they had decorative vases, stairways. the whole idea was someone would come home from work and he should be elevated and think great thoughts. he should not be in the hustle and bustle of the urban environment. there were very restrictive. they tried to say you had to have certain setbacks and you could not use buildings for other than the residents, and you could not be a minority unless you had permission. that was a big problem. >> they are still here. you can see this place. >> i am not positive i know where this is. can you aureate me? >> that is ocean avenue on the bottom left. the center line of that is myrmar ave. what is there that anybody would know? there are two gates. on the monterey side, there's a beautiful ornamental gate that welcomes people. all bungalows. >> what do you mean by that? >> traditionally, it is all on of little half story -- it is up on a little half story. they are smaller homes. there were supposed to be within reach of the average working man. >> architecturally, the bomb blows -- bungal

here is the proposed situation where we're proposing stairway access. it is coming up a few steps from the sidewalk. it is not encroaching on the sidewalk. the retaining wall is where the first riser would be. this there would come up to the lower one to give that new dwelling unit and attractive entry. the proposed idea, and we've discussed this with the neighbors across the street, would be to use it as a launching pad for the first phase of a landscape that would continue all the way up to mars street. corbett avenue has buses roaring down it at pretty high speeds. there is no crosswalk. being that the subject property is effectively responsible for taking care of that space, just as everyone else is responsible for taking care of the sidewalk, in its current condition, it is a place for people to throw trash, some people sleep there, and cars get broken into. there is no public access through that. we would be making a significant improvement to it. commissioner sugaya: i think that on the plot plan that is in our plans on your sheet, there are prop

that means that these aggress locations a stairway system, these are not good places for storage.want to make sure we don't have the potted plants. the although they are great places to dry clothy, we don't want those things on these areas in the event of an emergency situation where there is confusion, we need to have proper clearance so emergency personnel can get in the building and assist those that occupy the building and be able to get out. >> one of the basis of the code the concept is you delay, you can get out of the building in case of a fire and an emergency. that's like what we are headed for. preservation of property in many cases in the code takeses second fiddle to making sure everybody is safe ask out of the property. safety is number one. >> fire escapes are used in san francisco under the california building code. they are not typically allowed in new buildings. most of san francisco is older buildings. because we have such tight lines 0 lot lines on the side and often a rear yard where you can't get from the rear yard to the street. we see all over san francisco

escapes and allow new fire escapes on existing buildings where you can't build a fully complies stairway. we came up with rules about fire escapes that require them to be e illuminated and they need to be maintained. some are difficult to maintain they have a moving part and a crank ladder. hauven to people have to maintain their fire escapes. >> they need to always have them maintained. we ask the property owner at the time of the inspection to demonstrate that the fire escapes are in good working condition. >> we changed the code? >> 4 or 5 years ago. >> you have to demonstrate that it works you pull the lever and pull it. >> absolutely. >> there are companies in the city that go out and will contract with the building owner to do regular maintenance of fire escapes and a good thing. lubricate, make sure they are not rusty. >> there is a certification program. those of you who are property owners will get a mailing from us with an affidavit and explaining this process in which every 5 yearses the property has to have a license to take a look at it and make sure it's save. beyond that t

that represents -- >> that is a stairway. commissioner fung: that is a stairway? >> yes, a widening stairwell going up to the second floor. commissioner fung: where are the windows located? >> there are windows right along, right where the staialond of that, -- the outer end of that is part of a deck. that is like a glass wall there. as you go up to the second floor -- actually, in the first floor, if you keep going where the.is -- the dot is, that is where you will find a lot of skylights. i have a big skylight as well that goes down to the garage, and a large eight by six window in the dining room. all along here, i have a lot of light, actually. so that is probably the -- what you are seeing their -- there is going down to the garage. i cannot explain what it is. it is sort of gain -- of a roof lighting piece there. vice president garcia: if you do not mind, would you put that on the overhead? as you are describing these features, point out where they are. i might be the only one confused. >> yes. obviously, the sight of my building their -- the side of my buil

in addition to the amount of receptacles they are not allowed to be under your wooden stairway system without a type of a sprinkler system. a fire could cause a problem to exit that building. in addition that that, garbage rooms have to be sprinklers and have to have door closures and lined or the interior has to be sufficient to keep them sanitized. they have to be kept clean. and those apartment buildings that have garbage hoppers or have to have sprinkler heads into the garbage chooshuts. they have to be properly closed off. those are some requirements with garbage receptacles. we are looking for debris and looking that they are covered in in the right locations. those are the things we typically look at with respect to that. usually the type of complaint we will will get is that may be a garbage chute is clogged or there is accumulation of debris and we ask the owners to clean that up. if a garbage room has a door that is broken or it's not self closing we will ask them to make repairs to make sure that does happen. we want to make sure as that garbage is acumulating it's done ina

them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up that stairwayeither side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco. i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit. i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930's up until the 19

authority's got funding to replace the window and the plumbing, but there's no one cleaning the stairways in the corridors, when even we complain to the property managers. we just wanted to -- they only clean for once or twice every year when there's an inspection from the h.u.d. or housing authority. we wanted to stress that you please get someone to clean the common areas. >> great. >> thank you. >> ms. lee, good to see you again. i'm thankful you didn't ask me about the elevator, because i don't have an answer for that. as far as for the common area and stairs, we'll get right on that. i wasn't aware that you were still concerned about those. i thought our folks had got to that. >> i'm going to run interference. i think, mrs. lee, excuse me, she has the tenants, 35 tenants she brought with her, and they have a whole list of questions. so instead of 35 answering you each question, will take that long, maybe we should allow her to finish her little list of all the complaints so that then you can, you know, answer it better instead of keep on cutting it off like that. >> how many folks ar

