Original subtitles

Right now, Arizona

is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis.

Seattle has one of the highest cost of living in the country.

Here in Virginia.

1 in 6 families spend more than half of their income on housing,

and there's still not enough of it.

If you thought rent

prices are very high in South Florida, you were right.

New York City is facing a major housing crunch.

Renters in parts of Middle Tennessee say

they are paying 30% more than they did

three years ago.

Inventory has plunged more than 60%.

One of the biggest issues the lack of homes for sale.

Why has a prime location sat vacant for decades?

What's stalling all of these projects?

A proposed development

is facing opposition from surrounding communities.

An affordable project is no longer in the works.

Heated meeting over LA’s plan to address the housing crisis.

Tonight, a battle brewing over an affordable place to live.

Wake up, wake up.

Wake up.

I’m up.

Every day when you come home from school,

you gotta start practicing your shoes, alright?

If you put this on under, that’s gonna keep you warm, OK?

You need your asthma spray or you alright?

Where’s your puff coat at, bud?

Up here somewhere?

-Ma, you know where the creamer is? -No.

You put the powder one in the refrigerator?

You put it in there. I didn’t put it in there.

Okay.

Leave me alone. I’m trying to go back to sleep.

God damn alarm clock of yours.

Well, how do you think I’m supposed to wake up, ma?

Get up and

turn it off.

Being homeless with nowhere to go

it's difficult because you don't have a kitchen

to walk into and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Something just as simple as that.

Everything is complex.

You’re not just having to worry for yourself, you have a child to worry about too.

We gotta get going, bud. It’s 8:06.

2018.

That's when my homelessness began, right there.

The mother of my children...

We were together for 20 years.

And then one morning, she woke up and was like,

I don't want to be with you no more.

She had the Section 8 vouchers in her name.

I didn’t have nothing.

I'm didn’t cry about it.

I held my head up high,

grabbed my son and hugged him.

Let him know that I loved him.

And we're going to get through this together.

We slept on a mat on the floor of a gym,

which is pretty rough.

But I can’t give up because I gotta fight for my son.

Ain’t nobody else gonna do it for him.

-Good morning, Andres! -Good morning!

-I know. Hey, how are you? -Good.

-Got your waterproof pants on today? -Yes.

Alright! And your waterproof jacket? You are ready my friend.

High five.

Have a good day, alright.

If I ever jump in a puddle...

- Go to class, I’ll see you after school. - If you jump in a puddle, you’re good.

Love you, bubba.

When you don’t have the stability of a place to go at the end of the day

It feels broken.

You know what I mean? It just feels broken.

But my ultimate goal is to get permanent housing

because being at the shelter

they still have a deadline for you to be out by.

And every day he's growing,

that room is getting smaller and smaller for all three of us.

Okay.

My name is Flo Kimmerling.

I've lived in San Francisco since 1975.

We moved right here in

this house in the sunset.

We rented it and after a year

came up for sale and we bought it.

I think I'm a fairly liberal.

I'm a Democrat.

I have a strong sense of community.

A young couple that moved in. He's from Ireland.

I love the neighborhood.

I love my neighbors.

I can count on them and they know

they can count on me.

Having a community, I think that's so important

whether you're old or young, just knowing

that there are people around who care.

I don't know what that's doing here.

Do you think they're going to put a tree?

That would be fantastic.

Out here in the Sunset,

it's very convenient.

You can walk to many things.

There’s good public transportation,

but it's very hard to afford a house here.

It's very hard to afford a house in the East Bay.

It's very hard to afford a house in this entire Bay Area.

In December of 2020,

we had a meeting with our supervisor, Gordon Mar.

One person was saying, we really have to figure out

a way to have more affordable housing.

And he said, oh, you're going to get that soon.

You're going to get a lot of it soon.

And so I said, Gordon,

what are you talking about?

And that's all he would say.

It took five minutes.

TNDC presenting affordable

housing, 100 units at 2550 Irving,

across the street.

We had never been told about it.

Nothing.

The state is putting

a lot of pressure on San Francisco, making sure

that the city follows

through on its promises to build dense family

housing in what they call well-resourced neighborhoods.

The whole west side of the city has seen

basically no development for decades.

That has to be the place to build.

That is where all of the big fights are going to be.

They want me to speak.

They want me to speak, right?

You want me to speak?

Yeah!

Okay...

I might be a little mad, so bear with me.

Gordon, you gave the Sunset residents this big, grotesque

giant building, and you said, live with it.

Do you think that was fair?

Leaving us out.

Neighbors found out about the project.

They started organizing. They raised money.

They hired lawyers and got everybody riled up.

Recall Mar! Recall Mar!

What's wrong with working with the community in good faith?

But that's the attitude here in this city.

It's just we're going to stonewall our way through

because these people don't count.

The community doesn't count.

The neighborhood doesn't count.

They're all just NIMBYs.

They're all just selfish.

They're all just people who are hysterical.

This is David versus Goliath.

[City Traffic]

Let there be people.

Let there be people.

Bada bing, bada boom.

Hey man, help us fight

for affordable housing in our city.

30 second signature could mean the difference.

We're trying to get something

on the ballot that’s going to help teachers and middle income people.

It just helps anybody in like, middle and low income.

-And it's just to get the building permits. -Yeah.

Using empty lots, vacant buildings,

anything that we could use for affordable housing.

Thank you so much for taking the time today.

Do you want to help us with a quick signature for affordable housing?

Thank you, miss.

[Speaking Spanish]

Sorry for interruption.

We're trying to press affordable housing.

I’ve been signing petitions for affordable housing

since 1984 and I haven’t seen it.

I know, and we're still in the fight.

This is CBS news, Bay area.

San Francisco's housing shortage is bad

and feels like it's getting worse.

But now housing activists have lost their patience

and they're taking their proposals directly to the voters.

This Affordable Homes Now measure is an amendment to the city charter.

If approved, it would streamline

affordable housing projects by reducing approval times,

which can often be several years down to about 6 to 9 months.

Our elected officials have failed us.

We are going to solve this problem

through direct advocacy.

I remember when I first moved

to San Francisco in 1997,

and I went to go look at my first apartment.

There was a line of 25 people

looking at the exact same apartment,

and I was just like, Holy shit.

We have produced such

little housing over the last 50 years, and that's just caused prices

to skyrocket.

You know, we have plenty of places to build,

but neighborhood groups and local politicians

delay or completely block housing from getting built.

The state has stepped in.

They've passed a piece of legislation

called SB 35, which does have loopholes.

And we are a city that loves to exploit loopholes

to stop housing.

I want to welcome everyone.

