this is underutilized. i am sympathetic because this is a tough place to park. if people have businesses, they can not only cater to those who are strong enough to get up the hill. you have to have parking for that. this is a good access for them to come into for the condo rather than having them come off a tight street. i have never quite been a believer in this, we should try to make things blend been more closely. if you look at the back of the opera house, that was in addition done about 25 years ago. this was done around the same time and these blend in seamlessly. there's no reason why you can make this addition that is sympathetic to the windows. that is the parking situation. we will see what the commissioners have to say. quarks i would think that i would agree with commissioner antonini this time but he went a different way. that is very interesting. he makes a very powerful case for supporting the class housing and while a new construction, i often question that. i happen to live in that area for the last 8 years. i know the change this area has gone

-- the empty and underutilized billings. there is real poverty in the neighborhood. there is a lack of retail services and jobs. there are open spaces that are tempting for criminal activity. the tenderloin is often home to a lot of families who only leave to take their kids to school and come back. we have a sample list of vacant buildings. we have been working with a number of community-based groups and the northern california loan fund to try to attract arts groups to the area. we have not worked on every vacant building, but this is just an idea of what we are up against. we work city-wide on struggling commercial corridors, and the storefront vacancy rate on central market alone is much higher than all the other neighborhoods in which we work. central market's commercial storefront vacancy rate is over 30%. that compares with our next toughest neighborhood, which is the view, at 24%. in terms of office vacancies, it is even worse. while we have a 15% citywide rate for office vacancies on central market, it is 51%. i'm s

right now there are over 45,000 buildings underutilized.but it's grown over the past year by 1800 buildings. the cost to maintain underutilized properties is up $1.6 billion a year. so i think there needs to be a plan. the administration has goals to try to dispose of property by the end of 2012, but it ain't part of congress' responsibility is to hold them accountable for what progress they are making towards achieving those goals. >> thank you very much. i get the balance my time. >> would the gentleman yield? thank you. mr. dodaro, have you looked at some of the excess property in sufficient details to look at things. for example, said moffett field and we discovered that not that was utilizing the relatively small portion of its profitability and the minimum amount of it for non-core business that was important to the community. have a look at those things and whether or not agencies hold them and that is not technically underutilized, but being utilized. did you look at any of those sort of items? >> i'd have to go back and i'll provid

in my own opinion, i feel this committee has been very underutilized, as one of my friends keep asking me, is this a lap dog committee for a watchdog committee? i am hoping under current leadership, it will become a watchdog committee, instead of the previous lap dog committee. if you would like suggestions, i first is an obvious one. laguna honda hospital. no matter how much the comptroller tries to protect laguna honda, you cannot change the facts. it will become known in due time. secondly, i would like to have some sort of monitoring @ san francisco general hospital under the previous administration, it was easily know that there was so much waste of resources. since i worked there, for 20 years, i have the facts. i do not think there is anybody going to dispute the facts. also, two other items i but to bring before the committee for possible action is the obvious female slave trade, with san francisco being one of the main focal points, especially illegal use of immigrant women. also, it has been pointed out to me for a long time about the ongoing pornography trade in san francisc

what i seek to do is carefully and thoughtfully convert and actively deteriorated, obsolete, underutilized parking garage into homes for seven families. the building will undergo a complete seismic retrofit, the restored in compliance with secretary of interior standards, and we will generate 30 good- paying construction jobs for a year and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for affordable housing in schools. the project will also result in substantial city revenues from transfer and increase property taxes. we're here today because of concerns about parking, but that concern is the exaggerated and does not constitute the exceptional and extraordinary circumstances that warranty dr. nobody wants to lose a parking space, but the actual number of spaces in use this year has averaged about 20 out of defeat. currently, 15 neighbors and five businesses read in the garage, and the majority of these bases have been vacant for years. some space is used for storage, but rarely driven cars or by people with two or three cars. project will retain 14 spaces, and bundled from the unit, so that a

