was to become something they did not want, either a motel or a nursing home. and as i've worked, the neighborhood has improved. everybody has painted his house and made it the street it is today, which i think is one of the best, most livable places in the entire city. thank you. >> chair peskin: thank you, miss gieling, for your

stewardship and for resisting the worst of development. and to my two new colleagues on this panel, that i've serve off and on on this panel for their part of a generation, i would like to see that we will see landmark designations come before us, some of them with the support of landowners, some of them with the vociferous opposition of landowners. of course, within our laws, we can landmark a building with or without support of property owner, but when a property owner like miss gieling comes forward and wants to do the right thing for the next seven generations, i personally want to salute her and people like here. to people like dennis richards, thank you for making this happen, albeit, it probably ads

value to your property across the street, but you're doing it in your personal capacity so you have no conflict. mr. givner has assured me of such. with that, is there any public comment on this matter? you already spoke. seeing no public comment, colleagues, would we like to allow commissioner richards to speak again? without objection, mr. richards, the floor is yours. >> commissioner richards: i just want to say one thing about mrs. gieling. she is a living part of san francisco history. she is a metallurgist. some of her friends were imogene cunningham, who was a photographer of past, as well as ruth isawa, who helped her

restore the house. >> chair peskin: thank you very much, commissioner richards. miss gieling, if we could preserve you, we would. colleagues, is there a motion to forward this to the full board? >> supervisor haney: so moved. >> chair peskin: motion made by supervisor haney. we'll take that without objection. thank you, one and all. madam clerk, next item please. >> thank you. [agenda item read]. >> chair peskin: thank you, miss major. colleagues, i do believe that supervisor vice chair safai is

very familiar with what is a major encroachment permit, and i do not know, before i do not violate the brown act, whether supervisor haney knows what a major encroachment permit is. but over the last couple of years, my office has endeavored to make sense of a pellmell scheme around major encroachment schemes where in private parties have a license or right to the public right-of-way, and there are many of these that have issued over the last 150-plus years in the city and county of san francisco. and i want to thank the number of interns who actually assembled a list of major

encroachment permits that had issued. and there was no real clear way in our code as to how they should be revoked. and with the help of the city attorney, we actually created some changes to the major encroachment law which were unanimously passed. i believe supervisor safai was on the board and voted in favor of that. but as with all pieces of legislation, this is an evolving area of law, and akin to a piece of legislation i passed i think in 2002 or '03. the change that is scheduled before the board of supervisors would allow us to schedule a hearing before the board regarding revocation of a

permit when the director of public works has not timely scheduled and held a hearing or issued a decision regarding said revocation. i am happy to explain this. and before i do that, is there anybody here from the department of public works who would like to speak to this item? thank you for coming here this afternoon, and i do not know your name, so if you could tell me what it is, i would be happy to announce that. >> thank you. my name is jeremy spitz. i am in the director's office, and i work on legislative affairs. >> chair peskin: jeremy spitz, like as the swimmer, mark? >> yes. no relation. the director of public works has reviewed this legislation. there is no major change, and it is a policy direction to the

board. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. spitz. i look forward to getting to know you, and thank you for coming this afternoon. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you. that's always music to supervisor peskin's ears, when he hears the director has no objection to his legislation. so i have a few questions. we worked on this last year. we moved forward, but i know we sent this back to committee to have further conversations. one of the things i wanted to talk about on page 3, line 23, when it talks about the director shall mail notice of this decision, i wanted to know if we could add language, by certified mail just so -- >> chair peskin: upon filing of the notice -- no, line 21. >> supervisor safai: page 22 and 23.

>> chair peskin: excuse me. >> supervisor safai: you're on the wrong page. >> chair peskin: within a reasonable -- this is the subsection b-1. >> supervisor safai: yes. >> chair peskin: within a reasonable period of time after the administrative hearing, this is for anybody who's watching, old language -- the director shall issue a written decision on the permittee's cure, if any, and the public revocation petition and fine based on the public interest that the director will reject the petition, approve the petition or initiate revocation of the permit on the grounds -- on grounds other than those identified in the petition. the director shall mail notice of this decision to the lead petitioner, the permit holder, and you are suggesting at line 22 that the director shall do this by certified mail? >> supervisor safai: yes, just based on problems that we've had in the past based on individuals not receiving. that's a friendly amendment.