We are turning in the petitions for Affordable Homes Now

It’s only taken a little over three years.

But we did finally get it together.

This measure will take a 6 to 9 year process

and shorten it to a 6 to 9 month process.

With Prop D,

if you are proposing a multifamily housing development

that is within the planning code,

it's allowed to be built here.

It's approved.

There will not be endless neighborhood meetings,

endless Planning Commission hearings.

Follows all the rules, it's allowed to be built.

When you remove the uncertainty

and you

shrink the time frame.

You are instantly making it

less expensive to build housing.

Do you want that page?

If we make it less expensive, we know that developers

will build more and more of it.

It will absolutely help address

our undersupply of housing.

Nice to meet ya.

-Thanks for coming. -Yeah.

This has the potential to be a watershed moment

for the next 50 years of San Francisco.

All right.

Let's line up for a picture.

All right.

Good work everyone.

[Contemplative music]

We have a housing crisis today

because a vast swaths of people can't find

an affordable place to live in a community of their choice.

And not just by a small measure,

but by a very large measure.

It's a journey

that's been decades in the making.

In the couple decades after World War II,

there was a gigantic housing boom in the United States.

Part of that was driven by government constructing a bunch of roads

and providing a lot of financing for housing,

for example, through the GI Bill,

which helped people pay for new houses.

Around the 1970s,

America wanted to put the brakes on development.

You saw rural and ex-urban people

decide that they wanted to preserve nature,

and you saw the suburban, middle class people decide that they didn't

want to have apartment buildings near them

where poor people would live.

There was this stigma around

apartment buildings and urban living,

and instead of making room to build up,

voters and their elected officials

started to engage in zoning restrictions.

These are the laws

that are mostly controlled by local governments

that decide what types of things can be built and where.

So it's usually referred to also as land use.

What we see over the course of the 20th century

is that zoning regulations become much more

about what types of people we want living near us.

And because of economic deprivation to a lot of minority communities.

Over time, those regulations build up to the point where in many places

it's illegal to build anything but a large single family home.

And sometimes people hear the idea of single family zoning

and they think that, like, I like single family homes,

I want to live in one or I do live in one, but single family zoning isn't

permitting single family homes.

It's making it illegal to build anything else.

The problem with this is that you have

all this demand still building.

You have more and more jobs being created

in New York City, in Seattle,

in Boston and LA.

But the number of housing units

that are permitted to be built is staying pretty small.

When we don't build enough market rate housing,

when we don't build enough affordable housing,

you just don't get a housing affordability for anyone.

[Protest Crowd, Car Horns]

Build more homes!

Build more homes!

[Indistinct yelling, jeering]

[Indistinct crowd chant]

[Birds chirping]

Let's start with Robert, please.

When I saw the rendering of this building,

I was horrified.

And this is a massive wall

that goes from 26th to 27th Avenue,

leaving my backyard in shadow.

I’m for the project,

but in a much smaller scale.

It is way too big for our neighborhood.

I've seen what can happen when you have buildings that are out of

scale with the rest of the neighborhood, and that, it dominates.

The shadows can be a problem.

And even things like transit are told

by the MTA there's no more capacity.

They can't add more trains to the grid, and they can't add more busses.

They can't add more stuff.

Where are the people going to go?

The total lack of parking is high on my list.

You can't park in this neighborhood

and they don't want to allow any parking.

I absolutely welcome the families.

The challenges if you introduce 400 new people,

you cannot disregard

the enjoyment of a neighborhood,

the lifestyle of the people who live in the neighborhood.

You have to make commensurate

investments in the community

to make this project successful.

From the very beginning,

we've said we oppose as proposed.

We should have this opportunity

for extremely low income,

very low income and low income people,

as well as previously homeless,

to live in our neighborhood.

It should be their neighborhood too.

But we came up with a modified proposal.

Less floors, less people, more parking.

And more analysis

of things like a shadow effect and traffic...

before you go and you build a building.

There has to be a middle ground.

Yes. We welcome anyone to stand shoulder

to shoulder with us in the most important fight for our lives.

2.5 million houses need to be built

in California.

And statistics are one thing,

but the real issue is what does that mean

for working class people in California?

[Punk music]

My name is Jay Bradshaw.

I'm the executive secretary treasurer for the NorCal carpenters union.

Covering 38,000 members, hard working

men and women working in construction every day.

The lack of housing at every level is crushing our very membership.

The working class has been shoved out of the centers, really.

And it’s not that everyone needs to live in the urban core,

but it's not even an option.

You have to get on the road as a working carpenter at 3:30

or 4 in the morning, in most cases,

just to get to the job site.

You look at overall in the state of California,

over half of construction workers

are on some kind of public assistance.

When you look at the cost of housing,

it is completely out of the reach in most cases for working people.

Workers are bearing the brunt

of what's happening beyond their control economically.

And so we are all in

to do something about that.

Tonight, we are holding something that we are calling

the Hoodies and Hardhats fundraiser

to get tech CEOs

and the Northern California Carpenters Union

to talk about how we can work together to win.

-Nice to meet you. -John.

-Jay Bradshaw. -I appreciate your leadership.

Thank you.

I've got single women carpenters

that can't hit the jobs now

because they've been pushed so far out that they literally

can't drop their kids off of childcare early enough.

And no one's talking about it, right.

Everybody I’ve talked to, like in every layer of society.

The core issue seems to be housing costs.

It drives everything, man.

And it's crazy.

But anyway, I just thank you from us.

-Thank you. -This is great.

-Appreciate what you're doing. -Of course man. Of course.

No, I really appreciate being here.

Let me start there.

There should naturally be coalitions like this forming.

Like, hey, we recognize that we're going to be

allies on 85 to 90% of things.

-There's no purity test. -That's right.

The real thing is

I drove from Oakland running late

to get to this great event tonight.

I don't know how many thousand folks

that are unhoused I drove by.

And the fact is, we can't become callous to that.

Every working person in my organization

is a paycheck away from that.

And, you know, they can play games at City Hall.

But that's the real truth.

This is a righteous fight.

This is a fight for the city,

but it's a fight for communities far beyond the city.

No doubt.

Before I left the house,

I was working and I thought I going to be able to

have a good career under my belt as a carpenter.

My baby momma wasn’t a good codependent.

She wasn’t very supportive, so.

Eventually, I showed up to work late too many times.

And then they ended up firing me.

And then, after that,

I was just doing whatever it took to put something on the table.

I was just thinking,

man, I got to do what I got to do

to make our living situation better than this.

[Telephone ringing]

[Telephone ringing]

[Answering machine beep]

You have reached the Mayor’s Office of Housing Development.

