Take it down! Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for this disaster!

Incompetence at its finest. Who are the developers and why are we paying for the repair?

Why are tax payers responsible for this? It should be the builder, the bank that financed the project, the owners of the units and the home insurance companies of the building/homeowners. Why the F are tax payers paying for this?!

Madness. What else could it be called? The taxpayers should not have to pay a penny of this.The developer and the engineering firm that designed the foundation need to be sued. That building may need to be deconstructed.

So they went the cheap route while building a “luxury” high rise

I thought all sky scrapers were built to bedrock especially in an earthquake zone. Wow!

If you put clowns in charge of money then expect a circus🇬🇧

$150+ to fix a $4 million dollar problem. The engineering firms that signed off on it should be BLASTED and loose their license.

Once again, taxpayer funded corporate bailouts for the rich, rugged screw-you-when-you're-down individualism for the rest. Welcome to American "capitalism"

Why is taxpayers paying this?

The government in the US leaves the poor screwed, in most areas there are no sidewalks even for the poor, no health insurance, or anything. But when the rich make a mistake the government quickly bails them out. We do have socialism here in the US. We have socialism for the rich.

Go figure, going the short route to build a luxury building In a populated area to save 4 million dollars, only to have it sink/tilt putting residents and the public at risk. Those responsible for the initial design/build should go to prison for what they've done. I see no upside to this engineering disaster.......

Thank you NBC Bay area for keeping us up to date on the Millennium Tower sinking issue in San Francisco. Very informative. Please keep up the great work. Saving 4 million or let's say 6 or 8 million by cutting corners have resulted in a very unstable building. It's almost like people are just waiting to collect their insurance. I hope the insurance company will see this as a losing situation and not renew any home insurance policies for the owners. If the owners lost their policies, that might force people to get out and then the city can demolish this failure and symbol of corporate mismanagement and greed. Keep us inform. The more they drive the pillars down, the more disturbance they will cause and this building will crumble or the foundation will continue to warp and twist until the structure is declared uninhabitable/unsafe.

can taxpayers sue the city & the developers? we didn't ask for this...at all

So the “cost so far to clean up the Millennium mess”, per apartment, is $500,000?

You guys should ask SFDepartment of Building Inspection why the heck it was approved in the first place. why the h taxpayer’s money will be use to fix this

There's only one correct way to fix this mess, begin dismantling the structure from the top down, immediately. Any way you look at it, the tower's days are numbered.

Sealed settlements of this nature should not be allowed when we are talking about public money.

The Milenium Tower represents SF in so many ways..... It's an absolute disaster......

The tower is literally floating on a 10ft thick concrete pad with various pylons extending into the sand/reclaimed bay mud. The building's weight is was increased drastically when they decided to add more concrete to the building's construction. It's only a matter of time before it tilts beyond recovery.

The person who decided to go the cheaper route should be paying 100% of the costs to correct.

Knew it was the bean counters that entered into the decision. Seen it many times in my engineering career. Always said - Who thinks it's cheaper to do it over again than to do it right in the first place.

Tear the MT down, as it stands, it's dangerous. It's hard to believe it was allowed to be built to begin with.

Developers should be on the hook for all of it.

Eventually it'll sink to bedrock, then it'll be 24 floors high instead of 58.

Why build it perfect when you can fix it later for 45 times the cost? Avoiding corporate costs and relying on government money to foot the bill…well that’s just the American way. 🎆 🇺🇸🎉

Hope the building sits empty soon.

Wait, taxpayers are paying for the repairs? And how much to just tear it down?

The sad part about all of this. Is the city and state approved the plans. How much did some pocket to do so.

The foundation rested on those piles was overloaded beyond the maximum calculated weight allowed, how is that even possible it can be approved by city in the first place?? It is mind boggling. 🙄

I don’t think taxpayers should have to pay a penny, let the developers absorb the loss. It’s just unbelievably penny-wise, pound foolish.

WTF? TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING?

Why is any high rise in SF permitted for construction without a plan to drill down to bedrock?

About 10 years ago I fellow I knew who worked for years to buy and build a beautiful home decided to sell it. When I asked them why are you selling it. He turned around to me and says why do I need this big home for me and my wife. He said my son is already married and moved out. Why do I need this house and headaches to maintain it with empty rooms all over the place. He then said what do I need to live per day one steak I don't need all of this. And he said I'm probably going to buy a small house like you he said or maybe buy a condo and live simple without the headaches and it stresses in life to maintain a high standard of living and he was so right. But look how people live today grasping for the dollar like that's the only thing that gives meaning to life. No God, no nothing. Just how they can make the most money instead of living a simple life. The band The Fall has a song called "the age of greed" which accurately defines what is going on in the world today.

