For 25 years, Brian Silver has insisted that his downtown historic building, built before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, did not need retrofitting.While surrounding business owners spent millions of dollars to make sure their buildings would survive, the Napa attorney scoffed at city building inspectors in letters obtained through public records requests, calling the seismic ordinance "political" and the result of "Chicken Little hysteria."
Then, on Aug. 24, a magnitude-6.0 earthquake shook Wine Country. While the sky did not fall, bricks and large stones did -- many from Silver's property -- crushing a car and causing inspectors to red-tag not only his building but other neighboring businesses damaged by his debris. The temblor caused more than $300 million in damage to businesses and residences in Solano and Napa counties, with older buildings in downtown Napa hit especially hard.
The sparring in the 800 block of Brown Street is endemic of a larger struggle in earthquake country. Even as the 25th anniversary of the Loma Prieta quake looms next month, thousands of buildings have unreinforced masonry. The owners cannot afford or are unwilling to make upgrades, and municipalities grapple to figure out how hard to push them.
Some cities issue fines to those out of compliance; others threaten legal action. While some require property owners to post signs warning customers that a building isn't safe, others go as far as condemning the buildings and securing them from entry.
Many property owners work cooperatively with their cities, but others ignore, delay and dodge building inspectors. And officials say they do so at the public's peril.
As of 2006, the last time the California Seismic Safety Commission looked at statewide efforts, nearly half of the Bay Area's 6,580 unreinforced masonry buildings had not been retrofitted. Since that survey, officials say buildings statewide have received improvements at a slow 1 percent a year.
In Napa, the city spent decades pushing for retrofits to its brittle downtown, steadily cajoling building owners to comply.
Silver's two-story red brick law office came onto Napa officials' radar shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, when the city identified 44 unreinforced masonry structures. Seismic upgrades were strongly encouraged, but they were only voluntary.
In 2006, with seismic work on 14 buildings still undone, Napa council members created an ordinance that required retrofits by June 2009.
Silver fought it, saying that earthquake science showed no "imminent danger of a major earthquake" in Napa and that the costs would be prohibitive. He noted that his building, built in 1904, had survived the magnitude-8.7 earthquake in 1906.
By August 2011, Napa officials required owners of 10 unreinforced masonry buildings to post signs alerting pedestrians that they were entering structures that could crumble in an earthquake. Silver posted the signage, but he still did not fix his building.
"Brian Silver still doesn't think anything is wrong with his building and still doesn't think he needs to retrofit," said Daniel Sarao, co-owner of Velo Pizzeria, which had recently completed $350,000 in retrofits and was forced to close when stones from Silver's building damaged his restaurant. "In my opinion, it's ridiculous."
The restaurant lost an estimated $20,000 in business during the closure. Before he could reopen, Sarao had to construct a shield to protect his roof from a potential stone collapse from Silver's building.
Getting property owners to undertake costly upgrades is a problem throughout the Bay Area. Gilroy has employed both carrot and stick.
The city meets twice a month to help owners of its 17 unreinforced masonry buildings complete retrofits. All but the old Water House building, at 7515 Monterey St., have begun to make progress.
The owners of the circa 1900 building have been fined almost $36,000 since 2012, and the city placed a $10,700 lien on the building when the citations were ignored.
But Lee Butler, Gilroy's development center manager, understands the owner's dilemma: In 2005, a top-of-the-line retrofit of the building would have cost $323,000, he said. For a building assessed at just $215,000, with $185,000 of that allotted to the land, it's a steep price.
Still, Mayor Don Gage said he cringes when he looks at the 6-foot-high unreinforced parapet perched above pedestrians strolling downtown.
"I want them fixed because I don't want someone killed or hurt significantly because someone didn't fix their darn building," he said.
Calls to the building's property management company were not returned.
Since the Napa quake, Martinez officials have sent registered letters to nine owners of unreinforced buildings that have ignored the city's 2009 retrofit ordinance. The letter gives them until August 2015 to start making repairs, or face red tags.
"Our downtown buildings are quaint, but they are also old, and we need to make certain that a significant earthquake won't injure employees and residents in the downtown," Mayor Rob Schroder said.
Larry Lippow owns an empty brick building at 822 Escobar St. that is out of compliance. He said he won't rent it until earthquake retrofit work is done, but upgrades are expensive.
"It's very challenging to incur the cost of retrofitting buildings and get a reasonable return on investment considering the depressed rental market in Martinez," he said.
In San Jose, six unreinforced masonry buildings are in need of a retrofit. The city has kept them vacant and secured to keep people out, but falling bricks from a powerful earthquake could endanger anyone walking by.
San Jose officials would love to restore the historic Nishioka Fish Market, at 665 N. Sixth St. It took a search warrant to enter the building's second floor and a mental health hold to evict a family member from the deteriorating structure, according to city records.
Once inspectors viewed the property in 1999, they condemned it. But still it stands.
Even after the earthquake, Napa's Silver is unrepentant. He says that six-figure retrofits to his building may not have prevented the damage, pointing out that the old courthouse, post office, Alexandria Square and Goodman Library all suffered significant damage in the quake, despite multi-million-dollar retrofits.
"The city knew that retrofitting is no panacea," the 71-year-old attorney said in a phone interview. "It does not guarantee a building does not collapse."
Nevertheless, he said he is seeking funds to retrofit and expand his building. Silver met a Sept. 12 deadline to hire a contractor to stabilize his building temporarily, city officials said.
Napa City Manager Mike Parness said the damage to Silver's building could have been "disastrous" if the early-morning quake had shaken hours before, during a crowded downtown festival.
"He seems to have his own philosophical idea that it is not needed," Parness said. "This was a pretty strong demonstration indicating otherwise."