>> chair peskin: i personally do not care. there are many notice provisions, and there are many definitions of notice, and i will ask deputy city attorney jon givner to opine about the definition of notice. >> mr. givner: deputy city attorney jon givner. i'm not sure whether in article 15 or elsewhere in the public works code, there's any requirement for the director of public works when providing mailed notice to do it by certified mail. i can check. you can certainly make this amendment next tuesday at the board. >> supervisor safai: yeah. i guess i started a little bit later through the chair. i started -- no longer a question to you, deputy city attorney, but my question would be i sounded like you had interns do a lot of research. one of my questions was how many, if any, have ever been --

how many major encroachments have not been revoked? and i would imagine because we're talking about, when often times -- just for the public's edification, i know you're aware of this. often times when you're doing development, some of that development leads into or has a relationship in the public right-of-way, and that's what the minor and major encroachments are for. very often, it's required, not necessarily anticipated, but it's required by the planning department or those that are designing the projects on the frontage or on the side of the property, depending on where it lays in the alley and so on and so forth. one of the ways they often will solve for the problem is to ask the folks that are developing something to -- they pretty much require a major encroachment. so it becomes part of the overall development. so my question was, in a lot of

instances, this is essentially part of the design and part of the overall building or envelope and so on. so you don't have to answer this now, and i'm sure we would get that as part of this process. but i would imagine that we probably haven't ever revoked any major encroachment. i know that that authority is there, and it lies within the ability -- i know one of the projects that we worked on when i was at public works was a home, and it was in the san jose gulch, where they took, by eminent domain, many of the parcels, and then, they left some of the parcels adjacent to existing structures. and so one of them was a property that the actual yard or the open space, it seemed as though it was adjacent, but actually was a major encroachment -- >> chair peskin: in the driveway. >> supervisor safai: no, this one was not. it was the entire yard, and at some point, d.p.w. was considering revoking it, but then, they formalized an agreement. but in that agreement always rested the authority if

necessary in the future, the director of public works had the ability to revoke that. and that was understood and it was disclosed in the property. so i just wanted to make sure if we were going to go down this route, and i would imagine there would be a very few situations that we wouldn't get into -- adding that would be more like a friendly amendment. >> chair peskin: sure. let's take the first and the second issue. the first, i think the director has the authority to send it by certified mail should the director desire, so we can let the city attorney drill down on that between now and next tuesday. >> supervisor safai: yes. >> chair peskin: but with regard to revocation -- and this is related to the new member of this panel, the difference between minor and

major encroachment permits, minor can be issued by the director, and major encroachment permits can only be issued by the body. there are tons of minor. if you would like to put a planter in front of your house or apartment building on the street, and you want to do it properly, you actually go and ask for a minor encroachment permit. a major encroachment is much more akin to a license or right, but the city retains in that instrument the ability to revoke it. and there actually -- and i would be misrepresenting if i told you the number of major encroachments that would be revoked in my intern's research of 2.5 years ago, but there actually have been some that have been revoked by the city for a variety of reasons. but insofar as they are granted by the elected body, i want

today make sure -- >> supervisor safai: we have the ability -- >> chair peskin: right. we have the ability to revoke them. in this particular amendment, the issue is a fine-tuning of what we voted for unanimously after some back and forth and rereferral to committee, and that is what i would call justice delayed is justice denied which is to the extent that the director, whoever he or she may be now and in the future does not issue a written decision or does not hold a hearing that five of us, as we do in the case of conditional use authorization appeals can bring that matter before this board. this is really a due process issue. >> supervisor safai: right, but. >> chair peskin: and with that, i hand it back to you, supervisor safai. >> supervisor safai: thank you, mr. chair. that is almost 100% of the

