By Patrick Monk, special to Fog City Journal
May 5, 2008
I know I’m not the sharpest tack in the box, but I just don’t understand why Lennar’s profit motive should be a factor in making decisions about the future of our city, apart from the fact that many of our ‘elected representatives’ may have a vested pecuniary interest in their success.
It seems that Lennar’s ‘expertise’ lies mainly in amassing development rights to large swaths of real estate, building substandard homes, draining enormous sums of money out of local communities and then losing it in other speculative schemes. Even when our co-opted politicos and corporate civic leaders essentially give away city property and cut unenforceable sweetheart deals, they renege on their promises pleading poverty.
I know that this may be a simplistic, perhaps radical, way out of the box idea – so was flying to the moon on gossamer strings before we made the committment to do so – but are there not any number of large and small local companies, builders, suppliers, developers etc, capable of performing most of the tasks required?
Do we not have experienced local talent capable of creating the managerial supra and infra-stucture needed to manage operations?
Would this not potentially create thousands of good jobs for locals and recirculate a significant amount of money back into the local economy?
Don’t we already ‘own’ the land, and could it not be used to leverage financing?
Why should we give our assets to an out-of-state corporation to rescue them from junk bond status and possible bankruptcy?
Why can we not maintain local control of local development, in the public interest and for the public good?
Why not create a ‘city owned’ company whose executives and staff are public employees, whose compensation and performance are subject to public scrutiny, with sub-contractors legally required to be in compliance with all city rules and regulations?
No more obscene salaries and bonuses for incompetents while a city resident may get a temporary, part time, minimum wage job as a flag waver, or cleaning up toxic refuse. Hell, it might even give privateers like Newsom and Maxwell Inc. more opportunities to dip their snoughts in the public trough.
It’s not like the city and the Department of Public Works doesn’t already manage large projects, albeit not always as efficiently as we would like. Yeah, it’s another bureaucracy, which I abhor, but at least it would be ours and we could exert some direction and control over the project.
Would this not create profit and employment opportunities for big and small local business and city residents, not to mention the trickle down economic benefits that would also be indirectly realized?
This Redevelopment Agency/Lennar scam is all too reminiscent of PG&E’s monopoly and Pelosi’s sell-out of the Presidio. I was one of many who supported alternative uses compared to Pelosi’s gift to special interests.
The number one prerequisite, and probably the most problematic as it conflicts with the aims of our local oligarchy, is to regain and retain local control over development. The socio-economic problems of today are similar, though more dire, than those that existed back then; primarily homelessness, unemployment and job training opportunities.
What was needed was some kind of Public Works project. Most of the homeless and under-employed, particularly veterans, possess skills that, with a little support and encouragement, could be taught to others.
I would imagine that amongst this population that had become alienated and discarded by our society you would have found, and still could, folks with all the skills necessary to manage and maintain the Presidio; carpenters, plumbers, landscapers, architects, executives, law enforcement, doctors, nurses, cooks and bottle washers. I am also sure that more than sufficient local, state, federal and private monies could have been obtained to finance such a project. All it would have taken would have been the will and leadership to think outside the box and explore the possibilities of using the opportunity to not only reclaim, restore, and preserve this treasure we are entrusted with, but more importantly, our brothers and sisters who had fallen on hard times.
After an initial investment in reclaiming lost lives, providing decent housing, health care, a sense of purpose and a living wage, these folks could have not only provided the initial workforce to maintain the Presidio, but a continuous replenishment of workers through apprenticeship programs. It would also have created additional options and opportunities for the teachers and learners, who upon rehabilitation or graduation, could enter the private sector with marketable skills.
Instead, Pelosi and the Pacific Heights Mafia began the process of privatization and corporate control, which will only accelerate in the next four more years as Federal subsidies expire. Is everyone ready for a Disneyland by the Bay?
It may be too late to reverse the disastrous Presidio scam, but that does not mean we should repeat the same mistake – allowing robber barons to seize control of even more city assets and priceless waterfront public property.
YES on Prop F (Fairness), NO on prop G (Gentrification)
YES on 99. NO on 98.
Cindy Sheehan for Congress.
NO Governor Newsom.
The Hunger Site
May 6, 2008 at 9:19 am
cp0808.
I appreciate your feedback and comments, as I said, there are much sharper points. My points were why should Lennar make profit at our expense, in pursuit of this they have already gone back on a committment to build the first 400 ‘affordabe’ units. I absolutely agree that having the city manage the project raises all kinds of red flags, but as a perpetual cockeyed optimist I still have faith that IF people of good will and good intent stay true to a good cause then good things can happen. In our current climate of greed and nimbyism it would take a paradigm shift in consciousness which I realise is a lot to ask for, but what is our alternative.
It’s kinda like ‘deja vu all over again’. We are in a recession, at least most of us, who knows how deep, and drastic times require creative measures, not the same old shit. Amazing things were accomplished by the PWA during the Great Depression, are we less capable of similar achievements.
As for my language, I make no apolgies. As I told my wife when I hit 60, “OK, that’s it, no more velvet gloves, and pussy-footing around, it’s gonna be all curmudgeon all the time”, also I kinda like purple pampleteering prose – and alliteration ! I am so tired of seeing public employees and corporate flunkies with their pretty presentations and predictions based on selective data with little, if any, consideration of the true human impact, standing at the podium regurgitating the party line. I feel it is imperative that given the ever increasing privatization, corporatization and dehumanization of public policy, we have to fight over every dollar and development proposal.
One of the major reasons that the Bayview is marginalised results from decades of designed neglect, inadequate provision of essential city services and funds, and redlining by major financial institutions. This has all been part of a deliberate plan by the speculators to retake valuable land that they lost control of when the dispossessed residents of the Fillmore District sought refuge there after the last Redevelopment landgrab.
So in closing, yes, I do at times use ‘buzz-words’ like out-of-state corporations, but as stated above I believe it is vital that we reassert local control over public policy and the politicos who make it.
Thank you again for your attention and input.
Sincerely,
Patrick Monk.RN. Noe Valley.
End the White and Greenwashing of our city.
YES ON F. NO ON G.
YES ON 99. NO ON 98.
CINDY FOR CONGRESS.
May 5, 2008 at 12:25 pm
A basic understanding of Economics would suffice to understand that Lennar require profit to undertake a large capital investment.
To put it simply there are a number of other investments they could make with the same dollars so they have to choose the most profitable.
Even after “leverage financing” (borrowing against Government land is what you are proposing) no single or group of local small business would be able to raise the required capital. It is likely that Lennar will subcontract to local business (at the best price).
A city managed project is an option but given the fact that our local Government can not even fill the city’s potholes it does not bode well for a project this size, then the politicking of who would manage the funds and I can not see this project ever finishing. Your use of language like “Pelosi and the Pacific Heights Mafia” and “privateers like Newsom and Maxwell” validates my point that every dollar would be fought over, ensuring Bayview remain marginalized and under funded.
I also find it worrying when commentators on project chose to point out that a company is out of state. This is Isolationism on a local level; I thought America had moved on from this attitude after the great depression.