The Foundation slab is underdesigned (dishing). The pile design failed already. The foundation was designed to support a lighter steel bldg and not a concrete bldg. The solution; pilings to bedrock that will transfer the weak link to the foundation slab. The best solution from the public and owner safety perspective would be to drive piles into bedrock and take say 10 floors off the top of the building to reduce weight or simply knock it down. The short term political and economic solution will be to drive in new pilings outside the perimeter of the bldg and wait for the foundation to start cracking and then seek another short term fix. Kicking the can down the road brings all the parties closer to retirement.

Most of Japan's skyscraper are not anchored to bedrock either. They construct the building to be light with as little concrete as possible for the superstructure and then create a lot of separated concrete lumps underneath the ground that distributes the weight to the entire floor space with stilts that acts as pillars creating a huge floating roly-poly object that may tilt and swing but always returning to it's upright position.

How did regulations not catch this? If it was a personal home remodel, the permits and red tape would be a nightmare. Crazy!

4 million dollars??!! That's all??!!! I'm thinking all these years that it was millions!! Regardless of cost, it should've been done!!

Seems this 4 million was a shortcut they shouldnt have taken. It also seems officials are all at fault for letting realtors sell innocent people these worthless properties, since it was sinking before it was completed

This is a well crafted video. The information was well organized and clearly presented. Thank you

“Things come up like that all the time, and you just fix it” We need that man as President. No blame game nonsense, no political insertions, no self-aggrandizing. Just sees a job to do and demands that it be done, and done right. We sorely need more of that in this country.

Cheaper is more expensive

Another reason to abolish HOAs

The city approved the plan to build this thing incorrectly. That is the real problem. They should have known the issues as they became obvious and halted construction. This is why every step of construction is subject to inspection and approval.

If the foundation is inadequate it would seem to make more sense to start at the top. Dismantle however many floors are needed until the foundation can actually support the load. It would not be cheap but you may be able to salvage part of the building. Attempting to stabilize a foundation on something this tall that is already leaning sounds dangerous. Working with a small margin of error they could lose the whole thing and wipe out a portion of the neighborhood also.

Why do all the geo engineers look like they're on the verge of death

Why were they even allowed to this tower this way? I really think there needs to be an investigation as to how this was allowed.

Prevention costs always are far less then cleanup costs

This tower is fast becoming my favorite soap opera

On the plus side there is bedrock. With the building in place it might cost a hundred million to create new underpinnings that can support the ten foot thick “floating” slab and stabilize the building. Who pays? Not the taxpsyers, i hope. But this is California and if there were serious and well connected players in the deal you can expect that the taxpayers will participate. California has refused to turn over the remaining 3.8 billion dollars that they still have from

I can't think of a city more deserving !

Absolutely criminal. That developer should never be allowed to build anything ever again, not even a doghouse.

The developers went engineering shopping and found a firm who had no clue about bay sediments the result is save 4 million then and pay 400 million now. Actually, the building is not salvageable, take off the top half.

On the other hand, the Bay Bridge is world-class.

Wait - Are we saying there is no *law* that requires skyscrapers to be supported by bedrock? Oh Dear Lord...

But if they built it correctly, it wouldn’t be so much fun!

Well done ❤

Wait... We are paying the litigation but that may be paid back in this sealed settlement agreement?!? Isnt that siphoning money from the tax payers for a fee that is already being paid??? How exactly does this work without looking like outright taxpayer fraud?

Because this big thing is leaning if there are some major winds pushing in the direction of the lien will it fall?

Often times, you can "go cheap" and get away with it. This time, they didn't.

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra , Shaka when the walls fell

I would fill the basement with gravel around mechanical jacks that could be continually adjusted and fitted against the foundation/support beams (to be easily reinforced, if necessary) at street level from bellow. The jacks would be imbedded in the gravel. (If did it right, you could literally elevate the building, grade the gravel to spec, and lower it back down onto the gravel bed, like the Marriott hotel a few blocks away, a al Frank Lloyd Wright.) The basement would be rendered useless, as it should be. End of story. Very (relatively) simple/cheap fix. This building, (and no high-rise) should ever have a basement in the first place (especially on land fill). It's fueled by greed and a dash of machismo. Greed, greed, greed. The City was paid off. I guarantee it.

Why aren t the city inspectors who approved this in the first place being held accountable? How about the contractor?? Why is the taxpayer paying for this???

I am on the side of "let's demolish this structure before it collapses".

Someone should go to jail!

Follow the money, check out who sign off these projects from the city hall.

They cut costs for profit, and now the building is Surfside 2.0.

One earthquake and that tower might come down. I'm no engineer but: building's center of gravity is already off balance? If shaken too hard would it fall to the side its already leaning? how many city blocks will be flatten? how many people? This people are gambling thousands of lives.