Record your message at the tone.

When you were finished, hang up or press pound

for more options.

I just want to work and support my family.

I just want to work and support my family.

When you're homeless,

work is almost impossible as a single parent.

But I want to see my child do well.

I want to see him grow up to be better than me.

[Telephone ringing]

It's up to you to make the change.

[Telephone ringing]

Pick up the phone and call these numbers

and figure out these different resources.

[Telephone ringing]

Because if you don't do it,

you're going to be stuck for who knows how long.

If you are in immediate need of shelter,

please hang up and dial 311.

Some people would just rather move away than

continue to struggle living here.

I think, overall, the city has been there more for me than anything or anyone.

How’s it going?

I was trying to see if we got any mail here.

If me and my mom got any mail.

-I’ll check for you. -Ah, thanks.

[Telephone ringing]

[Telephone ringing]

Hello. You have reached the housing authority

of the city and County of San Francisco.

This call may be recorded for quality assurance.

Everybody goes through ups and downs.

Some people's ups and downs are more intense than others.

[Answering machine beep]

Your call is being transferred.

Please hold.

I love this place and I don't think I'll ever be leaving San Francisco.

It’s home.

Even while homeless

San Francisco is my home.

If you are an applicant,

please press three.

For general inquiry,

please press four.

To hear these menu options again,

please press zero or stay on the line.

For an overview of the current homeless

services of San Francisco, please press one.

Thanks for holding.

You’re second in line and we will be with you shortly.

For general Section 8 information,

or if you want to know your status on a waitlist,

please press one.

For ESC’s programs and services,

please press one.

Please leave your contact telephone number and our staff will return your call

within 24 hours.

People often confuse

who the real forces

are behind the housing crisis.

The power is not being wielded by, you know, 20 somethings

that want to get an apartment for $1,500.

The power is wielded by homeowners who have made building in their areas

not even a question at the lips of local officials.

Partially because

so few people vote in these elections

that angering just ten, 20, 100, 200,

a few thousand people could mean the end of your political career.

We need to stop them from upzoning

and building and building everywhere,

because we need our elected officials

to say no to the developers.

See if you hear anyone tonight say,

gosh, I can't wait for 12 story buildings across the street from my house.

Not in my backyard.

That's the response tonight.

How many people are opposed to this project?

Most of the wealth of the middle class in the United States

is in their own houses.

People's houses serve as their nest egg.

So there is a fundamental paradox here.

We want housing to be affordable to young people,

but we want middle class old people to be rich.

My property represents 75% of my net worth.

This will decrease the value

of $250,000 to $400,000 homes.

Is there any kind of a proposal

to redeem us if our property value goes down?

-No! -This is bullshit!

Opposing change to more housing

does not mean your community stays the same.

It means your community gets more expensive.

[Birds chirping]

I want to thank all of you for making the time to meet with us.

We are fully committed to a robust community engagement process.

And I want to clarify that 20%,

so that means two out of every ten units, will be targeted for families

that are coming from direct experience of homelessness.

I love the height of the building.

I completely disagree that this is out of character with the neighborhood.

We could have 10 or 15 stories that would be better.

Build it taller if you can. Thanks.

Thank you.

The building's too tall.

We need to lower it.

In every meeting, we raise our concerns.

Gordon Mar has pointed out

that he is going to negotiate with TNDC,

and we don't see anything happen.

Why does he keep lying to us?

Yeah, I really want to thank MSNA,

The Sunset Community Alliance,

and Sunset Residents Association for all of your advocacy

and organizing to preserve the wonderful quality of life

that we all love here in the Sunset for many years.

You know, 2550 Irving is using SB-35, Senator Wiener’s

state bill that allows for a streamlined process

and it removes a lot of opportunities for local input or appeals.

But we are asking you to stand with us

so that it's a livable situation.

You know, they don't even respond to me anymore when I email.

They have shut us out.

They are totally radio silent.

We need you to stand up for us. Please.

Gordon Mar is in a tough situation

because he's said that he's pro housing.

Ran on supporting affordable housing in district four.

Yet he has all these constituents who don't want it as well.

And so he's trying to broker

a compromise and nobody's happy.

[Dramatic Music]

Proposition D is the measure backed by Mayor London Breed.

She says it would cut the time to build affordable

housing developments from six years to six months.

But supporters of a competing initiative,

Proposition E, say theirs is

what's needed to address the bureaucratic process

that's standing in the way of more affordable housing.

So now we have Prop E on the ballot.

To the average voter, the two propositions

seem almost identical.

They would both streamline

the housing approval process.

But if you read the fine print,

Prop E includes some things that make it

more difficult and expensive to build housing.

Can you tell the difference between

item D and item E here?

Because I don't think most people will, and I think that's intentional.

People behind Prop D saw Prop E

as a poison pill, intended to confuse

people and lessen the chances of winning.

-Hey. -So this is the infamous bloody lot

that we all keep talking about.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -I’ve never actually been to it.

This is it, right?

Right.

So do you think we should have, you know,

cars or, you know, apartment buildings here?

What do you think? 490 units?

-Nice to see you. -Yeah.

Mr. Creedon, how are you?

I'm trying to get the mayor here.

Hey, Joel, thanks so much for coming today.

Where’s the Chronicle?

I heard some talk of competing measures.

Yeah, it's being heard at the board.

We're hoping that maybe there's a way to not have six votes.

But quite frankly, I kind of look forward to that public debate.

Charter amendment we're here to talk about today.

It is a contrast between

another competing charter amendment.

One is pro-housing and one is anti-housing.

One is about leadership

and one is about gamesmanship.

It's about stopping housing.

It's about frustrating and stymieing progress rather than shaping it.

Here lies the problem right behind us.

Politics at its absolute worst.

Over 400 units,

including affordable units

that could have happened at this location.

Affordable Homes Now is fair.

It stops the politics.

It stops the drama at the Board of Supervisors.

It stops the dysfunction.

Let's get housing built now.

Well, thank you very much.

People come to San Francisco

and they are surprised that they're not

a lot of black restaurants or a thriving

African American community.

When you talk about the history of this city

as being a place that is innovative and creative.

It's changed considerably.

Because we've not produced enough housing.

This is a deep crisis for California.

We're short literally millions of homes.

We're almost bottom of the barrel among the 50 states in terms

of comparing the number of homes

versus the number of people.

California used to do it

the old fashioned way.

As our population grew,

we would just build more homes.

In the 50s and 60s, we were building 300,000 plus homes per year

for a state of 15 million people.

And then fast forward, state of 40 million people.

We're building like 80,000 homes per year.

