Issue 304 ___Will you want to live in San Francisco - tomorrow ___June 2006
COSTLY,
BUT . . . WORTHY PIER 70 RESTORATION
Pier 70 at the foot of 20th Street comprises a collection
of buildings that is one of the most significant examples of 19th and
early 20th century
industrial architecture on the West Coast. The area has been in constant
use as a ship building and repair facility for almost 150 years, and still
houses BAE Ship Repair, one of the few entirely maritime employers remaining
on Port property.
In April of this year, Port Director Monique Moyer presented the Port’s
10-year Capital Plan to the Port Commission. This is the first capital
plan in our memory that has identified all needed projects on Port property,
and has assigned costs to those projects. While this plan encompasses
the considerable costs of seismic upgrade and deferred maintenance, it
assumes no additional building improvements. This is an essential document,
and one that San Francisco Tomorrow has requested several times over the
last decade. We congratulate the Port on finally assembling and publishing
this information.
The numbers are intimidating – a $1.2 billion capital need for Port
properties – but it is in fact a low estimate. The largest item
in this bill is Pier 70. The buildings are in deteriorating condition.
Many have been closed for years; some, like the Union Ironworks Machine
Shop, were used for their original function until closed in early 2004
to comply with the City’s un-reinforced masonry building ordinance.
In addition, over a century of stripping, metal-working, and other industrial
activities have left a considerable legacy of toxics in the buildings,
the soil, and the near-shore environment. The Port’s 10-year capital
plan places the cost of stabilizing the buildings and remediating the
contamination at $313 million.
How can the Port even begin to determine how to pay this bill? Would any
developer be willing to shoulder these costs? And, given the track record
of the Port in soliciting developers, would the residents of San Francisco
accept a development proposal that covers these costs and makes a profit
for the developer? An earlier attempt to find such a developer collapsed
with the dot-com boom, and a short-lived effort in 2005 to persuade the
Exploratorium to relocate on the site was also unsuccessful.
To address these questions, and to ensure that this development process
is not the political free-for-all seen in previous Port projects, the
Port is developing a Master Plan for the 65-acre site. Over the next year,
historic resource and economic consultants will review current information
about the site and compile information about preservation and development
alternatives in order to determine a feasible scenario for the site, and
this information will be used to compile a site plan. The Central Waterfront
Advisory Group will play a key role in reviewing the work product and
ensuring public scrutiny of the results.
This is a crucial test for the Port and for the City. If we can’t
find a way to preserve these historic structures, how can the Port hope
to address its other capital needs, for which it has identified only partial
funding?
San Francisco Tomorrow, San Francisco Heritage, and the Potrero Hill Boosters
are some of the organizations working through the Central Waterfront Advisory
Committee to develop the Pier 70 Master Plan. Meetings are held monthly
on the 3rd Wednesday at 5pm at Pier One; check www.sfport.com <http://www.sfport.com/>
to confirm.
Ralph Wilson of the Potrero Boosters and a skilled photographer, has created
a fantastic website about Pier 70 past, present, and maybe future. Please
take the time to look at his great photos and commentary at www.pier70sf.org
Lake Merced Improved but not yet Restored
Friends of Lake Merced organizer John Plummer is leaving the Bay Area
and Lake Merced. Here is his farewell message, “A dozen years go
by quickly. Sometimes one wonders what one has been doing all that time,
there remains so much to be done.”
The lake level has risen, significantly, thanks both to a couple of years
of heavier than normal rainfall, but perhaps more importantly to the replenishment
of the aquifer resulting from the golf courses' use of recycled water
for their fairways, and the conjunctive use program established by the
PUC together with Daly City.
Significant progress has been made restoring natural flora at several
areas around the lake, especially the Mesa near Lakeshore Elementary School,
and the banks of the Impound Lake, a site developed by the Zoo Crew.
Naturalist and avid birdwatcher Dan Murphy reports that this is a particularly
good year for our feathered friends, with record numbers of Blue Heron
and Double-crested Cormorants.
We don't often think of Harding Park Golf Course as being a part of Lake
Merced, but it is, and it has benefited from substantial ($22 million
plus) investment in grounds and buildings. There is even some quail habitat
restoration on the course. But so much remains to be done:
-- The Boathouse is a disgrace, and there is no money in sight to restore
this facility to its original purpose, a recreation and community center
for people using the lake.
-- The Natural Areas Plan is in the final stages of approval, but remains
under-funded. Meanwhile, much of the lakeshore is threatened with invasive
species such as ice plant, wild radish, Cape ivy, and various thistles.
-- The periphery of the lake remains a multi-lane raceway, posing a great
danger to motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians alike. Two more kids were
killed last week when their car ran headlong into a SUV near the intersection
of Lake Merced Blvd. and John Muir Drive. We haven't even been able to
get a pedestrian-operated stoplight installed at the bus stop/crosswalk
near the Zoo and the recreation center for the handicapped.
-- The Master Plan for Lake Merced remains a wish and a prayer, and seems
about to be replaced by a PUC-initiated Lake Merced Watershed Plan, whatever
that might be. Meanwhile the lake remains perhaps the least used recreational
lake in any major city in America.