The 100 million they are spending now is not fixing anything. You cannot fix something like this You have to at the least reduce the height of the building to slow it down but it will keep sinking

The City of Oakland had us take down small a roof top deck they claimed was non permitted, when they issued the code violation they said nothing about it previously being inspected almost 35 years ago, and the previous owner did nothing, the violation just went away for 35 years???? My response to the Oakland’s Ethics Department, and City Council, and the Building Department cites “why would they would wait so long to follow up on something like this”, not that anyone took any money, we just assumed the inspector(s) was being nice about the situation…. Ask me if I have any legal recourse for the City Of Oakland’s Building & Inspections Department……???

No one will be held responsible. No one will be punished. No one will be paying for it Except the victims of this latest blunder This is America these days. Broken stuff , your wallet fleeced.

As they say, “You get what you pay for.” In the long run it’s going to cost you more down the road as we see here.

So They decided to save from the foundation of the building! Pretty smart job folks!

About $10,000 worth of dynamite will take care of that problem.

Why should this be on the taxpayer? This should be on the contractors.

That thing is a time bomb

Wow, all that money spent on a high-end luxury housing condo building, when it could have gone to improve the city's low income housing issues

Seeing the "Shangri-La" in Vancouver go to bedrock before the build (big const. equip. looked like Tinker Toys down there from land level) I'm FLABBERGASTED that in, OF ALL PLACES, San Fransisco??!!!! (We don't have earthquake faults of any real consequence in BC cities) I can't believe it.

It's just a matter of time for this building to come down!!! May God protect the people around when it happens!!!

I still don’t understand why taxpayers are paying for this? Any explanation is appreciated.

is there anything in place in S.F. To make sure this does not happen again? has anyone in the city planning department learned anything?

reaching bedrock is a minimum for commercial. just like 4 foot residential to get past the freeze/heave point. should be 10X. based on what they charge for rent, that is in line

What does the HOA have anything to do with the developed foundation?

if this was REAL news, the question they would be asking is why the Civil Engineer working for the city who allowed this to be permitted is not being criminally prosecuted. . what's happening now is THE BEST CASE SCENARIO. . what happens in the case of an earthquake? can you say "Soil Liquefaction"? i knew you could. . if there is ANY kind of a tremblor before this building gets attached to bedrock, this whole damn thing is coming down and when it does it's going to smash a lot of other shit with it.

This is exactly why you don't trust corporations to follow the rules and why having lax-laws in areas of the country is a really bad idea. They won't do the right thing, even when they have the money to do so. I know, I worked for one of the largest companies and they posted record profits while cutting corners and NOT doing the right thing, you can't leave it open to them and expect businesses whose only goal is to make money to make things right and not cheap out in critical safety areas.

This is not incompetence. It is insanity caused by greed.

When I sat with my father watching the moon landing back in 1969, I ask him, "Dad, you've seen so much in your lifetime, if you were one of those astronauts landing on the surface of the moon, what would be going thru your mind? He turned to me and wryly said, "I'd be thinking I got to the moon in the vehicle built by the lowest bidder." I have NEVER forgotten that moment and its theme has served me well, by never insisting on the lowest price, but erroring on the side of most competent solution and most competent provider. The taxpayers should NOT pay one dime of the cost towards resolving this huge problem--including dismantling the boondoggle of a building. Oh, and the actual costs--once owners are paid back for their investments and the likely law suits will reach over a billion dollars. I'm just saying...

Tax payers need to do class action lawsuit

Plastic surgery should not be used to stave off the look of aging, doesn’t work. Be satisfied with who you are and don’t end up looking like the joker

Correction: its not "ancient mud". It's landfill. That's the problem.

Original design called for steel and glass, and they did not alter the foundation, but in order to armageddon-proof it, they opted for concrete??? W O W.

Sue them

I wouldn’t want to be in that building during an earthquake and subsequent liquefaction! Hello from New Zealand, the shaky islands

A bunch of folks belong behind bars for this debacle. Its beyond ridiculous what has been allowed to become a burden to taxpayers. Total BS

I hope never to read it comes down. What would happen to the buildings around it? Horribly, we have have seen what collapsing buildings do to those around them. I can only imagine the pre-finger pointing plans that have begun.

Unbelievable. The city needs to held fully liable. So that they never fail to do their jobs again.

when the tilt causes the elevators to stop working, the residents will have a nice climb up the stairs to their luxury suites.

How deep is it to bedrock for the transportation hub? Is it possible that the building is on a downslope side of that bedrock making it even hairier?

There are apartments in that tower that cost more than building to the bedrock.

My take is that they accept they screwed up, refund the buyers, tear the tower down and start over with a lesson. If they don't, the tower will collapse and cost them 100 times more..