but that huge space is underutilized. we just have to come to grips with the cost of doing this. right now, our administration facilities are spread throughout the compound. the idea of consolidating them in here, where we have built structural supports around the edge of the building, it might be like the ferry building. it is a good possibility. we have a number of modular buildings there, some of which are 30 years old. they have issues where they are in the middle of starting to have some structural problems. the idea of consolidation is very attractive here. we have some different things we can do. here it shows red text and black text. the first option is building a new administration building. the existing at fenestration building is like a slightly converted old hotel. the offices there are very small. it is kind of a rabbit warren. one option is to build a new administration building with a worker support facilities. the other option is to do something in the old power house, where it would consolidate administration functions and workers support facility to make sure th

we have to cut budgets and we have prisons upstate new york, where, you know, they're being underutilized. we have to close some of hose down. he's having so much trouble trying to close these prisons. all of a sudden people are saying, this is hurting jobs and upstate new york. there is literally a prison industrial complex that, you know, has an economic interest. >> that's an important point. that's an important point we need to think about. michael, i know you've done a lot of work in the criminal justice system on the activist side and as an attorney. what does there mean for there to be a financial stake in prison as barry pointed out there are jobs attached. we go to some cities where towns would shut down if the prisons shut down. how do we make sense of that too? >> there's money to be made in the prison industrial complex, no doubt about that. but you would think if its was only about the money, then the white boys would go to jail just like the black guys go to jail. that doesn't happen. >> i think the key link in this there's an economic factor but then there's political power

the other thing that is probably underutilized as general public comments on the fact that a lot of groups do not realize it can be an opportunity if they have an issue in their neighborhood that is not on the agenda. i often tell people, come to general public comment. they often do not know where to go, how to get on the list. that is another thing that could be more instructive to used, if we let people know about it. commissioner olague: commissioner sugaya? commissioner sugaya: yes, people know that i am a big fan of the dr's, and i was perfectly willing to let it go to a hearing. i found that the planning commission in another area give up certain powers and it seemed to work out just fine. however, if we go to a more design-oriented process, if the commission has a design review committee that meets before the regular hearing and listens to presentations, and i think makes recommendations to the full commission -- that might be a process for the full commission can still consider the dr, but have a submission and eliminate the lengthy hearings we've been having on these issues. but

commentary that much of the time he used by city employees using city in -- computers has been underutilized. one of the things that i would like to point out, which many consider a taboo subject, is how much pornography actually flows through the city's various computers during the workday. i have a suspicion the comptroller's office has some information in regards to that, but i do not know for sure. i think it is proper to maybe do an investigation using this grant money, to see how much actual pornography flows through the city's best computer system during the workday. my main interest is not only on pornography, but also to highlight the federal law enforcement efforts on the very sensitive subject of child pornography. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. is there anyone from the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. ok, the item is in and of the committee. do we have a motion? motion to send the item forward with recommendations. without objection. item to police. >> ordinance amending chapter 10 of the san francisco administrative co

then very quickly afterward, start looking for ways of getting the underutilized, undervalued spectrum back on the market so that the best possible use, in this case, mobile communication, can continue to grow at the pace is. everyone, i think, agrees that we're about to hit a hard stop. it may be five years, 10 years, but without more spectrum, the revolution of progress will not be able to continue. >> is people are interested in reading your column, where can they go? >> they can go to my website, where i read that these things in more detail than anyone would ever want. www.larrydowns.com. >> thank you for being on the communicators. >> thank you very much. >> the senate is in march recess next week and returns monday, march 28th for morning business. at 430 eastern, they will begin in executive session to consider the nomination of judge. they will take a roll-call vote on the nomination at 5:30 p.m. live coverage of the u.s. senate when members return, all week on c-span2. the house is also in recess, and returns tuesday, march 29th. the house is expected to debate the bill to en

