After a Structural Engineer hired by the City of Tracy looked at the building and determined there was no imminent threat, he suggested 6 areas where repairs could be made to improve the building's ability to withstand an earthquake along with other improvements.

Our Structural Engineer assessed the recommendations and created plans to address each of the issues.

Below are our Approved Plans to address the potential safety and other issues. They are summarized on the 1st page and detailed in the rest of the plans.

1) Brace parapet on roof at front of building to prevent debris from falling during an earthquake

2) Anchor the top of the rear wall, also to prevent debris from falling during an earthquake

3) Remove portion of unused chimney extending above parapet on South side facing parking lot for the same reason

4) Restore ceiling framing on 2nd floor. Not safety related, just completing work started for an earlier project

5) Replace damaged floor joists and flooring in bar area of 1st floor. Not safety related, just repairing water damage.

6) Add footing to existing footing at front door. To prevent the substandard sidewalk installed by the City of Tracy from settling further.

1) Brace parapet on roof at front of building - Work complete (Note the photos show the work in progress, not quite complete)

2) Anchor Top of Rear Wall - Work complete. Note the metal plates & bolts at the top of the wall. The row of plates below that are from a previous upgrade project that was completed about 10 years ago. Our improvements to this building have been long term and continuing.

3) Remove portion of unused chimney extending above parapet. You can see the before photo in the plans above. Chimney is now level with the South wall parapet.

4) Restore ceiling framing on 2nd floor - Work complete.

5) Replace damaged floor joists and flooring in bar area of 1st floor. This work was in progress when the City Council pull the rug out from under us. It was routine water damage repair involving the replacement of a dozen joists and then leveling the subfloor. As you can see, most of the work is done.

6) Add footing to existing footing at front door. This work was also in progress when the City Council changed their minds. After exposing the existing foundation, our structural engineer took another look and we decided to complete this upgrade with two concrete pours instead of one to provide a stronger result. Modified plans were drawn up, submitted and are awaiting approval.

The pictures show the cause for this problem being inadequate gravel used when the City replaced all of the downtown sideways. There is now a gap between the gravel fill and our foundation. We suspect that we're just the first location where this is a problem. And it was only found because of the extensive inspection of the property. How many other downtown buildings will be affected when someone actually looks for it?

That is it. The above permit and work satisfies the requirements from the structural engineer hired by the City of Tracy. Items 1,2 and 3 are the only ones that presented a potential danger to the public. They have been completed. Our building is safe and no longer poses any kind of threat to the public.

That is NOT the case presented by the dozen or so other brick and masonry buildings in the old downtown. Refer to our "Danger Downtown?" page for photos. We can see the parapets of a number of these other buildings from our roof. Not a single one has the kind of bracing that we were forced to install. The Grand Theatre, right across the street from us also has parapets. We cannot see whether they have been braced like ours. That is something the public should be asking the City and its Building Department about. The City of Tracy's primary claim against our building is the potential danger of bricks and debris falling from our parapets during an earthquake. If this was such a concern, why have we been singled out while NONE of our other downtown buildings are required to meet this standard? Why is the City of Tracy allowing the public to be placed in danger like this?

Regarding the next steps if the City decides not to demolish our building, obviously before it can be returned to use, there are numerous internal improvements that will need to be made. But these improvements will be highly dependent on what the new use will be.

Which brings us to another "convenient" inconsistency from the City Council and the Building Department. On the one hand, we were told that our original permit for this work, issued before Covid struck, had expired and that we had to resubmit it. The Building Department in what could be interpreted as a coordinated effort with the City Council, did everything they could to delay re-approval of this permit. Whereas the first one was granted in weeks, the re-approval took 8 months! The Council then had the nerve to grill us about why the work had not been completed. And the height of hypocrisy from the Council and the Building Department came when they demanded that we add all sorts of additional projects to our effort based on outdated code violations (from when it was still operating as a restaurant) as well as other much older permits that had never gotten final approval. There was NOT a single concern about the fact that these older permits had also expired. They demanded that we complete them now.

So this is where we stand. We have been lied to, mislead and mistreated by both the City Council and the Building Department. Ultimately this has now become a political decision which should give everyone Tracy pause to wonder whether the elected leadership of this city is doing what is best for the city or whether we would be better served by throwing them all out and starting over with real leaders.