And now we're paying the price because some of the very people

that we want in our city,

working class people, LGBTQ people,

immigrants, young people who are creative,

a lot of them are getting pushed out

because we have tried to freeze our city in amber.

[Voicemail Beep]

Hey, Carlos.

This is Spencer from Compass Family Services.

Reminding you to please turn

in the materials for the opportunity

at 681 Florida Street in the Mission.

Think it could be a really good place for you and Andres.

And they have some new units for families.

So please give me a call back when you get a chance.

There used to be a store right here on the corner.

Right there?

And the guy used to play me and uncle Ton on Monday Night Football.

[Andres] Oh really?

-And if we lost the game, guess what? -What?

-We have to sweep his store. -Oh my God.

But if we won the game, we get a soda and a bag of chips.

Oh!

[Andres giggles]

You guys get to pick?

But it’s not a store no more. Look, I don’t know what it is now.

Looks like it maybe might be a flower shop or something.

I think so.

Yeah.

A lot has changed around here.

Okay.

Who needs a phone?

I got it right here with me.

Oh!

What is the best Mexican candy you ever had?

The coconut one.

Get a bag of chips, not candy.

-Please! -No. Pick a bag of chips.

I started selling drugs at a young age, like 15.

We didn't have any options.

We weren't trying to rob people and hurt people.

So we decided to sell drugs.

After I had my daughter,

I didn't sell drugs no more.

I started to want to get a job and do better.

Times change. People change.

Makes me want to thrive. Makes me want to do better.

I knew kids in all these houses.

I played in all these houses before.

Your nana, Carmen.

-And your grandpa, my dad. -Yeah.

They used to live in this house over here.

-Right here? -Yeah. This one right here.

But this big tree wasn’t here before.

-833. -833.

My dad, he used to own this house.

My dad and his brother, Uncle Henry.

-Uncle Henry? -Yep.

And we used to talk to everybody from-

We used to have the window open.

We would be talking to everybody from right here.

-Like our friends would come -[Andres laughs]

And we'd be talking to them

And you know, Uncle Tony would be throwing the ball like this.

He would throw the tennis ball

To the window. And to the friends down here.

They’re trying to catch it

and throw it back up to him.

You’ll probably break the window.

The backyard is big. Backyard is real big.

-Turn back into a jungle. -Nice too.

Couple of fruit trees back there.

Got a plum tree, a lemon tree.

Yeah, a lot of memories here.

A lot of good,

A lot of bad memories too.

Yeah.

It'd be nice to have our own house like this

Yeah.

That’s why you gotta work hard at it

There are two main things

that people tend to get wrong about homelessness.

The first is the idea that homeless

people are extremely mobile

and move around to find the best place to be homeless in.

When in fact, 70% of the people

who are homeless in San Francisco,

were in San Francisco when they became homeless.

They became homeless because they were priced out of their homes.

Homelessness in the Bay area

is not correlated with a recession and downturn.

It's actually correlated with prosperity.

The better off we're doing as a region,

the more people are falling into homelessness

because the correlation

is so tight with rents and affordability.

The second thing

that people often get wrong about homelessness

is that it's primarily caused by drugs

and mental illness.

But when you look at the areas that have

the highest rates of drugs and mental illness,

those places tend to have lower total homelessness.

The reason is because

they have very cheap housing.

If you're not sure

that you're safe where you're sleeping,

if you have to constantly be vigilant because you're worried

about someone stealing your belongings or assaulting you,

that can lead to all kinds

of other mental health issues down the road.

We have to think about homelessness

feeding these other parallel problems

rather than the reverse.

Everything is connected to housing.

You want to put homeless individuals

into housing first before anything else.

If it be case management, if it be drug rehab.

Once you provide someone a stable roof,

they have a higher likelihood

of having more positive outcomes.

We moved in about a year and a half ago

and it was disclosed by the seller,

I think the way he put it is there is talk of something

going on across the street.

And we've been looking

at the housing throughout the Bay area,

and on more than one occasion it was places

that would be in proximity to low income housing.

That itself was not a concern to me,

so I knew about that.

I had no idea about the PCE in the ground.

Nobody knew.

To sell any land

on a commercial strip in this city, you have to number one,

check the soil to see

can it bear the weight of the building you propose.

And number two,

you have to check for toxicity.

And they were very surprised to find

that the land is highly toxic

with something called Tetrachloroethylene, or PCE,

which is a neurotoxin and a carcinogen.

It starts to sound like,

oh, the association's just going

to find new things to throw at us to say

why we can't build the building,

but we just, we literally had no idea.

It helps that we have some professionals in the neighborhood.

We were able to get some expert advice on what it meant.

This isn't fabricated data.

It is really there.

And we feel that the proposal

they've made for mitigating it

is not sufficient.

I don't want a little bit of cancer.

I want it gone.

The developer in this situation did the same thing

that every developer does, which is test the groundwater,

test the soil.

The state comes in.

The Department of Toxic Substances Control.

And in this case, you know, they found what you find in cities,

which is that there had been contamination.

Every site on these commercial boulevards

in San Francisco have had dry cleaners,

gas stations, slaughterhouses, going back generations.

And so there's lingering contaminants

on most commercial properties.

It's toxic here,

and it should be cleaned up

before they build the building.

It's not a NIMBY issue. It's not a YIMBY issue.

It's a health issue.

There are two big legal factors

driving up the cost and difficulty

of building new housing.

The first one is actual

legal restrictions on building housing,

which includes zoning, parking requirements, etc.

The second is environmental review,

where if you don't want an apartment building in your neighborhood,

you can demand that they do years

of cumbersome legal paperwork

that often makes it financially untenable

for the developer and leads to its cancellation.

Water out

then you slide the rebar cage into it.

And then the rebar cage has hooks in on top

that would then tie into a different way,

more cost effective

and I think it's a better process where they go

and they reinforce or, improve the soil.

That's a different method.

We have time for one or two more questions.

I have a question about the chemicals.

You say you’re a member of this community and you’re concerned.

Why aren’t you insisting that they clean up the toxins before you’ll build?

The levels have been proven to be high, but nothing’s being done about it.

I don’t believe that the DTSC has stated that the levels have been found to be high.

There aren’t any more dry cleaners, so...

We've gone through

an extensive process with the Department of Toxic Substances Control.

For the future residents, but do nothing for the current residents.

That's what you're saying.

You're trying to double talk.

I'm not trying to double talk.

Are you willing to protect us

immediate neighbors who some already have consequences,

which they're not sure are attributed to the toxin.

This opens a pathway that was not in the original agreement

for PCE to enter the foundation of the building.

