>> good evening, commissioners. patrick o'reardon, dbi. i won't even begin to speak to the complexities of the engineering involved with this project but it is complex and it does involve means and methods or personaliation grouting and tunneling, shoring, having to do with creating this additional basement space. so i did visit the site yesterday just to get an idea of what the -- was and what everything looked like, and reviewed the drawings. and i did note that the drawings showed the personaliation grouting to be within the property at 2865 vil ahoe and didn't show an encroach onto 2875 vallejo. no work was going on to this permit which was suspended anyway. today, i visited with our dbi engineering plan check folks. david pang happens to be on vacation all week so i spoke with his supervisor, robert chun. and he reviewed the documents before you here tonight. and it was his opinion that the review, having to do with this work, was appropriate. and he didn't see that there were any missteps with the review from the dbi perspective. i also noted that 22 special inspections are relating to this scope of work, which include items relating to the structure as well as the geotechnical aspects of the construction. so we will be doing our dbi inspections, as necessary for the construction, when it is underway. and we will also be requiring those special inspections to be submitted to us with letters of certification, final letters at the end of the work and we will not sign off any approvals for the project until we have approved those certification letters and we're happy that everything is being monitored throughout the course of the work. so i believe that dbi also sent out notification to the adjacent building owners, as i understand it, it's a notification of a structural addition to the building owners on the adjacent properties as well as the three properties behind this property at 2865 vallejo. i'm available for any questions. >> thank you. is there any public comment on this item? seeing none, then, sir, aren't you an employee or a paid consultant of the appellant? so you can speak under his remaining time but you can't speak under public comment. we are moving into rebuttal now. so the appellant, you have three minutes. >> we'd like to have mr. -- speak to you about the engineering side of this. but let me correct one thing. there was a comment about a stairway. we had a stairway between this work and my house, we wouldn't have any problems with the project. the stairway only goes back as far as the garage. from the end of the garage, it's all new excavation and there's nothing to keep -- it will be going right by my house. the wall is going to be three feet from each side wall, and the geogrout goes within one foot now. previously it went right to the line. now they're saying it will miraculously stop one foot from the line, even though it's liquid. and they also have that in their exhibit showing -- you can see, maybe he can point that out. thank you very much. >> thank you. my name is ryan heart ludky. i'd like to answer one question that was asked about the other project. when we looked at the other project which was 2881 which was last year we reviewed the calculations and found -- ill say errors in the calculations or mistakes for design of the shoring. we talked to the design engineer and he modified the design to provide the proper strength for shoring of the excavation. that was part of my objective, and the service that i provide to keith on this job. when we got the project in mid-august, we met with the contractor. once he heard that he had the permit we asked for the drawings, we asked for the calculations. respect dbi and dbi and the people that do the plan checking. i got a copy of the calculations and a copy of the shoring plans. you could not connect them. and i been in this profession for a very long time, almost 40 years. so that was number one. we couldn't make a connection with a bunch of computer -- but you couldn't tie the computer output to the plans. also, we did not have any drawings that illustrated the -- grouting. we met with the geogrout, and he showed us the plan this he had in mind. in the package that the attorneys put together, exhibit e, that shows the grouting for the gmi as proposed, mr. carp said that it's four foot six away, well it's four foot six away from his property line near the back near the elevator lobby but adjacent, very close to his house, for i think 30 feet, near the house. so there's some misrepresentation. so i did subsequent to the filing of the appeal, i did have a conversation with the engineer that did the calculations. there were -- it's not perfect, but i understood it but i had to walk it through with him. maybe mr. pang did the same thing. the only way for me to understand was talk to the engineer that made the calculations and make a connection between the information that owe on the shoring plan. so the whole point is that it's high risk. i'm here to help mr. keith understand the risk and protect his property. so thank you. >> vice president fung: mr. ludky, i did not see, in your letter any indication of concern over the calculations. >> i couldn't understand the calculation. >> vice president fung: no. but you have reviewed it now with the structural engineer that designed -- >> it's not perfect. there are overstresses in some of the members. but that's not -- i'm not going to -- i don't think it's appropriate to get into those details. it's not perfect, but it's better -- you know, it's adequate. i'll say that. it seems to be adequate. >> vice president fung: thank you. >> i have a question also. there was a statement that i had that if this geogrouting were to travel that it actually could be a benefit. could you discuss that. >> i think it's subjective. keith has probably some geogrout underneath the west side of his house from the 2881 project because that was adjacent to his property. if you have differential soil along the length of the property which it's going to entd up which think some of the foundation may have strengthened soil by the -- grouting, some of his