated tower. this tower has been iconic in district two for so long.

it is beautiful, it is colourful , and i'm so happy we are standing here today in this renovation. also for 2698 california, which will provide together 138 units of affordable housing for seniors and individuals with disabilities. i would like to say thank you to so many people for making this possible. first, mayor breed, you have made affordable housing a key part of your agenda as we face in affordability crisis. your leadership on this issue is inspiring and absolutely essential for those in need of housing, and your experience, your how you talk about it, it connects all of us to you, and i think it reinforces the need for affordable housing and how important it is for our city. and doug shoemaker and everyone at mercy housing for ensuring that jfk towers and 2698 california are not only beautiful, but safe and affordable places that residents can live for decades. paul taggart architects and rivera consulting group for your work in making this project

happen, in making these buildings seismically safer. and also barbara smith who is the acting executive director at the s.f. housing authority. thank you for all that you do and taking all our calls when you get them. and also liz, who i just met this morning at bank of america, and bank of america for the financing. we cannot do this without you. finally and most importantly, the people who call out these amazing two buildings and district want what their home. it really is an honor to serve you as your district two supervisor, and i want you to know i am here for you. call me anytime. we can work together on issues. i would love to come and visit periodically. please know we are here for you always. the work we are celebrating today has created a more welcoming community, and better housing. j.f.k. towers has a new community room. i think we are in it right now, a patio for residents to enjoy, and the units have modern

amenities and new appliances, which are so essential. every person living here deserves to be able to easily access their home, and use of community spaces of the building this renovation has improved the elevators which is so necessary, as mayor breed is said, and enhance accessibility features to eliminate barriers to access. finally, san francisco must be prepared in case of an earthquake, and the fact that we have seismically safe buildings is so important. we agree that san francisco is one of the most beautiful places in the world his. i think pacific heights and district two is one of the most beautiful places in san francisco, so i'm really happy to be here today to celebrate with you, and no i am here for you going forward to. thank you mayor breed for all that you do. at this time, i would like to introduce and think again doug shoemaker, the president of mercy housing. [applause] >> good morning everybody. we are so blessed to have elected officials like the two that just spoke here. we work in a lot of different

communities around california and a lot of communities around the country, and more often and not to, your trying to convince elected officials of the importance of affordable housing in san francisco we have the opposite. we have officials that lead the charge. if you think about places in this country where you would see public housing preserved and strengthened in the most expensive real estate in the country, and in neighborhoods like pacific heights, i can tell you this is an all too rare occurrence across the country, and a testament to the tremendous agreement amount just among san franciscans. we really appreciate your leadership on this topic and on future ones. for folks who don't know, there is more work to be done with the housing authority. we are working with barbara and the mayor and the supervisors around the remaining public housing that really needs to get to the level of quality, and we are looking forward to more support around that topic as we move forward and make better reality for your colleagues and friends and others living around the community.

i will introduce the next speaker who i have known for very many years. she has -- the last time i talk to her i think she told me that the number of housing authority directors that she previously worked for was greater than my age. i am 24, so that is a lot. in all seriousness, around the country, but in particular around san francisco, the housing authority has done a really difficult work with very few resources compared to what the need is. nobody needs to be in a situation like that and you're trying desperately to get all of that done, and you know the federal government is not sending you enough money to get it done, but you have to do everything you can to make it work. art barbara smith has been one of those people who stood up to that challenge, she has done the work, at times desperately under resource. finally on these r.a.d. projects at on the hope s.f. projects,

resource the right amount. she has done this work without complaint, with a characteristic smile, and has been a real champion of the work. i want to thank them for all their great work. >> your way too kind. we could not do it without partners without mercy and leaders like mayor lundin breed, and our new supervisor stefani. so we are really thrilled with j.f.k. towers and 2698 california, and the other public housing high-rise buildings that are getting the improvements that they've needed for so long to preserve this wonderful resource for our residents. we are especially excited to see this crescent shaped midcentury modern j.f.k. towers rehabilitated with its primary colors, restored to its original appearance in the front, but

with all kinds of improvements, the new community room, the new office space, and improvements to the residence's units. we are really excited about this pic i don't know if you know, but john bowles was the architect. he also designed other areas. we are preserving and keeping this building for long-term affordable housing for our seniors and disabled residents. before the rental assistance demonstration program, i would get into bed at night, and i would pray that none of our senior and disabled residents in our high-rise buildings would be without elevator service, and also, the worst yet, be stuck in an elevator. all too often i would get a call during the night and have to send an emergency repair service to address the problem and i were a duty officer to help the residents who were stuck in the lobbies or needed things from

