Gavin's still whatever on the whole thing, but the city's Building Inspection Commission says we need to require building owners to assess their buildings and then make seismic upgrades if necessary. Otherwise, well, you can probably guess what would happen. A draft report (due to be finalized for the Gav by Jan. 30) studied a small set of "soft-story" buildings— the kind with garages or large storefront windows on the ground floor— and concluded that a city mandate should include at least 2,800 such buildings. At $9,000 to $28,000 per rental unit, retrofits could be backed voter-approved bonds, and would cost a total of $260 million— if only the "weakest" buildings get fixed. 'Course, that price tag pales in comparison to the estimated $1.5 million BILLION in damages if and when the oft-spoken-of Big One actually hits. Let's just see if they don't get called Chicken Little again.
· City advised to require building retrofits [SF Gate]
· Earthquake Scare Deemed "Bunch of Hooey" [Curbed SF]
· San Francisco's Earthquake Plan: Run. Like Hell. [Curbed SF]
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