foundation under his house may not. the question is how it's going to behave in a an earthquake with differential materials under the house, i can't predict what would happen. but i think if all the construction is successfully executed, then all of the soil that's underneath his foundation will be restrained by the adjacent foundations and retaining walls and drainage if everything is properly built. my point of view in my recommendation to keith is it's a very high risk construction. we have done some due diligence talking to other geotechnical engineers that's had experience with these contractors. nobody's perfect. it depends a lot on who's doing the work. i told keith we would -- again, i understand what dbi said. having continued inspection, having people pay attention every step of the way what's going on would be highly desirable, especially in the shoring and excavation procedure because even the contractor says that personaliation grouting is not perfect. sometimes they find problems so they have to address the problems during excavation. if the material was further away from the property, that would be less of a concern. i -- good construction, so that was my advice to keith. all right? >> we can take rebuttal from the permit holder. >> i'll try to briefly answer mr. ludky's points. he talks about unnamed geotechnical consultants. if they have, i haven't heard of them. he mentioned no names. this process that we went through is very sophisticated, as a design -- in design. the reviewer was david pang of dbi, who's very, very good engineer, who is a very, very good engineer. the gentleman here keep talking about geogrout. geogrout is a company that looked at the project a year ago, for a different structural engineer, mersa in oakland. they are not involved in the project. we chose -- or the specialty subcontractor chose another contractor with bigger, better equipment, that is less seat of the pants type of work, it's electronic, it's very sophisticated. and it's the injection of a very fine -- cement. there's no chemicals involved because of the epa rules. and water. and it's like randy said, if you go to the beach, you excavate sand. at first, it's moist and it will stand up. it's moist and it will stand up. as soon as it dries, it starts to fall apart. so by turning it into this weak concrete or some people call it sandstone you do away with that. the process involves a grid of four foot six on center, not from the property line. at four foot six on center, there's a nozzle that's stuck down and there's a group of people that are trained nozzlemen. there's dials on their machine -- on the top of the rod. the hoses, the exact pressure, how much grout goes into the cement. it's a very safe process. all the trees -- major trees above the grouting process, they're all going to be preserved. we have an arborist, a very sophisticated operation that's going to take place. and these nozzlemen who do the work are very experienced, and there's two of them for each -- one of them watches the dials, the pressure, the amount of water, the amount of cement, the mixture, then there's two or three people on the truck, there's people operating the hoses. it just -- it's way beyond what these gentlemen think it is. they just don't know. but dbi knows because they approved these kind of projects all the time. and it's a safety measure -- some people try to excavate in sand without any shoring and that's when you'll have movement. but when you turn the sand into sandstone you don't have the movement. it's very expensive, very expensive. but that's the -- we're going through. thank you. anything else? any questions? >> thank you. >> thank you. >> any rebuttal from the departments? okay. commissioners, the matter is yours. >> vice president fung: well, commissioners, the question is whether the department erred in issuing this permit. and what has been brought up is questions related to potential risk. i'd rather use that term. it's difficult to assess exactly what the risk is. the problem with underground is that it's not always consistent. and that runs from the borings that are done on a spot basis, limited basis, usually, to ascertain what the profiles are is one thing. however, most people would design these with a great deal of conservativism and i think that's probably what not only the engineers but the department reviewing it. looking at the appellant's letters related to their analysis of the situation, i would say that their concerns are what is potential risk, and less so with a serious deficiency or error made in this particular either design or the issuance of the permit. i'm surprised that one of the things that wasn't brought up is water flow. it was, in one word issued in -- because underground construction like this especially, with this type of grouting, is going to change the water flow, undergroundwater flow in that area. whether it impacts adjacent neighbors or not, it's really hard to determine. but it's a common enough technology these days, it's common enough to use it also for water-proofing purposes when you do certain types of injection. so i think that, at this point, i do not see anything in the appellant's appeal to warrant that we either condition or seriously review further the permit. >> president hwang: i'm similarly inclined to hold the permit. i think i'm sympathetic that as the neighboring adjacent property owner, you have concerns about this massive and complicated project happening right next to you. and i think, you know, raising those concerns puts them on clear notice that should anything come up that impacts your home, you know, you've -- it's already been discussed. i don't think, however, we have enough before us to undo the work from the assessment of the department in issuing the permit. >> i appreciate commissioner fung's analysis in the framing it in terms of the potential risk versus any kind of known flaw. and so i would concur. >> vice president fung: i move to uphold the permit and deny the appeal. >> before a roll call, i just wanted to advise everyone in the room the sheriff has asked that we all exit through the grove street side of the building because of the activities outside. >> vice president fung: grove street? >> grove street. >> vice president fung: how do we get there? >> in the basement. >> vice president fung: that's a long walk. >> exactly. >> thank you. >> we have a motion from the vice president to deny this appeal and uphold the permit. on that motion, president hwang, aye. commissioner hurtado is absent. commissioner lazarus, aye. thank up. 3-0, this permit is upheld. thank you. >> presiden.