story, but it also -- if members of the board don't agree with the decision, you give us the ability to appeal. so that is one step beyond. so we have that -- >> chair peskin: the court of last resort, the people's court. >> supervisor safai: the people -- for the people. >> chair peskin: i'm not running for president of the united states, i'm just chair of the land use committee. >> supervisor safai: in same section, right above that section on page three, section 2-a-ii. >> chair peskin: got it. >> supervisor safai: begins with if the director accepts the petition, the director shall schedule an administrative hearing no earlier than 60 days and no later than 90 days after the date of the petition acceptance in order to provide the permit holder with an opportunity to cure the problems associated with the permit as identified in the petition. at the administrative hearing, the director shall provide the

petitioner with a chance to provide proof that the problems have been cured in the petition. in the next section, prior to any administrative hearing in the petition, the director shall develop an estimate of the cost -- [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: -- shall shall bear the cost. it is a party other than the permittee. i just wanted to ask mr. spitz to come back up. through the chair, i wanted to ensure that 60 to 90 days on this situation -- if the director was going to be making this decision because his decision is based on two factors that we then have the opportunity to move past, one of which is determination of successful cure or whether or not engineering design is factored in. those are the two factors of

which the director has the ability to deny the petition or determine. and i just wanted to know, in your opinion -- and it makes me a little wary that 60 to 90 days might not be enough time to develop a cost estimate. so i wanted to be sure that there could be some language that there would be an additional period of time -- a small amount of time to determine whether or not this is a right time frame to give a cost estimate on who the -- who the responsible party, the permittee, the cost estimate associated with the revokation and restoration of this major encroachment. so first, i'm happy to hear what the chair has to say, but i also wanted to give an opportunity to public works -- but if you'd like to go first. >> chair peskin: i'd very like to hear mr. spitz. in that no less than 60 and no more than 90 days, what the

department has to do is develop a cost estimate of the cost of revocation and number two, identify the responsible party. >> supervisor safai: and associated restoration. >> chair peskin: yes, costs and -- well, that's the costs. revocation and restoration is the costs, so if you have to remove the driveway, that's the cost, so same thing. so we're kind of replowing old ground here, which is that insofar as when this first came before earlier incarnation of this committee and went to the board and came back to this committee and went back to the full board, all of these issues were settled. what is really before this panel today is really a due process matter. so the department, which ultimately supported the legislation, which this part is not actually before us, was in support of the 60 to 90 days.

the funny thing about this is this is mostly a theoretical conversation because as we both stipulated to, very few of these happen, and the department is respectfully well resourced. but thus far, i have not heard any issues or complaints relative to the 60 or 90 days. but with that, mr. spitz, the floor is yours. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. supervisor safai, 60 to 90 days should be sufficient. >> supervisor safai: okay. thank you. and then lastly -- so -- well, i guess that's -- i guess my last question was just -- just maybe for the city attorney through the chair, on page four, just the first reference on -- in section -- in section

2-b, bullet number 2-biii, if the director rejects the petition based solely on engineering design, is that defined somewhere in the code, engineering design? >> chair peskin: ah, i remember these conversations. mr. givner? >> mr. givner: deputy city attorney jon givner. the -- under state law, the city engineer, which is housed in -- works for d.p.w. has exclusive authority to determine engineering design issues. i believe that the -- that the term is -- i don't know if that specific term is defined, but the scope of the city engineer's authority is defined in state law rather than this ordinance. >> supervisor safai: okay. i just wanted to clarify. that was it. thank you, mr. peskin.

it seems, mr. chair, that the only thing we'll hear back on is the issue of certified mail. >> chair peskin: well i said in the beginning, i'm okay with it, but i could careless. okay. if there's any member of the public that would like to testify on item 2, please come forward. seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. colleagues, if there are no amendments, i would entertain a motion to send this to the full board with a positive recommendation, we can handle that on tuesday. >> supervisor safai: move. >> chair peskin: so moved by supervisor safai, and with that, we are adjourned. [gavel]

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>> 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.