Are you going to get more funding or are we going to have a half built project?

I don't know why we talk about hypotheticals.

What do you envision,

that might help increase the availability of parking?

Why did you guys change to all concrete?

Isn't that bad for the environment?

Are those tied together with rebar?

Because if they're tied together with rebar-then so-

-Yeah. -Okay, so.

And no one has come to test.

So you're willing to go ahead and put a plastic sheet.

Where do you see that that SVE would not be in the best interest of us.

I want you to tell us exactly where we can find that written.

I will follow up with you.

-Yes, please. -Thank you all.

I felt like we were prepared.

I mean, I just feel like

to them, we don't count.

And I think actually that got through to them.

The building counts, their plans count.

We, the neighbors, don't count.

But I haven't given up the fight.

We're going to be a thorn in their side.

We're going to bring up things that we feel are relevant.

And there's still a lawsuit.

Ready?

All right.

So here's the difference between Prop D as in David

and Prop E as in Edward.

And I'm probably going to use that a lot because sometimes,

D and E, when you say it quickly sound alike,

Prop D as in David will actually get housing built.

Prop E as in Edward

is about maintaining the status quo.

100% affordable housing

projects under Prop D are streamlined.

If they're following all of the city's rules,

it gets approved in 6 to 9 months.

Once the Board of Supervisors starts getting to vote,

that opens up neighbors to be able to do

nuisance environmental lawsuits

like what happened to 469 Stevenson Street.

The reality is that

it takes too long to build housing,

and housing is too damn expensive.

And I think on those points, we probably agree.

How we approach streamlining is really

where we have a point of disagreement.

Affordability is a key

component to proposition E,

not just affordability in terms of,

you know, construction cost,

but critically, affordability

for the people who will occupy that housing.

You can't find that in proposition D like dog.

You'll find it in E like Edward.

We need to incentivize actual construction

to build more housing in the city.

Thank you.

Now, it might get my capitalist credentials revoked after this,

but you can't rely solely on the real estate investment market.

Frankly, Prop D starts to change entirely

the definition of what's affordable.

Prop E's campaign

seems to have a casual relationship with the truth,

and seems to put things out there that are just

factually not accurate.

30% of zero is what Rudy?

-Zero. -Right.

Oh, I took his punchline.

The numbers do not work

and the Board of Supervisors knows it.

And so do you, which is disappointing.

I'm just not that cynical, Todd.

-I actually believe it... Let me finish

-Sure. Sorry. -Thank you.

Everyone wants the most affordability

that is economically feasible.

I don't think we can rely solely on market

rate developers to build us out of this.

Prop D will actually

streamline 100% affordable housing.

Proposition E has brought together a huge coalition.

That's why ultimately it will prevail and we'll be better off for it.

Alright.

Thank you very much for coming out.

Thank you, JK, Todd, and Rudy.

When you say the trickle down isn't true, you're talking about him

that he's not going to get to live in San Francisco.

And he's going to get kicked out just like my father, who's 77,

still working in San Francisco for over 40 years.

This whole Prop E is complete theater

unless you build market rate housing.

Otherwise, the people who have their rent control,

-you know, the people who -We need to get rid of rent control.

That's really the whole problem.

Get rid of rent control completely

-and give everybody who needs it a voucher. -I live here

for 38 years, I can say.

Otherwise, I’d be on the street.

I care about staying in my home.

Often people look around their cities

and say like, oh, I feel like I see a lot of construction.

I feel like I see big luxury

condo buildings or apartment buildings going up.

And that's true.

When you have the regulatory environment

that we have now, it becomes extremely difficult to build

anything but these highly expensive properties.

And so a project which

without these kinds of barriers

would have been affordable to a middle income family.

Now it's unaffordable to basically anyone

who doesn't make a much higher salary.

We are creating a sorting mechanism

where people who have economic

wherewithal can live in certain communities, and those who don't

have to leave the region, they have to find other housing options.

And it creates a vicious cycle

of migration where certain people keep on bidding up

the rents and the home prices

and pushing other people out.

And that breaks along

racial lines, and teachers and nurses

and other core essential service workers

being forced into these brutally long commutes.

Don’t hit someone’s house.

Your legs must start hurting.

Mine get so bad so easily.

Oh my god!

Me and my brother Tony and my sister Amanda.

My little brother Miguel.

We were all at home

just chilling, being kids.

And the next thing you know,

we hear a knock at the door.

[knocking on chair]

San Francisco Police department open up.

Got a truancy warrant.

You know, my mom and dad weren’t there.

They weren't there.

Yeah, it was horrible, man.

They took us away from our parents. And...

I remember my dad didn’t tell my mom.

Oh the kids are okay. They’re fine.

They’re with your mom and your sister.

And my dad was content with that.

But he could he could have actually done something about it, you know?

I mean, like, he could've really just

cleaned up and got sober.

And got his kids back but...

Eventually he died from

from just continuing to continue

to keep using heroin.

I vowed to myself at a very young age

that I wasn't going to be like my father.

I wasn't going to be absent.

It's been an odd situation for Andres.

I for sure am dizzy.

He didn’t ask for none of this.

Oh yeah, and I can't see anything.

His mom doesn't call him.

She goes months at a time without even talking him.

A long time since I did this.

It's had an impact on his behavior.

Oh, it’s wet! The slide was wet!

Andres! Come take a swing.

At the beginning of the school year,

he wouldn't stay in the classroom.

He was acting out.

Every day I come pick him up for school, there’s an issue.

Keep your eye on the ball.

The school just told me

that my son was missing.

I’m trying.

And when they found him, he was in a bungalow

with the flat screen TV destroyed, paint on the wall,

Put one foot here.

One foot on the line like that...

facing that way.

But I think having the stability of an apartment

is going to help him academically the most.

There's no worries about having to check out in a week

or what day do we have to leave there...

because even at the Mayfair, they still have a deadline

for you to be out by.

We're still on the waiting list.

And I tried to call back

That was a home run right there, baby.

My son deserves a right to be a kid,

and I will never be quiet when it comes to my children,

because I didn't have that as a kid.

I didn't have my parents fighting for me.

He's my light at the end of the tunnel.

He's the one that I do it for the most.

Having low-income housing is not inherently bad,

but it can be a shock to the system

if you change a large number

of people in a short amount of time.

Typically, if I’m hiring people, I try to hire them,

you know, one at a time so that as they come in,

they can learn the local

social norms and adjust to that.

If, say, they decided, well,

all 90 units are going to be filled by drug addicts

who aren't interested in getting off of the drugs,

that will be a huge negative

impact to the neighborhood.