In short, I leave you all with best wishes and much to do. But leave I
must, and I'm sure that many of you will continue your efforts to restore
the recreational and natural values of Lake Merced. Hasta la vista!
FOSTERING PRESIDIO WILDLIFE HABITAT
It is good to learn that the Presidio Trust will take advantage
of the rebuilding of Doyle Drive now being planned by Caltrans by proposing
an ecological restoration project that will link the Tennessee Hollow
Watershed with the Crissy Field Lagoon.
There's
a remarkable but little known natural marvel called El Polin Spring which
issues out of an upland area of the Presidio with its water resource almost
intact and unpolluted. El Polin Spring can be found.on the west side of
the paved loop at the south end of MacArthur Avenue. The creek fed by
El Polin is the central one of the three tributaries that converge near
the lower end of Lovers' Lane and flow from there past the YMCA and through
the recently daylighted Thompson's Reach and into Crissy Lagoon. Unfortunately,
most of the streamflows within the Tennessee Hollow Watershed have been
diverted into underground culverts where they are combined with stormwater
runoff. Environmentalists have long been advocating the restoration of
the creeks and habitats of the entire 275-acre watershed.
In the meantime, the more immediate potential to reconnect the freshwater
riparian habitat of lower Tennessee Hollow with the much admired saltwater
tidal habitat restoration of Crissy Lagoon is enormously appealing. Connecting
the fresh and saltwater ecosystems would create an ecotone (the overlapping
of different habitat types), with gradations of brackish water habitat
that foster increased biodiversity. Associated upland habitat, which attracts
other species, will occur beside these areas. This "Ecotone Project"
has the potential to increase significantly the ecological values of the
Presidio, as well as the opportunities for visitor enjoyment, by enhancing
habitat diversity. Many volunteers have swelled the effectiveness of staff
at the Presidio. A vital wildlife corridor here will create new opportunities
for community stewardship and wildlife observation, and will expand the
"outdoor classroom" and enrich the environmental education program
of the Crissy Field Center.
It is essential that sufficient staff and resources be allocated to coordinate
this project closely with Presidio Trust and National Park Service staff
and the Doyle Drive planning team. It is important to assure that the
project meets the deadline for taking advantage of the opportunity to
have the excavation work covered by the Doyle Drive Project. The Presidio
Environment-al Council, including SFT members Ruth Gravanis and Steven
Krefting, drafted a letter to Craig Middleton, Executive Director of the
Presidio Trust, making the point that the connection of the Crissy Lagoon
and Tennessee Hollow is a great opportunity for habitat restoration and
enhancement at the Presidio.
Congratulations, Jim Lew, SFT Treasurer!
You do a great job as Treasurer for SFT and now you’ve
been elected Treasurer of the Coalition for San Francisco Neighbors, a
sometimes fractious group of 44 individual neighborhood groups (CSFN).
We hope that you and the other officers who were elected succeed in closing
out the era of CSFN cosy-business with Joe O’Donoghue and the Residential
Builders money he brings to the table. When Doug Comstock, editor of the
CSFN Newsletter, and Barbara Meskunas, former CSFN Treasurer and longtime
O’Donoghue pal, put CSFN resources into the YES on D campaign, the
group realized they’d been had, and a major upheaval occurred. On
May 15, Jim Lew and the real CSFN reform slate won!
YES on D? No way.
SFT saw through Measure D as a ploy to use empathy for the frail elderly
in order to rezone Public areas at Laguna Honda and in the rest of the
City (zoned “P” for Public uses exclusively by the Planning
Code). But the CSFN was hooked into an early endorsement of this fraudulent
measure by Meskunas and Comstock and wrote a Voter’s Handbook ballot
argument in favor of D. Clearing its name was important to the group,
and thus, CSFN in May voted to rescind its endorsement, at the same time
electing a reform slate of officers. Jim, thank you!
The Public/Private Partnership in Public Parks
To serve the Public in America today, public servants are
increasingly turning to private donations. Public schools court private
donors to fund athletic and music programs. San Francisco General Hospital
has clinics running almost entirely on grants from private foundations.
Our Recreation and Parks Department allows the SF Fields Fund to pay contractors
to convert some recreation fields to a new synthetic playing surface.
This is how America works now. Huge tax breaks to the very wealthy cause
once publicly funded services to beg for private donations. Simple enough,
BUT this means that the very wealthy get to decide what is funded, and
it is not unusual for public funds to be added to complete the privately
funded “public” projects. The $4.5 million the SF Fields Fund
spends is matched by $1 million of public funds which basically goes to
pay for the public approval process.
The problem arises when public servants allow their priorities to be defined
by private donors. Recreation and Parks officials praised the private
donations that went into the Harding Golf Complex, and then siphoned off
$24 million or so of “public funds” to complete a project
that serves at best 1% of the cities population at most a couple of times
a month. $4.5 million alone was taken from state funds voter approved
for Golden Gate Park to help build a new bar and clubhouse for Harding.