there apartments. i know how stressful the situation was for our residents, but with declining federal dollars, the authority just wasn't able to keep up with repairs and the work that buildings needed. this enormous conversion effort, over $2.2 billion in financing, and over $750 million in capital improvements really required require the brilliance, dedication and support of an incredible team beginning with mayor ed lee, our new mayor, london breed, and including the mayor touch office of housing and community development. i know we have olivia ely here, kate hartley who was also instrumental in all of their support. mercy housing, bank of america, h.u.d., we don't have h.u.d. here right now, but hopefully we will have them here soon. the federal home won't bank of san francisco, freddie mac multifamily, our commissioners

who were put many hours into approving all the documents that it took to put this together, authority staff who worked very hard throughout the conversion, the board of supervisors, nappy brothers contractors who really did carry out the work beautifully, and others. thank you to all who made this possible. for j.f.k. towers and 2698 california and other public housing residents. i want to give us special thanks to our j.f.k. residents. raise your hand if you are a j.f.k. resident. we have a lot of you hear while supplies. >> and 2698 california. he lived through this process where you had to temporarily relocate, and you had to live in a construction zone, and thank you for your faith in the process, we hope you really

enjoy the new housing and all the improvements that you have. thank you very much to everyone. [applause] >> all rights. we are in the special part of the program where we list lots of names, but i do want to spend a second to acknowledge the partnership that was here. japanese-american religious foundation and the john stewart foundation, and mercy decided early on that when we are looking for the opportunity to work on these buildings that we would do better partnering to compete to do this work. this is part of the ethos of san francisco. we lucked out there, and we said we can do this better together. i want to acknowledge jack and margaret to her on the back and responsible for the california property and others. i don't see will hear from the foundation yet, there he is. great. the partnership is fantastic and i think it is part of making sure that we are effective stewards of the trust the public

is putting in us as residents. it was mentioned already, but mike and bob are here and they have led this work. i want to -- maybe the rest of the folks who worked on this could raise their hands. bob, you can raise your hand. i know you are trying to hide back there. [applause] >> the work of being a general contractor in an occupied building is a special thing and we knew we had a really good choice. if they have done great work for many people around the city on this work, and a lot of it has nothing to do with understanding construction, but to relate to people as people. i know paulette and our architects, i want to recognize them both for our great work on that big i don't know what happened in the hallway, but thank you for whoever did that. take a second to acknowledge joe should the way the work happens at mercy is very much team

driven. no one is individually responsible. with that said, this was an unusual project, and i want to say thank you to tim and mike and others. i think mike kaplan himself probably took more calls on this project than he'll ever take on a project again in his life. mike and i are hanging out somewhere, with thank you for your perseverance on that. if you work with mercy, please raise your hand to receive thanks on that. [applause] our great property management staff, i want to acknowledge our board chair, gillian burgess, he does not live very far from here so she can come visit. one small anecdote i want to add about the primary colors of the doors, someone door somewhere along the process, we were offered money to paint them different colors. i'm happy to say we didn't. i think they are part of what makes this a very iconic property in san francisco. it really stands out. the world needs less boring buildings. i'm happy that we have a bright building that everyone can spy when you say, which one is

j.f.k. towers, and you can say it is a rainbow coloured one with all the doors, and everyone will know what building it is. we do not need another beige building. with that, i want to acknowledge that one part of what made r.a.d. really only in san francisco, we often talk about how special we are in san francisco, and generally it is true. sometimes we are exaggerating. on this project, i think if you look around the country and what was able to be done around public housing preservation, there really are very few examples that if you look at the trouble they are having in new york city and all around the country was doing what san francisco got ahead of, you can see what a special opportunity this was, and how much work it took to get there. part of doing that was to recognize that we had to have an unusual financial partnership. to -- san francisco developers were very special people. we want to be treated differently on every project. it was the mayor touch office of housing that said we would not be different from each other, we would all do it the same way,

which frankly hurts. we did not like to hear that message. with that said, we didn't have a choice, and may be that is a lesson for leadership, but they turned to a single financial partner in order to make sure they made this work. there are few organizations in the work, -- in a world, corporate america took a step up to the challenge for a financing perspective and a philanthropy perspective. we were lucky early on to have the partnership of bank of america on this project. is quite exceptional. i want to bring up now liz minnick who is the bay area of marketing executive for bank of america to talk about it, but i want to say, come on up, i want to say the tremendous work of the bank over the years, and appreciation for the team in terms of working on this and partnering with us on this. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much and good morning everyone. as a fellow district to neighbor