i think different people have spoken out that it is underutilized, and i think that if this committee has only one agenda item today, maybe they can consider a boating discussion on john mclaren park, to give the residents of that part of town to come and give public comment, and the second item has been covered many times, especially on tv, and since we had plenty of time today, i thought it would not hurt to mention it again, that the department of public works has an ongoing campaign for illegal street dumping. i think it is pretty obvious it has been going on for a long time, and no matter how hard they try to crack down on this, it continues, so then i think we should maybe schedule a hearing for illegal dumping, and then maybe some of the residents that actually live on the streets that separate the dumping, maybe they will have a chance to come down here and have a chance to say what they want to say, because i have a feeling that there has been a lot discussed about illegal dumping, but i think the main thing to do is to just have somebody patrolling the neighborhood at night,

however, we found that that is underutilized. that adds to our challenge. there are two main kinds of dumping, the way we characterize it. one is sidewalk dumping, which happens in two different forms. one is may be well intended, where people take household items, like mattresses, chairs, couches, put them on the sidewalk, sometimes attaching a sign that says free to it. maybe somebody will pick it up and it gets used. unfortunately, often times it doesn't get picked up by someone else, and the city is left to pick it up. many people believe that is the city's responsibility. we recently engaged in a perception study about the commonness of the streets in san francisco. -- cleanliness of the streets in san francisco. most people surveyed believed that it was the responsibility of the city, but we know that it is the responsibility of the private individual. what also happens when people do that, once there is one thing out there, others tend to pile up. so the problem is exacerbated. the other thing that happens in the category of sidewalk dumping. we have

and they are highly underutilized except for a few major o indicating. i don't typically think people spend their time wanting to stare into their neighbor's home. i typically don't believe that is people's intent or desire in that regard. and it is a tough thing and urban environment and a lot of buildings are very close. i have lived in apartments where the person in the other unit and i could look right into the other unit. and and to approve the project as proposed. >> not take the d.r. and approve the project as proposeed. >> second. >> commissioner sugaya? commissioner sugaya: i am going to oppose the motion. i think we should say something about the railings. i have had the experience when i was growing up of birds fly into windows that are 6 feet and that is what i found dead birds, 6 feet, 10 feet, so they can fly low and --. >> we could just say that glass could be that oh glass. commissioner sugaya: if we could word it that the project sponsor works with staff on some kind of bird resi tant or whatever you want to call it glass railing and/or

the 22 million americans that are unemployed or working part- time possess a wealth of underutilized talent, which will atrophy with continued idleness. many americans that lost their jobs are considering new careers, careers with missions that seek to advance the common good. sure, this approach requires a financial commitment, but the personal, family and community benefits will exceed their costs. rebuilding the nonprofit sector is a win-win for america. i'm bill rodgers. >> tom: a reminder, the tax filing deadline is getting close. only a few weeks away. taxes are due back at the i.r.s. in just three weeks, and we're here to help. you can submit your tax questions on our website for tax guru kevin mccormally. want to find out? just go to nbr on pbs.org. kevin will also join us for a week of last-minute tax tips starting april 11. that's "nightly business report" for monday, march 28. i'm tom hudson. good night everyone, and good night to you too, suzanne. >> suzanne: good night tom. i'm suzanne pratt. good night everyone. we hope to see all of you again tomorrow night. "nightly b

the puc has required publishers to have the number in the phone book, but the resource has been underutilized. a lot of consumers do not know about it. last year, californians against waste sponsored a bill which would have required publishers to post on the front cover of the yellow pages opt-out number, but the industry lobbied against it and killed the bill. they said that opt-out is the way to go, but even when we tried to work with them, they tried to kill the bill. this is a common-sense approach that caters to consumer choice, respect the wishes of the residents who do not wish to receive these books. for those reasons, i would like to urge your support. thank you very much. supervisor chiu: could you repeat that piece of legislation that would have required the industry to publish the phone number on the front page? what was it called and when was it introduced? >> it was introduced last year as senate bill 920. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> hello, supervisors. i am a small business owner in san francisco, and i live in the mission district, and i have been dealing with

