All stories about "Permit Violations"

The People's Guide is Curbed SF's tour o' the nabes, led by our most loyal readers, favorite bloggers, and other luminaries of our choosing. Jackson West has been on board with us as a guest contributor for the past week— he's been blogging in and about San Francisco for nearly five years, most recently gossiping about the technology industry at Valleywag. Why not go out in a blazing ball of flaming glory? Thus we present Jackson's last post in this series, a hard-hitting piece of journalistic inquiry if there ever was one. Let it rip, Jackson.

I get a lot of weird mailers at my building. Living in North Beach, it's apparently assumed that I agree with the Examiner's Ken Garcia, can't wait to read about Donald Fisher's CAMP in Northside and that I might want to recall my district representative, President of the Board of Supervisors Aaron Peskin. Okay, that last one made me chuckle. Isn't he about to get termed out, and hasn't he publicly expressed his unwillingness to run again for public office? (Which hasn't stopped talk of mayoral ambition.) But one of the "issues" the flier brought up was the rumor about Peskin getting a sweetheart deal on his Telegraph Hill home— one that has been around for years.

It was on my rumor radar early in 2006, even though it was quickly discounted by H. Brown, from whom I first heard the anecdote. I did some digging, and I came up with bupkiss. I could confirm some details, but the crux of the allegations— that Peskin was essentially gifted hundreds of thousands of dollars by local Republicans and that the Department of Building Inspection let him get away with un-permitted renovations— I couldn't nail down. And frankly, given that I run into Peskin regularly and I've heard he can be really mean, I didn't want to press the issue.

But if anyone can make sense of it all, I figured Curbed readers might. So quit slaggin' me in the comments and put on your thinkin' caps, as I shall present the facts without judgment as best as I can:

These days, all we've gotta do is drop three words in succession— Sunset. Idea. House.— and readers shower the Curbed SF inbox with sordid accounts of not-so-neighborly feuds, bills unpaid and contracts unfulfilled. But let's back it up a second, greenies: according to this most recent feat of citizen journalism, the Sunset Idea House is open for business— but not legally so.

1) FACT: According to our operative (and the Building Department's public records), 3027 25th Street, known to us affectionately as La Casa Verde, still has a mess of permits classified as "issued." By city law, however, permits must be designated as "closed" In order for a project to be declared finished, inhabitable, and ready for the market. How long has Robin "complete bullshit" Wilson been touring that place? To be fair-ish: the permits for 3029 25th Street (the parcel of land that holds the extra units) are in fact "closed." Given that the overall building is considered at 3027 though, we're not convinced.

2) FACT: Three-story buildings— enter the Casa— are required to have an additional means of egress, which the house does not as per the CNet Gavin Tour posted last week. Says our reader "they should have been where the windmill is..above and to the right of the open door...(see time elapsed 2.19; 2.16, .53 and .04 where it shows the metal beam sticking out from the house; as well as a break in the cement wall surrounding the deck...where the stairs would begin).