the streets, they wanted to get to the top of the hill, said the duties beautiful walls and stairways. they are doing well. >> all of these hillsides have catalyzed the design and construction of the interesting foundations and sub framing. >> up there, you'll find quite often, because it is rock, they have dug holes, filled it with concrete, put pulls up, and built their buildings. they have been there actually now 67 years. >> some of these are significant earthquake hazard? >> many of them, because they're not properly braced, because the foundations are not deep enough. the consequences could be significant during an earthquake. >> the tunnel opened that whole section up to development. did that lead to park side? >> west portal is right here. it this slope. westport open up this whole area down here, with the reservoir. the tunnel was built and two different ways. one of them was cut and cover, the other was a tunneling machine. as they came close to the side of the hill, they dug down vertically, took out the dirt. they took the dart -- they took the dirt and replaced it as phil

that means that these aggress locations a stairway system, these are not good places for storage. we want to make sure we don't have the potted plants. the although they are great places to dry clothy, we don't want those things on these areas in the event of an emergency situation where there is confusion, we need to have proper clearance so emergency personnel can get in the building and assist those that occupy the building and be able to get out. >> one of the basis of the code the concept is you delay, y

there is a fire escape there and the stairway we came up, there's your 2 exists. you seen these before? the hose cabinets. there is a fire extinguisher in there, 50 feet of hose. a nozzle and water in there you can turn it on. don't do what he's doing. if you turn this on you will have a pile of spaghetti with hose. one person take the hose out to where you are going to put the fire out. tonight open the door, yet and have the other person turn the water on. if you don't feel comfortable, get out. keep yourself safe. we have gauze. this is made of cotton. what class of fire is that? a. >> we have some fire. we have air. we have heat. we have a fire going. if i went in like that what did i just do? >> smoth erred it. simple; right . remember the hot water heater, we say don't store gasoline in your garage? so, gasoline gives out vapors, if we heat this up. not that you have to heat the gasoline. if you store gasoline near a hot water heater the vapors alone will catch fire. the vapors travel and caught. you don't have to actually light something like a candle, you

15, 2011, of lot area, rear yard and usable open space variances, reconstruction of an existing stairway. variance case number 201 0.0467 v. we will start with the appellants. you have seven minutes. >> thank you. my name is vicki, and i am one of the cone owners -- i'm one of the co-owners of 161-165 new main -- newman street. neither of these homes really stands out as being unusual or out of place in our neighborhood. the two homes are completely independent structures, with no shared access or open space. because of the corner location, each house has a lot of street frontage, plenty of parking, and a lot of light. our variance request does not involve any structural changes, other than moving and outside staircase about 2 feet to the left. so it will have absolutely no impact on the neighborhood, the open space or rear yard. nothing will change if the variances granted. when we applied for the lot split variants, we were told we needed to request a variance for open space and at the rear yard, but 13 years ago the planning and building department reviewed and approved a permit reque

if you have this situation on your metal doors or a rear door to a stairway system or whatever, you should not have it. it creates a dangerous situation. >> this is a ret oretroactive requirement in the code where we changed it previous to that time you could have a key as long as the key was close. you could have an electronic buzzer. you push the buzzer and opened door. that's not allowed and you have to take them out and put on a lock that can be operated from the inside without knowledge or effort. >> here are locks and latches that we see. tell us about them? >> one of the things in the security ordinance of the housing code does require a view finder for on the doors of the apartment buildings into the units that gives you the 135 degree view from the inside out. that's for security. and we what we were talking about previously. i will hold this up. we are talking about the doors that have the lock on both sides. that's something that is considered a life safety hazard. in certain doors and windows you might find in the city. a lot of people have this in their 1 ask 2 family dwelling

structures funds and the bridges, tunnels, stairways, retaining walls, guardrails -- those funds will be available to us if the bond passes. otherwise, there is no other funding in the proposed budget. finally, you had asked for review of -- in terms of the five-year financial plan. what you see here, i think, reflects what you see from any other department, and citywide, the cost of our providing the base line of services that we provide is going up faster than the anticipated revenue growth, and it is largely driven by benefit cost increases, and this is based on -- although the mou's are not negotiated out, it is based on assumptions of basically the current level of wage and benefit increases. it is not at the moment a sustainable five-year outlook, as it is not for the rest of the city. there are not a lot of things that we at the department level can do to address that. pension reform would be the single biggest thing that would help bring us into balance. in terms of alternative revenue sources, supervisor wiener mentioned the idea of maybe getting tree care off of the -- direc

at the north elevation that will extend approximately five feet west to allow access to a spiral stairway for safe egress to the rear yard. after the binellis and architect reviewed the revised and properly submitted plan, they supported the project at the variance hearing. the variance was approved and we felt everyone was comfortable and it made sense to move forward with the additional time and expense of building permit process. note that the plans clearly did show railings as being clear glass, illustrated the same as adjacent windows when you look at the plans. two different architects had a chance to -- several months to review these plans. on december 20th, i received a call from robin indicating she had a problem with the north balcony railing being glass. at that point i told her i would like to work out a solution that might make her more comfortable and would revisit the previously approved design with my architect upon his return from vacation. after reviewing the design with my architect, i notified the binellis that glass was the best option for clean and attract iffer desi

structures funds and the bridges, tunnels, stairways, retaining walls, guardrails -- those funds will be available to us if the bond passes. otherwise, there is no other funding in the proposed budget. finally, you had asked for review of n