it has to be revised as we pointed out because this would be a great addition, underutilized space. going to be a great view out of there and it has a lot of other benefits. but i think we made it pretty clear as far as the parking has to work out so the people exiting the garage can do so in a safe manner and also as far as the number of parking will kind of be a product of the square footage might be somewhat reduced, which might put new compliance with bernal heights or the number of units may be changed to a smaller number of units. they may be fairly large units as was pointed out by mr. sanchez, they may have the same requirements but the commission has the discretion to allow a variance for fewer -- ok, the zoning administrator would be able to do that if they were, you know, downsized and there was enough room for people to maneuver in there. it might be acceptable to have someone fewer numbers of parking spaces. i have to see what the neighborhood says. and what the neighbors weigh in on it. but there are three bedrooms and two bedroom and nice family-sized homes which are

right now there are over 45,000 buildings underutilized.ut it's grown over the past year by 1800 buildings. the cost to maintain underutilized properties is up $1.6 billion a year. so i think there needs to be a plan. the administration has goals to try to dispose of property by the end of 2012, but it ain't part of congress' responsibility is to hold them accountable for what progress they are making towards achieving those goals. >> thank you very much. i get the balance my time. >> would the gentleman yield? thank you. mr. dodaro, have you looked at some of the excessroperty in sufficient details to look at things. for example, said moffett field and we discovered that not that was utilizing the relatively small portion of its prfitability and the minimum amount of it for non-core business that was important to the community. have a look at thosehings and whether or not agencies hold them and that is not technically underutilized, but beng utilized. did you look at any of those sort of items? >> i'd have to go back and i'll provide you a

the spectrum allocations, but then very quickly afterwards start looking for ways of getting the underutilized, unvalued spectrum back on the market so that the best possible uses -- in this case, mobile internet and mobile communicating -- can continue to grow at the pace it is. everyone, i think, agrees we're about to hit a hard stop, it may be be in five years or ten years, but without more spectrum for mobile computing, the revolution in progress will not be able to continue. >> host: if people are interested in reading your columns, where can they go? >> >> guest: www.news.com and also to my own web site where i also write about some of these things in more detail than anybody would possibly want to read. >> host: and what's that web site? >> guest: www.larry downs.com. >> host: thank you for being on "the communicators." >> guest: thank you very much.

right now there are over 45,000 buildings underutilized.but it's grown over the past year by 1800 buildings. the cost to maintain underutilized properties is up $1.6 billion a year. so i think there needs to be a plan. the administration has goals to try to dispose of property by the end of 2012, but it ain't part of congress' responsibility is to hold them accountable for what progress they are making towards achieving those goals. >> thank you very much. i get the balance my time. >> would the gentleman yield? thank you. mr. dodaro, have you looked at some of the excess property in sufficient details to look at things. for example, said moffett field and we discovered that not that was utilizing the relatively small portion of its profitability and the minimum amount of it for non-core business that was important to the community. have a look at those things and whether or not agencies hold them and that is not technically underutilized, but being utilized. did you look at any of those sort of items? >> i'd have to go back and i'll provid

in fact, we're underutilizing, what we're already deploying, in effect. and i have talked a little bit and i will let john take it. >> just a footnote of what ben is saying there, when i worked in the white house in the state department i just found it to be endlessly frustrating because so many issues and countries were stove piped and kept in their categories and what a special envoy -- and you've got in central africa, you've got crossborder issues, you've got multiple issues that bring equities in from all kinds of different departments throughout the u.s. government. so you need someone to be able to break through this stovepiping and it can't be a deputy assistant secretary of state who just gets dual hatted to be doing something else besides their regular job which is 20 hours a day anyways with the beeper going off every 30 minutes in the other four hours. you just got to have someone who's full-time job is focused and it's someone with influence, someone that can pick up the phone and say, secretary clinton, it's actually time for you to say or d

