"today in the bay" joe rosato jr. us why it's under fire. >> reporter: every homeowner will upon ponder a home improvement. but david's project began 40 years ago. >> i had a vision. i had a dream. >> reporter: the vision started waite simple house in the wooded hills of marin county. but soon -- >> the top is the bell tower. and bill with recycled materials. >> reporter: the home improvements took over. >> we hand-dug a well. it goes down 30 feet. >> reporter: hoffman's additions include a pond with a concrete boat fed by ground water. there's an on nate tea house under construction after 35 years. >> this has been my personal project that i've pretty much put together piece by piece. >> reporter: the longtime tea distributor also built several caves to store his rare teas. and a tower to house a solar shower. >> when it's finished you can come to our solar power shower tower hour. >> reporter: hoffman doesn't consider the 30-home made struck doors that fill the property to be the real story. the real story, he says,

nbc bay area's joe rosato jr.ws us the new ballot initiative. >> reporter: every time water springs from san francisco's un plaza fountain, it marks the end of a 165 mile journey from yosemite reservoir. >> it supplies water to more than 230,000 people in the bay area. >> it's the primary source of water for san mateo county. >> reporter: when it was finished in 1923, it was called an engineering marvel. today, environmental mike marshall of the yosemite restoration campaign calls it a mistake. >> no other city in the country is allowed to score their water from a national park. >> marshall and other environmentalists have called for the removal of the dam and the restore ration of the valley. today a group delivered 16,000 signatures to the department of elections hoping to qualify for an initiative on the november ballot. the measure would call on san francisco to study the possibility of removing the dam and it would also require the city to conserve more water through water recycling. >> the city needs to do a

joe rosato, jr. showed us what was standing in the way. >> reporter: you often hear about stories with breath-takinging views getting the wind knocked out of them by a construction project. it brings to mind the joni mitchell song, paved to parad e paradise, put up a parking lot. paradise took its revenge. >> the house stuck out from the ridge quite a bit, blocked the view. >> reporter: today dave bettes' construction crew crushed a 65-foot home on belvedere home. >> it was 65 years old. >> reporter: it was basically a carriage home from when this was a sprawling estate. over the years, it had not been used. they paid $4 million to buy it and have it demolished. the winslows didn't want to talk on camera, but they said they plan to replace their panoramic view. the view snapped to life. >> a week ago you couldn't see anything from here except the gable end of the house. and now we've opened it up for everybody to enjoy. >> reporter: everybody included neighbor roger snow whose house sat just up the h

. >> it's so serious, as nbc bay area's joe rosato junior describes, they're described as being wingsbreaks and very bad manners. >> you've heard of that video game, angry birds. well it seems the real version has taken roost in san francisco. >> every time you're walking up the street, unexpectedly it will come and poke you in the back of the head. >> near 24th and castro, a pair of black birds have become the bullies of the neighborhood. >> sometimes you can really see them dive and like swoop for you and it gets a little intimidating. >> during the last few months, the pair has attacked anyone who crosses their perch. >> they're constantly pecking at me. i have learned to walk across the street. >> people have adapted a variety of defense strategies. >> when i walk past, i just go doing like that. >> reporter: its evidence that when it come toss getting pecked in the head, dignity is the first thing to go. >> especially the first time, it's so confusing. you're like what just happened? did somebody just like throw a stick at my head? >> neighbors put up -- >> i have a daughter, so

and as joe rosato jr.ryone is not a fan. >> reporter: we're living in a time when people are doing what they want when they want to do it. >> we're a specialized car service getting people where they need to be. >> reporter: with a click of the company's app you can summon a towncar or a limousine to pick you up. >> there's a great opportunity for on demand anything. >> reporter: to demonstrate that point, today the company switched up its format a little bit, instead of a car, you could call for a cone. for one day only, the push of an ice cream symbol of the company's app brought the services of an ice cream truck. four six hours, five ice cream trucks traveled around giving ice cream on demand. the fact that it wasn't ice cream weather didn't seem to bother anyone. >> we had someone who was just getting married and what better way to celebrate it than having ice cream for an entire office. >> it has come a long way since she would simply drive through neighborhoods playing muse circumstance. >> people c

joe rosato jr., nbc bay area news. >>> still ahead at 6:00, the treatment two people said made them hiv-free. >>> plus, a warning in the east bay after several atm robberies at one specific branch. >>> i'm scott budman, streaming the olympic games. coming up, how yahoo! is rolling out the purple carpet to technology and olympic athletes. >>> and a royal welcome for the olympic torm. we'll take you live to london for a look at all the preparations ahead of tomorrow's opening ceremony. >>> now to our coverage of the 2012 olympic games. here's a live look at the tower bridge in london, decorated with olympic rings. >> all eyes are on london. we continue to march towards tomorrow's opening ceremony. today the host city offered a royal welcome to the gameses. >> nbc bay area's phil rogers joins us live from london right now with more on all of this. good evening, phil. >> reporter: good evening, janelle and jessica. or we should say good morning. it's about 2:29 friday morning here in london. a very chilly morning, but excitement building and really this is the day that london started looking lik