This money could have completed the Music Concourse, which will stand
silent until a “grant” can be found to fix the Bandshell.
No plans at all, and no money, to restore to working order the fountains,
or to complete the restoration, which will only be a third complete, when
the contractors leave soon. The Concourse was a functioning space until
private projects dismantled it; the deYoung Museum and Concourse Garage,
both privately managed and one entirely privately owned.
The rule here should be not to allow a private donor to start something
they haven’t the self interest to finish. But this is nothing new.
Almost all the major structures in Golden Gate Park were built byprivate
donation. Sharon Lodge, the Conservatory of Flower (several times, about
$24 million this last time), Spreckel’s Temple of Music, the Haas
Children’s Quarter (in process), all privately chosen and funded
projects. Not all work out so well. Speedway Meadow was once the privately
funded Speed Road. Stanford, Crocker and Huntington wanted a racetrack
to show off their horses. They beat on the Park Commissioners until finally
in 1890 they were allowed to build a racecourse about half the length
of Golden Gate Park. But they never fully funded it and John McLaren converted
it back to meadow and created the Golden Gate Park Stadium in 1906, now
known as the Polo Field.
One major contrast with private donations of today and yesteryear is that
the new donations usually result in ticket booths for the public. The
Fine Arts Museum (now deYoung) and the California Academy of Sciences
were originally free to the public along with the Conservatory and Tea
Garden. There was actually a park-wide policy that attractions in the
Park must be free. Now if you visit Golden Gate Park, don’t leave
home without your Visa card. A family of three can expect to spend about
$75 to visit all the “attractions” and that doesn’t
include a hotdog or a boat ride.
Of all the functions our public parks provide, unobstructed space where
our citizens can gather as equals, whatever their economic status, is
foremost. Sadly, today the wealthy are allowed to build palaces in our
parks, where they can throw grand private parties for themselves in the
midst of the public’s free open space.
San Francisco's unique and historic waterfront is facing
massive challenges, ranging from rebuilding dozens of aging piers to funding
expanded open space and public access to the daily crisis on the Embarcadero
of over-capacity traffic, transit and parking. At this critical time,
San Francisco's waterfront urgently needs strong leadership from the Port
Commission, which is primarily responsible for the waterfront's future.
Please contact Mayor Newsom today at (415) 554-6141 or Gavin.Newsom@sfgov.org
and urge him to promptly appoint three new, qualified members to the Port
Commission. San Francisco's waterfront needs their help. See www.onewaterfront.com
for more.
A bigger, better
Natural Areas Management Plan
Lisa Wayne, director of the Natural Areas Program, a part of the city's
Recreation and Parks Department, spoke at the May meeting of the San Francisco
Tomorrow Board of Directors. She brought with her a copy of the third
revision of the Natural Areas Management Plan, a document thicker than
the Manhattan telephone book. There will probably be hearing at the Recreation
and Parks Commission in June on whether to adopt this revision as the
Proposed Project and then let a contract for an environmental consultant
to do the EIR. Depending on the Initial Study that is done by the Planning
Department, there will be a mitigated negative declaration or a full EIR.
There were 2,700 comment letters written after the publication of the
first draft, about 80% of which were concerning two of the Natural Areas,
Pine Lake and Bernal Hil, where the controversy over whether to permit
off-leash dogs is greatest.
Changes since the first draft? New mappings of plant communities, color-keyed,
ranging from most sensitive to least sensitive, from most diverse to less
diverse, and from most active to ? least. In most-sensitive areas, mapped
red, dogs would have to be on leash; in other areas, o.k. to be off-leash.
This revision has been available since February 06 on line and in libraries.
For the City’s 31 Natural Areas studied, the Plan gives Issues and
Recommendations for each site. Implementation of the Plan would be by
Annual Work Plans.
Lisa Wayne flew back to Washington, D.C .recently to receive an award
from National Association of Counties for this remarkable Management Plan.
DON’T STAND UNDER THE SHELL-TER
Because of falling rosettes on the half-dome, this week the Golden Gate
Park Bandshell was wrapped in chain link fence. The problem of insecurely
attached rosettes has been known for the past two years but Recreation
and Parks took no action until early this year when inspectors came back
with a price of $600K to fix or $45K to wrap the entire area in netting
so that each 6.5-pound block won’t fall on anyone. Rec and Park
are writing a grant proposal to beg the state for funds to fix the Bandshell
shell. At the same time, they have had millions to sink into the Harding
Golf Complex. $4.5 million stolen directly from Concourse repairs went
to the new bar, er, clubhouse. Just operating the new Harding Complex
actually LOST the city $500K last year; the “revitalization”
of Harding was promised to be a big money earner for the City.
Now $250 million spent on the deYoung Museum and Concourse
Garage and the Concourse will still not be restored to its previous functioning
condition!
"Suppose you were an idiot . And suppose you were a member of
Congress . . .But I repeat myself." --Mark Twain
Sixth
San Francisco Ecological Restoration Conference.
Saturday, June 24th, 2006
8:30am-12:30pm and Field Trips at 1:30pm
Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way
Register at: steward@natureinthecity.org