On the other hand,

if it ends up being filled with people who just don't happen

to be as fortunate as I am,

but are interested

in becoming part of the sunset,

the impact could be minimal

and it's so hard to tell

before the building goes up,

before the people move in which way it's going to go.

Is it my understanding that there's a cut off time in which funding has to take place?

What are our plans to either delay it or to kill the project?

We are working with our attorney to delay any way we can.

But the thrust is to focus on the compromise design.

That's where we are right now and that's what we're pushing hard for:

two tracks.

Toxins and the compromised design.

Delay delay delay.

Housing delayed is housing denied.

That kind of rhetoric sort of has some truth to it.

Flo Kimmerling is a professor of language

at San Francisco State University.

She's a great communicator.

I think that her heart's in the right place.

And that's true of a lot of the people that are delaying

the housing in San Francisco.

Would you like a poster to put up in your house?

Poster?

Welcome.

I'm thrilled to see you here.

I'm the president of the Mid-Sunset Neighborhood Association.

The problem today that we're going to be

exploring is Tetrachloroethylene. PCE.

So that's the goal of tonight

for us to really learn from the experts.

PCE is linked to various forms of cancer

and also to neurological diseases such as Parkinson's.

It will be banned in California

for dry cleaners to use

by the end of this year.

Which you may not know though

is that the same toxic gas that’s in the soil

has also been found in the air inside of six homes

that are the closest to the former

Police Credit Union building.

So it's clear that at least some families

in the neighborhood, unknowingly, had been breathing

this dangerous contamination for decades.

We have to leave our window open

in the very cold days to keep the house ventilated.

DTSC keeps saying that they need to test

again, and again, but

nothing is done to clean up the toxins.

They suggested that if the level gets 2.5 times higher,

only then will

they take any actions for my home.

I have two children.

One 20 year old, one 18 year old.

I brought them into this world

to live in this house their entire life.

Imagine how I feel as a mother when I found out.

The guilt that I had forced my own children.

I'm not asking for much.

I just want the toxic vapor taken out of my home so I can live

with my family without getting poisoned

by cancer causing chemicals.

Thank you.

I want the house to be built,

and I especially want it to be done safely.

And I'm directing this question to you, Supervisor Mar,

because you are the one person in this group who matters.

Are you going to make sure

that this is properly remediated?

I mean, I'm the district supervisor,

so I'm not, you know, the head of the Cal EPA

or the Department of Toxic Substances Control.

You do have a position that would,

you know, where you could get the media interested in this.

I'm wondering if you would be willing to do that. Yes.

Yes. I will commit to working with MSNA

on a media plan to raise the visibility of this problem,

and I think that would help put pressure on DTSC to...

stay active.

You know, this is an extremely important issue,

for the Sunset District community and especially for the neighbors

and the businesses on and around the 25 Irving Street block.

And I really want to thank the Mid Sunset Neighborhood Association

for all of their advocacy.

I fully support their demands.

So we don't really know how high

the highest levels are underneath

former Miracle Cleaners.

People in this room live in these homes right here.

We have been breathing in this odorless

air for decades without knowing.

They have the power.

They have the technology

to really do something called a deep clean up,

soil vapor extraction, which is a lot less expensive.

But if we have to make a choice

between clean slow and build slow,

or build fast and leave it dirty,

we’d prefer the slow process.

All right, Sacramento and Laguna.

So I gotta go up this street?

No, it’s that way.

It’s the other side of the park.

Washington that way.

Remind me your name?

Good to see you. Thank you for coming out.

You too. Of course.

I'm so glad to see

all of you out here on a Saturday morning.

There, of course, are so many other things

that you could do, but you're here

because you care about the future of this city.

We have an opportunity to win.

We really do.

It's like, right there, I can feel it.

I can feel the momentum and the energy.

We have to make sure that we're working

just as hard as those

who are working hard on the other measure,

which basically will stop housing in San Francisco.

So let's get out there.

Let's win on D, let's make San Francisco better for everyone.

Voters are

weighing in on dueling housing measures.

Proposition D is backed by Mayor London Breed.

She says it would cut the time to build affordable housing development.

If you just look at the names, they sound very, very similar.

Hi, my name is Danny.

I just wanted to take one minute to talk to you about Prop D.

There you go.

Thank you.

I hope you join me in voting for

Prop D and against Prop E this November.

Prop D is supported by Habitat for Humanity, Greater San Francisco.

All right. Can I leave this with you?

All right.

I'm already aware of Prop D, actually.

Are you going to support it?

-Yeah. -Awesome.

And we're also asking you to vote No on E.

-He is egrious. -Elitist, elitist.

-Elitist? Okay. Yeah. -Elite.

I told Andres that we were going to be moving to this brand new place on Florida St.

Me and my mom went over there, did another intake.

I did that shit the same day, tried to get the process done.

And then, they offered it to us and

they’re telling us about the place.

They said they would get back to us.

After calling so many times, I was surprised.

A litte bit of time goes by.

And I didn't get a call back, so I called them.

I'm like, yeah, so what happened?

You know, we did the application.

You guys told us the spot was ours.

I'm trying to figure out when we can move in.

Oh, Mr. Rojas, you don’t qualify

for this apartment anymore.

How don't I qualify for this apartment?

I just did everything y’all tell me to do with my paperwork.

My documents. Like...

Like what do you mean?

Oh, you make too much money.

How do I make too much money?

I only work eight days a month.

How is it possible

that I make too much money?

Apparently, this specific building is only for families on welfare.

What if we want to not be on welfare?

So then I was like, man, I’m ready to get up out this hotel.

This hotel, this fucking hotel room is getting smaller by the day

cause my son's growing every day because he's a growing, thriving child.

Know what I mean?

Just like the riff raff, man. The runaround.

If you're telling me I ain’t going to be moving there,

how much longer is it going to be until I get placement?

I don't think I have really had a moment

where I've told myself that I can't keep doing this.

Like, I feel like I'm the only parent there.

And my son needs me.

Like sometimes he misses his mom

and he has emotional moments and I feel for him.

So I get emotional with him.

Know what I mean?

And I try not to cry in front of him,

but at the same time, I let him know it's okay to cry.

It's not that I'm hurting,

but I understand that he's hurting.

It's a different pain,

different kind of pain.

You know what man?

I'm pick this phone up, I’m make this call again.

I’m make this call and see what's going to happen.

They talk to us

I think as if they think we're idiots,

that can be pacified.

They haven't shown me that they're trustworthy,

that they're concerned about the neighbors.

They kept this whole project from the neighborhood

when, by law, they were supposed

to involve the community in it.

The idea is don't get the community involved.