, it is so very special to be here today, and i want to thank our two elected officials, mayor breed and supervisor stefani for everything you have done in your ongoing support. bank of america is thrilled to have been able to be the financial partner of the san francisco r.a.d. redevelopment and financing $2.2 billion for this project. not only the largest in our history, but the largest in the united states. it really is something special. we think we are special in san francisco, and especially from a bank of america standpoint. we were founded 115 years ago as the bank of italy. as we think about our legacy here in the city, certainly after our founding with the 1996 earthquake, and the importance of getting people back in their homes, that is what we are able to do. thank you to all of the people involved. thank you for the relationship we have with mercy housing. thank you to the san francisco department of housing, to get

our elected officials, and to everyone a blank -- bank of america who made this possible. thank you so much. [applause] >> all right. probably the most interesting part of all these presentations is withstanding all of our excellent talk. it is really to have a chance to hear from the resident about what the experience has been like. we do this work for residents, that is the reason for mercy housing to work. and i think many of the people in the room, that is a reason why we are here. i want to share a few words about their experience at j.f.k. towers. thank you john for taking the time, and being willing to share your story. [applause] >> i believe that mercy housing

makes life worth living. to illustrate, let me tell you in the -- an interesting story. a personal experience. one day when mercy first came here and people were gathering around, and not quite used to anything yet, that one day, a staff member from mercy housing came in from outside and he saw me and said, john, i saw your picture on a meals on wheels vehicle. i said, you didn't see the other 19 of them in the truck. , he then called me mr john, a gentleman is standing in the doorway right here. that started something i would

never have expected. i would come down in the morning , and angel in the office or mary, our manager, would say, good morning mr john. that grew. then it was staff, it was tenants, but mostly, it was housing and construction. they would get in the elevator with me, and they would say, mr john, and one man said, i want to show you something, and he took out a photo of his infant daughter, sharing it with me. i thought this is very rare. this is extremely nice. that went on for some time. everywhere i would go, it would be mr john. i would go out for a walk, and the men would be outside doing something at the fountain, have

a nice walk, mr john. i would come back and say, did you have a nice walk, mr john? then they began showing the part -- more pictures of family, particularly the children, and i thought, well, this is very nice at my 93rd year, and so then came a very interesting time. near navy construction had left the building -- except for a handful. they were all done here. they came and said goodbye. they knocked on the door of my unit to tell me goodbye, mr john and then came the day where there were about a dozen left on the rooftop just above my unit, working on waterproofing.

they had a problem. while i'm standing in the doorway, waiting for meals on wheels delivery, the supervisor came and said, my crew will be leaving about 11:00 o'clock. would you stand in the doorway and say goodbye? and by the way, after you've done that, stay in the doorway until they've gone down the walkway and have left that area, that balcony. about 11:00 o'clock, with the door open, i heard them coming down from upstairs. i stood out in the doorway, they came by, and all very cheerful, and very pleasant, and then they walked down to go to the elevator. they didn't go in the elevator, they stayed out of the balcony, about 12 people turned and

looked at me, and in a cacophony of languages, english, spanish, i think arabic, someone said, and i thought, this was interesting, and when they have finished, the supervisor spoke in a very big voice and said, they said, goodbye mr john. so living in housing is an uplifting experience, and at my 93 years of age, i could not have asked for more. not just the building, it is what you do. and i thought, i am a very lucky man. thank you all for coming. will be glad to see you again next time. [applause]

>> i'm sure i just did a very bad job of reading my notes, and in here i was supposed to say thank you mr john. i will do it now. thank you mr john. i want to acknowledge two more things. i want to echo what has been said previously about the residence and living through a rehab, we thank you very much for living with a rehab. we look forward to working with you over time. i hope we can continue this great relationship going forward , and i welcome your feedback about it. i hope we continue to do all the special things that it sounds like the nibbi folks did with you, mr john. i want to acknowledge mr davis who is responsible for the artwork and the music, he is a resident here, and has been a resident for 18 years. [applause]

>> with that, we will call our program to a close. i want to thank everyone, especially the mayor and the supervisor for getting out here on a rainy day. we will do a ribbon-cutting, which will occur outside where he says, and then there will be tours for the j.f.k. towers the start of the elevators. there are also tours a 2698 california that will be occurring, 15 minutes from now. not occurring. not occurring. notorious. yes, they are. okay, yes, they are. if you want to tour 2698 california, jack and margaret are hiding out the back. they were hiding, the camera is trained on them. thank you very much everyone. [♪]>> everybody.

sorry i'm late. good afternoon everyone. this is the meeting of the public utilities commission. it's tuesday january 22. roll call, please. >> clerk: vice president caen. >> here. >> clerk: commissioner kwon and courtney