Garage Developer Threatens Golden Gate Park

ON March 12, Superior Court Judge Kevin McCarthy issued a ruling that financier Warren Hellman and his Music Concourse Community Partnership (MCCP) are likely to lose their garage battle in in the court trial beginning on May 10. He based his ruling on two of many legal complaints filed against the project. He immediately issued a preliminary injunction stopping all garage construction.

On March 25, conservative, Wilson-appointed appeals court judges ruled on behalf of the New deYoung and Hellman, and lifted the injunction, thereby exposing the Music Concourse and the historic tunnels to continued destruction.

The deYoung argued that without their garage they cannot open when scheduled in mid-2005, and that they cannot succeed financially otherwise.

In September, 2002, however, Deputy City Attorney Kate Stacy was singing another tune. She asserted that the New deYoung Museum, the California Academy of Sciences and their underground parking garage were separate projects that progress independently, on different timelines, and in different locations.

It is clear that the Environmental Impact Report produced for the garage project is flawed since it chopped the project into it's various parts to avoid studying the cumulative and potentially disastrous impact on the Park and area streets.

Save Golden Gate Park! is the legal defense committee for the Alliance for Golden Gate Park. Both are suing the project sponsor and "real party of interest" Hellman's MCCP, who represent the deYoung, and are now arguing an opposing point of law before the courts and in the corporate press.

In article after article, Hellman and deYoung offcials argue that the projects are so interdependant and inextricably linked that the New deYoung will fail without the garage!

http://www.sfexaminer.com/templates/story.cfm?displaystory=1&storyname=041204n_garage



Last week several dozen mature trees were chainsawed from above the southwest tunnel, the southeast tunnel and through out the south side of the concourse. While they told the appellate court judges that they wouldn't do any permanent or irreversible damage to the commons.

Take a look: http://www.sfpix.com

The entire concourse area is fenced off now by Swinerton Builderrs, the folks who are building the deYoung. They just took out the trees that represented almost a hundred years of history, as they prepare to destroy the tunnels.

Swinerton is also represented on the Board of the Presideo Trust, another prominent privatization project that has garnered opposition in recent years.

Join us on Sunday afternoons beginning at 1 PM next to the the Skater's Arena at JFK Drive and 6th Avenue. We will have more information and window signs. If the weather is sunny, we'll rally at 2 PM and march up JFK to view the diggings of the Hellman/Bechtel/deYoung Boondoggle. (And we'll continue to meet there on Sunday until our court case is heard, and throughout the trial.)

The security guards that are stationed at JFK Drive and MLK/Academy Drive entrances are not enforcing the no trespassing rules equally. Pedestrians and bicyclists are being allowed without any difficulty on weekdays, along with the #44 Muni Bus. This should continue.

There is no construction in the area on Sunday, and there is no reason to keep the public from enjoying access to OUR PARK.

The Music Concourse; Use it or lose it!

Save Golden Gate Park!
415-621-3090

Alliance for Golden Gate Park
415-661-7927

Trees Not Cars
415-387-5435