>> there is no furts before the board. >> president hwang: we're adjourned. >> i think it ae's public and private property. i'm against graffiti. >> who can get it out the most who can be noticed the most. >> i i've seen seniors doing graffiti. >> the city is art, other people who have their names tag -- >> [inaudible] our unit there are 2 sections we are doing one is abating and others are notice of violation to private property. all the utility boxes in public right-of-way we abate. >> we abate calls that come within 48 hours. >> we are a small group in g f graffiti. we don't have enough help. >> i have a group in town down and china town and the north tunnel. [inaudible] the graffiti we abate everything is coming up to the areas now. >> i'm willing to take it on. i think -- >> you are telling me you are ready for this? >> i think so. >> okay. >> there you go. >> all right. >> all right. >> ready to do it. let's go. >> want to get the gray signses this over here and the garbage can and normally we don't do private property since it's on the corridor route you can come with me we will use black. >> we had a lot of changes in the graffiti unit. we do private property if someone moved we remove it and send it to the attorney's office and they take appropriate action. >> damage their property there. it's important to write the color in case they want to say what part of our house you abated the graffiti on. >> using your safety glasses the gloves. >> you got it. >> you know some places we gashi, people appreciate that. you know, a lot of timeses they say, thank you. >> the time where it's visible. a lot of people put it on the ground. >> i like when tourists come and say, you do this for your city and you get paid for that? >> we use the [inaudible] for the holes and the retaining walls. [inaudible]. white on the fire hydrants. fire box red for the fire boxes. our brown for the pg and e poles. >> we are not painters we do our best. >> i'm assuming it has to do with gang activity. >> if it's territorial i mind. >> in case it's gang related and they are marking our territory i would like to paint it over. >> anything with numbers like x iv or x 13 west side mob and the bay view those are gang related. with gang related or profanity we will abait it as soon as possible. >> i consider it an art. there are circles of people that form around it whether or not they should ruin public property. >> this is art work i'm for it. unless it's on someone's property and they don't want it there. judge kids with silver paint expressing their ego needs doesn't belong on our property. >> graffiti is when you don't have permission to write anything on their property. >> eighth street is part of your regular rout? >> yes. >> everyday. >> eighth street. divisidero street. irving street. every block they going through they paint 3 or 4 streets in the block the poles the utility boxes, mailbox. >> thank you. >> okay. >> put the drop cloth. come on around. >> there you go. force for we have to remember we are not painters we abate graffiti. we are abaters not painters. get that out of the way and keep moving. >> how many of these do you do a day? how many poles we do a day? >> yeah. >> depends on the location. may be 20. >> do you like working with the team? >> yes because i'm a people person. i like being outside and interacting with the public and i like the response we get especially from the good job we do in the community. >> goodbye. >> i tried to think about this room as the dream room, where we dream and bring some of those dreams to life. i feel very blessed that i have been able to spend the last 31 years of my life doing it my way, thinking about things better interesting to me, and then pursuing them. there are a lot of different artists that come here to work, mostly doing aerial work. kindred spirits, so to speak. there is a circus company that i have been fortunate enough to work with the last couple of years. i use elements of dance and choreography and combine that with theater techniques. a lot of the work is content- based, has a strong narrative. the dancers have more of a theatrical feel. i think we are best known for our specific work. in the last 15 years, spending a lot of time focusing on issues that affect us and are related to the african-american experience, here in the united states. i had heard of marcus shelby and had been in join his work but never had the opportunity to meet him. we were brought together by the equal justice society specifically for this project. we were charged with beginning work. marquez and i spent a lot of time addressing our own position on the death penalty, our experiences with people who had been incarcerated, family members, friends of friends. pulling our information. beyond that, we did our own research. to create a picture that resonated with humanity. it is the shape of a house. in this context, it is also small and acts like a cell. i thought that was an interesting play on how these people make these adjustments, half to create home. what is home for these people? the home is their cell. people talk a lot about noise -- very noisy in prisons. that is interesting to me. looking at the communication level, the rise of frustration of being caged, wondering, where does redemption fit into the equation here? [singing] i think both of us really believe the death penalty is wrong, and is flawed for many reasons. the list is as long as my arm -- about several others. we feel this is important for both of us, personally, to participate in the debate of this issue in a way that we can help people frame