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Garage Developer Threatens Golden Gate Park
Wells Fargo's F. Warren Hellman joined with his top gun from Bechtel Corporation, Dick Young, to send a strong message for the deYoung Museum:
WE ARE ABOVE THE LAW. WE ARE NOW IN POSSESSION OF THE MUSIC CONCOURSE AND WE CAN DESTROY IT AT WILL. SO SCREW YOU PEDESTRIANS, BICYCLISTS AND TREE HUGGERS! THE PARK IS OURS,CHUMPS!
WE ARE ABOVE THE LAW. WE ARE NOW IN POSSESSION OF THE MUSIC CONCOURSE AND WE CAN DESTROY IT AT WILL. SO SCREW YOU PEDESTRIANS, BICYCLISTS AND TREE HUGGERS! THE PARK IS OURS,CHUMPS!
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
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
For more information:
http://www.sfpix.com
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
Let's face it, these folks opposing the illegal garage are right.
There are 5500 surface parking spaces in Golden Gate Park and a simple shuttle could connect every one of them. There are hundreds more spaces available at the UCSF Parnassus parking garage, accessible by a three minute shuttle.
Thousands of SF residents have weighed in on this illegal scam and boondoggle, and they hired the best CEQA attorney in the state to sue the City to stop the theft.
Let the courts decide in May. We'll see who's whining then.
The Museums simply think that they are above the law because they have controlled the Rec and Parks Department for so long. Had they not let the park fall into such disrepair, there wouldn't be so much concern about their turning it into a car park and commercializing it to death.
Prop J was about Taking the Park from the People, a privatization project straight from the folks who've brought you warm and fuzzy feelings about privatizing Baghdad and War without End.
Privatization is theft, and it makes racketeering seem so much more respectable when it's dressed up to appear as if it is something good when it is not. It's theft and the people behind the garage are perpetrating a fraud on the City.
.02
There are 5500 surface parking spaces in Golden Gate Park and a simple shuttle could connect every one of them. There are hundreds more spaces available at the UCSF Parnassus parking garage, accessible by a three minute shuttle.
Thousands of SF residents have weighed in on this illegal scam and boondoggle, and they hired the best CEQA attorney in the state to sue the City to stop the theft.
Let the courts decide in May. We'll see who's whining then.
The Museums simply think that they are above the law because they have controlled the Rec and Parks Department for so long. Had they not let the park fall into such disrepair, there wouldn't be so much concern about their turning it into a car park and commercializing it to death.
Prop J was about Taking the Park from the People, a privatization project straight from the folks who've brought you warm and fuzzy feelings about privatizing Baghdad and War without End.
Privatization is theft, and it makes racketeering seem so much more respectable when it's dressed up to appear as if it is something good when it is not. It's theft and the people behind the garage are perpetrating a fraud on the City.
.02
For more information:
http://www.sfpix.com
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