i mentioned earlier that we have so many underutilized or unneeded buildings.ma administration has a goal for eliminating, disposing of those buildings or finding alternative uses for many of them. i think that is an important step. first, deciding what we are going to try to achieve, developing the plan, and continuing to monitor to be sure that we do achieve our goals. we are dealing with the real property issue. we also talk about some of the in -- the investment issues for i.t. and contract in, and the fact that there are those issues in the executive branch is a very positive step. what would be important is that the administration develops an implementation plan and that there is monitoring and oversight to ensure that we actually execute those plans as designed. and the oversight needs to come, i believe, from both the executive branch and the congress. host: the "washington post" says a white house spokeswoman is saying -- bill writes to us on twitter, that gao does good work. talk to us more about what congress does next. guest: we have already have on

according to o.m.b., there are about 47,000 underutilized properties, almost 19,000 completely unutilizeds properties. that's over 65,000 properties with an estimated value of $83 billion that would better be diminished, sold, or demolished. and this is a commonsense way, mr. president, to save money in the federal budget, to move us forward in terms of a more sustainable path on spending and debt. obviously we need many more steps, many more larger steps. but this is brought in that spirit. mr. president, i look forward to returning to the floor around 2:45 to make it formally pending and to offer some brief additional comments. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. ms. landrieu: thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: mr. president, according to the agreement, we're going to break now at 12:30 and take up this debate this afternoon and stay on this bill with open debate. hopefully it can be productive and cordial and then hopefully move to pass this important bill, the reauthorization of sbir off the floor. i want to ask unanimous consent that t

we are spending by the latest estimates over $1.6 billion a year to maintain property this underutilized. it doesn't make sense. there should be more competition in contracting. about one-third of the contracts that were put in place had either no competition or one better on the competition. there is also $640 million sitting in a customs collection account for a number of years that there haven't been decisions on how to use. that could be an easy and quick wit and. there is also a lot of money going out the door of the improper payments that i think could be stopped. that is going to take time and effort. we talked about the use of technology but i think that that's another area where the latest estimate and all of the programs have been estimated yet. the latest estimates are about $125 billion so there are plenty of targets of opportunity and would be happy to work with congress and the administration to get results. >> thank you very much. >> i thank the giblin. >> i recognize the gentleman from ohio, mr. kucinich for five minutes. >> thank you very much, ms. alexandre i would like

in fact, we're underutilizing, what we're already deploying, in effect. and i have talked a little bit and i will let john take it. >> just a footnote of what ben is saying there, when i worked in the white house in the state department i just found it to be endlessly frustrating because so many issues and countries were stove piped and kept in their categories and what a special envoy -- and you've got in central africa, you've got crossborder issues, you've got multiple issues that bring equities in from all kinds of different departments throughout the u.s. government. so you need someone to be able to break through this stovepiping and it can't be a deputy assistant secretary of state who just gets dual hatted to be doing something else besides their regular job which is 20 hours a day anyways with the beeper going off every 30 minutes in the other four hours. you just got to have someone who's full-time job is focused and it's someone with influence, someone that can pick up the phone and say, secretary clinton, it's actually time for you to say or d

we have 45,000 buildings, excluding the post office, that are either unneeded or underutilized.can find other uses for that property, either selling them or finding another use, we can save a considerable amount of money. we spend over 1.6 dot billion dollars everyear maintaining those properties. host: could morning to the next caller. caller: i want to say that you have your work cut out for you. i was really trying to get on for the last session, but you have encouraged -- i don't know. you have encouraged me that the country is going to be going back into the right direction. thank you. host: talk about the history of this. the senator coburn was an advocate for getting this together. has anything like this been done before? guest: i am not aware of anything like this being done. there have always been efforts to try to pull this kind of information together, but i think this is the first time that everything has been -- i should not say everything. we clearly have not covered the entire government. but to bring together 80 or more areas where there is potential savings, pot