Just do it.

Because they're just a pack of trouble.

We are at a distinct disadvantage

because this is a housing issue

for a lot of people,

and, it's not an environmental issue.

And environmental issues are looked at as,

you know, a fly in the ointment

for getting housing built.

And luckily there's an election coming up.

And so suddenly...

- People are interested. - Candidates are interested in this.

They are under the gun to deliver a quota or else.

And the or else they lose all their power.

-I hear what you're saying. -You know...

I'm not normally very sympathetic

to the cause on their side, but

but this is a tough spot.

If I were in their shoes,

I don't know what I would do either.

Here's what it all boils down to.

Director Eric Shaw said

I don't want to negotiate with Flo Kimmerling.

I don't want to negotiate with the Mid Sunset

Neighborhood Association because if I negotiate with them,

I'm going to have to work with every other community

every time we want to build an affordable housing.

So we're not negotiating with her

and we're not negotiating with them,

and then we won't have to negotiate with anybody else.

So there's the whole point.

We don't want to negotiate.

We want to tell you what's going to be

so if they squash us,

everybody else will say, listen, look,

everything they did and they got bloodied.

Let's just bow down and let them do what they want.

I think that's the bottom line.

The political pressure is don't you dare negotiate

with them, even if it's reasonable,

because we don't want to have to negotiate with anybody else.

And everybody is watching.

This is the first one on the West Side.

Everybody is watching.

So we may go down bloodied.

We may go down bloodied.

It's election day

and the votes are being counted.

The polls just closed across the state.

The issue of housing figures prominently on this year's ballot.

Voters are increasingly being asked to make the decisions

as faith in elected officials has waned.

Heading into election night,

I feel really good about the campaign we ran.

I feel really good about the messaging.

Polling looks really good,

but there's only one poll that matters.

That's the voters on Election Day.

So fingers crossed some of the numbers hold.

I want to thank all the volunteers

who made those phone calls, knocked on those doors,

held up the signs and really aggressively

fought for what we need in San Francisco.

We are going to win. I am confident.

[Dramatic violin music]

We're getting the first results

of several propositions on the ballot.

And right now, No leads Yes.

And this has been a really ferocious battle.

We'll see what happens between D and E,

but it could play a big role

in how much affordable housing gets built in future years.

It's super close right now.

Prop D, the measure to fast track affordable

housing continues to lose votes.

I expect this one will confuse a lot of people.

Yes and no.

Separated by less than 3%.

Prop E was not a good faith effort

to like create more housing.

Prop E’s only goal was to sink Prop D

and we'll find out.

Maybe they were successful.

Some new returns in San Francisco.

The city's two major housing propositions

are both on pace to fail.

Proposition D, narrowly losing with just under

51% voting no.

Prop E is leaning even further toward failure,

with nearly 55% saying no.

All of this comes as San Francisco

is facing a looming state deadline

to build tens of thousands of new,

affordable units in the next decade.

We've obviously got a lot to digest

as the results keep rolling in.

San Francisco

is the most expensive place to build housing in

perhaps the country, and the reason is the politics.

And so when groups make an effort to change that,

it can be frustrating

when they fail, which they often do.

And that's the reason why

the city hasn't been able to produce

enough housing to bring down rents

or home prices.

In San Francisco,

we have adopted a way of working in development

where we second guess our decisions

again and again and again.

We make a plan that says, yes, we're ready

to do dense, affordable housing.

But then when that project comes forward,

we start from scratch.

We say well, do we really want it?

Or maybe we don't.

And there can be many years of many hearings

and many community meetings essentially revisiting

the same fundamental question,

do we actually want this density?

The real root of this problem

is that we have made land

use decisions solely the responsibility of local governments.

Local governments do not have the incentive to care about

regional economic growth,

about the effect of housing on wages.

These things are outside the purview

of what a local zoning board can do.

The number one solution has to be

state level policies to encourage

housing supply,

and that includes public housing.

And that includes up zoning.

And that includes making environmental review

less cumbersome.

San Francisco is a dystopian

preview of what other cities are going to look like

if they allow themselves to go down the same path.

We need an all of the above approach.

Just build more housing.

In the case of 2550 Irving Street,

it's gone to the San Francisco Superior Court,

where the neighbors lost in their efforts to block the project.

Then it went to the Board of Supervisors

for the funding of the project.

Again, the opponents lost.

And then, you know, finally, this is the last ditch effort

to try to block it at the Board of Appeals.

And it could be a close vote.

What we're asking for will cause some delay,

because that's the way DTSC works.

The problem is Jackson from TNDC

keeps getting up and saying any delay will kill the project.

That's their mindset.

Rather than neighbors are trying

to make the affordable housing work for everybody.

We are now moving on to item number seven,

Mid Sunset Neighborhood Association

versus department building inspection, planning

department approval, subject property 2550 Irving Street.

Appealing the issuance to the Tenderloin

Neighborhood Development Corporation of a demolition permit.

President, commissioners and board staff, thank you for the opportunity

to offer testimony as you consider

appeal number 22092.

We do consider these levels to be low

and not an immediate risk.

For example, the risk posed by indoor

air concentrations at these two homes is about 1% of normal

ambient risk of breathing outdoor urban air in California.

So basically, your testimony indicates that I have

a higher risk of getting cancer

walking down the streets of San Francisco

than directly from this project.

Correct.

It is much lower than background risk.

Does this project present a clear and present danger

to those people living

in the immediate area around this project?

No, sir. I guess you'll have to take

1/3 of your professionals word against another on this.

All the neighborhood is asking

for is an investigation that you would typically see

at any other comparable site, whether or not

it is subject to SB 35.

Okay. Thank you. You can be seated.

We will now hear from the permit holder.

Thank you, members of the Commission. C.J. Higley

from Farella Braun and Martel, representing

the permit holder TNDC.

I'm going to turn it over to TNDC’s environmental expert.

But before I do, I want to just respectfully request that this board

take its obligations under SB 35 seriously.

If we have any hope

of addressing the housing emergency in this city,

and not just for this project,

but for the many projects that need to come after it,

then we really need you to commit to implementing

the tools that the state legislature has given the city.

Thank you.

What's trying to happen here is holding up a housing development

by saying our site is the source.

But as you can see here, and as we've heard from the DTSC,

there's lots of other sources.

We want this housing project to move forward.

At the same time, do unto others as others will do to you.

Golden rule.

I want somebody protecting me from poison.

All we're asking is one thing.

Review forensically

to give the neighborhood comfort.

Nobody's obstructing.

Councilor, I'm really upset with you

that you implied that we're obstructionist.

