[Noisebridge-discuss] Elevator stuck in the basement?

[Andy Isaacson]

On Mon, Dec 09, 2013 at 07:19:43PM -0800, Al Sweigart wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 7:16 PM, spinach williams <spinach.williams at gmail.com> wrote:
> > isn't the building shared?

Yes, 2169 has 2 other tenants -- the sewing business on the 2nd floor,
which employes a bunch of mostly Cantonese-speaking women, and the
grocery store on the first floor.  All three tenants occasionally need
access to the basement for utility work (cabling, power, etc) but
people who claim to be associated with Noisebridge have historically
used access to the basement for inappropriate usage (such as storing
things in the basement which were "donated" to Noisebridge).

So we quickly decided within a few months of the move to 2169 that
Noisebridge shouldn't access the basement at all and should coordinate
with the landlord when access was necessary for utilities and similar.

> Yeah, at first I kind of figured someone was sleeping down there. But they
> would have been down there *all day*. The owner of the grocery store next
> door has the key that goes down there from the store. It seems more likely
> that they might have left it open.

There are two failure modes you haven't mentioned yet --

with old elevators it's pretty easy for a sensor or switch to get
damaged such that it always has the same result no matter the state of
the thing it's supposed to be checking.  Another freight elevator in my
life had this happen recently to the "is the door closed" switch, so
someone used a wire coathanger to jam the switch closed.  Now it moves
whether or not the door is open, super dangerous.

Second, you can sometimes get old elevators to jam at the end of their
trackway.  I don't think this is possible with the 2169 elevator,
because it has "go to floor X" controls rather than freight elevator
style up/down controls.

The most likely cause is that someone left the door open and came up via
a different route but it also might be one of the above.

Someone who is present at 2169 when the nice Lebanese (iirc) family who
owns the shop on the ground floor are there, please do the following:

0. promise to report via email after doing the following.

1. introduce yourself to the clerk, mention that you're with
Noisebridge and are having trouble with the elevator and ask if they
have a key to the basement.

2. ask whoever has the key if they can go down to the basement and bring
the elevator up.

3. if they do, say thank you and rejoice.

4. if the elevator is broken, please email me, I'll call the landlord
and let them know that the elevator is broken and they'll have the
elevator repair company come out to fix it.

5. report via email your results.

Under no circumstances should anyone with Noisebridge fix the elevator.
Unless you're licensed and bonded as an elevator repairperson in SF.  Or
fixing the elevator will save someone's life and there's no other way to
do so.  But seriously, don't fix the elevator yourself, the landlord and
the repair company will take care of it.

Thanks,

-andy