I think the issue here

is how they're framing this investigation.

And one of the things we haven't heard

is at what level will they accept?

-We have... With the approval of the DTSC.

We already have the approval of the DTSC.

And the DTSC is saying that

they believe we've done enough sampling.

How do we get to agreement?

We don't agree on the cost.

It's going to cost a lot more.

Getting drill rigs out is very expensive.

30 days for a permit

in accordance with city law.

DTSC review, 60 to 90 days.

And some of those reviews are extended even further.

We just want testing.

How can you incorporate

testing into this very, very special site?

I'll repeat my motion, which is to deny the appeal

on the basis that the permit was properly issued.

Okay.

On Vice President Lopez’s motion

-Commissioner Trevino? -No.

-Commissioner Lemberg? -No.

-Commissioner Eppler? -Yes.

-President Swig? -Yes.

So that motion carries 3 to 2.

And the appeal is denied.

We thank you for your patience everyone.

[Telephone ringing]

Good morning.

Hi Carlos,

this is Joanna from the Margot.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Cool. Congrats. It's move-in day.

Are you guys almost ready?

Yes, we are.

Is your stuff already in the lobby?

I have to go up and pull it down

cause my mom, she’s got a disability

so I'm the only one moving everything, so yeah.

Okay. Once we have all your stuff in the area where it will be inspected.

You'll sit down with property management to sign the lease.

After that, hopefully your stuff has already been inspected

and we'll go ahead and help you move that into your unit.

If you have any questions,

feel free to text me or give me a call back. Okay?

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it.

I just can't wait to move in.

Alright, we're ready. I'll see you soon.

-Alright, see you soon. -Bye.

I'll be moving into a new apartment, The Margot.

Over on Mission and 9th street.

It’s permanent housing.

It's like a weight off my shoulders.

I think there's more going to be

more, more, more, kick in when they give me the key.

You know, you want to get the key. You get to open the door.

Take that first look at it.

Then that’s when it’s going to be like the...

the really feeling it, you know what I mean like

I can't wait to get the hell out of here.

Can't wait to get up out this hotel. Know what I mean?

It's overdue.

Here's your key.

We'll go up to your unit in a little bit.

But I wanted to have you sign some forms

before we sit down and sign the lease, okay?

Danielle is our other case manager on site

so if you have any questions, you can talk to her,

but I'll be your case manager while you're here.

All right?

It’s kinda easy to get lost here, dude.

Okay.

[Carlos hums a bassline]

Oh my.

Oh, I get a view of the whole entire city.

How big are these drawers?

That one's very big.

Room C.

Hey, check this out over here, dude.

What?

What the, I knew there was a tub here.

See that tub, boy.

That’s a nice tub.

Does it have jets?

-No jets? -No, there’s no jets.

Oh shit.

If it did, I’ll be partying all night.

You gonna party all night in the tub?

Put my stuff in drawers, organizing, yes!

I grew up

in South and Market, so this is like-I grew up

two blocks away.

63 years later.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you.

Like this is going to be a good place,

a permanent place, a happy place.

My first job was across

the street at that hotel right there.

I was like 15.

I feel like we’ll do good here.

With the staff here. Everything.

They just...

It just felt good walking in here.

Take off my shoes, kick them off.

Push it in.

Now look, with the thing goes up and down. It goes up and down.

-[Carlos] Ahhh. -[Andres] Ahhh!

Ahhh!

You have some effects.

That’s the coolest thing in my life.

I’m gonna lie down.

We can sleep here tonight if we want to, bud, but um

we still got more stuff to get over at the hotel.

Yeah, I know.

We’ll get it tomorrow.

We want a majority.

But in the Board of Appeals, when it comes to permits,

we need a supermajority.

So if we lost the appeal,

which was disappointing.

What I'd like to ask you is, if each of you had to do all of this

all over again, would you

or would you have just stood down?

I would, because what happens here will happen

elsewhere in every neighborhood across San Francisco.

If you're going to plunk down a behemoth

in the middle of a neighborhood

that is already densely populated

and you are not going to put in the services,

then why are you doing this at all?

You're just perpetuating

your crappy reputation

for putting in awful public housing.

And it's a big, fat, positive resume

building thing for people like London Breed and Scott Wiener.

But then the people who end up living here, they're going to be left behind.

They want to deny us the right to appeal.

They are being unreasonable.

There's something wrong with the way

our government is working right now.

And I think we need to educate our new supervisor

and make him understand

that what they're building there is really going to be a slum.

You know, people call us NIMBYs, but

it's just so easy to say that

when you don't live in the neighborhood.

And we've never said we were against the project.

We just want to be respected as stakeholders.

We've never been treated with that respect.

It's all been a show.

I wish we'd had the foresight

once we realized the game was rigged early on

to say, we'll never win, let's pull the plug now.

So you would pull the plug before today?

Yeah.

Before today.

Okay, well, I just need to tell you when...

When I was asked that question, immediately

with popped out of my mouth was in a heartbeat.

In a heartbeat. I'd do it again.

We all look forward to new neighbors.

I feel very good about this

community and I want to share it.

It will have to get higher,

bigger, less parking available,

less soils, less grass, less green,

less trees.

But I won't be here in 45 years, so...

you know, I won't be there to miss what was.

[Jerry Garcia plays Mission in the Rain]

♪ Someone called my name, you know I ♪♪

♪ turned around to see ♪♪

♪ It was midnight in the Mission and the bells were not for me. ♪♪

♪ Come again. ♪♪

♪ Walking along in the Mission in the rain, Come again ♪♪

♪ Walking along in the Mission in the rain ♪♪

♪ Ten years ago, I walked this street my dreams were riding tall ♪♪

♪ Tonight I would be thankful Lord, for any dream at all. ♪♪

♪ Some folks would be happy just to have one dream come true ♪♪

♪ But everything you gather is just more that you can lose. ♪♪

♪ Come again. ♪♪

♪ Walking along in the Mission in the rain ♪♪

♪ All the things I planned to do I only did half way ♪♪

♪ Tomorrow will be Sunday born of rainy Saturday ♪♪

♪ There's some satisfaction in the San Francisco rain ♪♪

♪ No matter what comes down the Mission always looks the same ♪♪

-Who are we? -Carpenters!

-What do we want? -Housing!

-When do we want? -Now!

-What do we want? -Housing!

-When do we want? -Now!

-No housing! -No peace!

♪ Walking along in the Mission in the rain, come again ♪♪

♪ Walking along in the Mission in the rain, come again ♪♪

♪ Walking along in the Mission in the rain, come again ♪♪

♪ Walking along in the Mission in the rain ♪♪