San Francisco votes to completely erase naval shipyard with 10,000 houses

[Manedwolf]

Lennar. Builder of the most craptastic McMansions in S. Florida, the ones seen exploded all over the landscape after Andrew due to stapled-on roof boards, money saved on nails.

I wonder how they're going to correlate this with the next "Star Trek" movie, that is supposed to show spaceships being built in the shipyard there?

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco voters have approved a measure allowing Lennar Corp to move forward with the biggest redevelopment effort in the city since World War II, according to election results on Wednesday.

The measure was passing 61 percent to 39 percent and a rival measure that would have trimmed Lennar's plan for the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and neighboring Candlestick Point area was failing by 38 percent to 62 percent, according to unofficial results from an election on Tuesday.

Lennar could begin breaking ground as early as 2010, depending on the pace of land transfers by the U.S. Navy to San Francisco and necessary environmental remediation, according to a local spokesman for the Miami-based home builder.

Lennar plans to build up to 10,000 homes, including up to 3,500 affordable housing units, up to 2 million square feet of commercial space and up to 750,000 square feet of retail space on the property along San Francisco Bay.

Additionally, Lennar would set aside land and provide $100 million to help build a new and privately financed stadium for the San Francisco 49ers.

The measure passed by San Francisco voters on Tuesday undoes a 1997 measure that would have allowed the city to sell $100 million in debt to build a new 49ers stadium.

The owners of the National Football League franchise are in talks with Santa Clara, California, about building a new stadium there for the team.

Lennar has been working to redevelop the shipyard and the surrounding area since 1999. Its efforts have intensified in recent years and were helped by the 49ers' announcement in 2006 that they aimed to move.

Prominent officials, including San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and two high-profile city residents, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, had supported the measure backed by voters on Tuesday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0425517420080604





International African marketplace? Artist studios? Where the old Iowa-class battleships were once overhauled? And they even rejected the Iowa, because they hate military stuff...she's going to Stockton. Huh.

I mean, yes, I know it was pretty much abandoned, but...in light of the fact that the city rejected one of the battleships that was once there in the first place, to me, it comes off as erasing history. I sincerely doubt they'll have a shipyard museum showing all it did in WWII for the Pacific Fleet!

[The Annoyed Man]

Am I the only one who finds that picture quite beautiful?

[Manedwolf]

Am I the only one who finds that picture quite beautiful?

Which picture? The USS Iowa sitting in dock there back then, or the concept of the converted-to-multicultural-stuff-and-public-(?)-housing?

[AZRedhawk44]

Who the H#ll wants to live next to a sports stadium?  Ugh.

"African Marketplace?"  Is this where I get tie-die, green and yellow rasta beenies and drums for my hippie circle?  Or is it a nice and clean word for "drug emporeum?"

R&D Office Park... yeah... lots of smart scientist-types love working next to sports stadiums.  They have so much patience for traffic and congestion... and drum circles...    Sounds like a big old clusterf@ck waiting to happen.

Why can't they be honest and just say that the 49'ers threatened to leave and take their hookers with 'em, so the city bribed this developer with tax incentives while simultaneously making the military loathe the city and want to get out?

[AJ Dual]

Meh... Whatever.

I thought this was going to be about Alemeda. (phew) If they get rid of that WHERE ARE THE MYTHBUSTERS GOING TO BLOW UP CARS AND STUFF?  

[The Annoyed Man]

Am I the only one who finds that picture quite beautiful?

Which picture? The USS Iowa sitting in dock there back then, or the concept of the converted-to-multicultural-stuff-and-public-(?)-housing?

The one of the docks of course. I don't give a rats ass about modern housing developments and african marketplaces and multicultural nonsense.

I think this project will be just another run-down slum area fairly soon after it's completed. The leftists will surely love that. After all, they get a chance to help the "poor and underprivelieged" by giving over their money at knife/gunpoint .

[K Frame]

Hunter's Point hasn't been a naval shipyard for over a decade.

Right now it's just a huge, empty, nothing, with an enormous toxic waste problem.

[roo_ster]

SO, the armed services are closing down and giving away all these shipyards, based, etc.

So, when the next existential conflict arises, where do they think they are going to train the men, build the ships, train the pilots, etc?

[Manedwolf]

Hunter's Point hasn't been a naval shipyard for over a decade.

Right now it's just a huge, empty, nothing, with an enormous toxic waste problem.

Longer, I thought. 1970s for parts of it?

I don't mind redevelopment so much as what looks like the flavor of it. SF rejected the Iowa, which would have fit right in the drydock she used to be overhauled in repeatedly. I can guarantee you that there will be no war museum honoring the people who worked there, or the fact that the atomic bombs left from that yard after development work was done there. I doubt they'll preserve things like the optical building where people proofed periscopes for subs in WWII by sighting on city landmarks. (I've seen photos of that, it's still there)

From the hippie features to the "public housing projects" to the choice of a questionable developer known for cutting corners, it looks like it's going to be a typical bit of taxpayer-funded liberal fail. And that, to me, is rather sad for a place that was so important to the war in the Pacific. Deserves a better fate after cleanup, with a battleship on display and a museum at least.

SO, the armed services are closing down and giving away all these shipyards, based, etc.

So, when the next existential conflict arises, where do they think they are going to train the men, build the ships, train the pilots, etc?

They aren't all closing. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard here just got a massive infusion of funds for an updated Los Angeles-class submarine overhaul and fueling facility. I expect some others have had the same.

[Werewolf]

San Fran right? Gay marriage, free food and shelter for the homeless, no gun paradise...

So why in the plan are the scum of the earth to be housed on one side of the water and the artists, scientists and other affluent types to have homes built on the other with only a MAYBE bridge to connect them.

It's San Fran - seems a bit elitist to me. I thought they were an egalitarian bunch.

Ah well - guess that's what I get for thinkin'...

[Ezekiel]

Related to the USS Iowa, it made little sense to float her in a hostile SF environment -- disregarding legacy, of course -- with Alameda across the bay: where they could have parked her right next to the USS Hornet.  Hunter's Point just had a TON of obstacles and Hornet museum-types neither desired the Iowa cost, or competition for support, related to docking at Alameda.

I am just glad the ship will be preserved.

[gunsmith]

isn't that area landfill/superfund area?
I would hate to be there for a good sized quake.

[LadySmith]

How's about the rest of the country vote to erase San Francisco and replace it with a naval shipyard?
Those of us in other parts of the Bay Area are just placing bets as to how long The City takes to implode.

[280plus]

How's about the rest of the country vote to erase San Francisco and replace it with a naval shipyard?

I vote YAY! 

Yes, few things are cooler than walking under a full sized ship in drydock. 

[HankB]

"International African Marketplace" at the upper right of the city's develpment plan picture . . . being located so close to the docks, this sounds like the new, politically correct name for slave market. 

[Manedwolf]

How's about the rest of the country vote to erase San Francisco and replace it with a naval shipyard?
Those of us in other parts of the Bay Area are just placing bets as to how long The City takes to implode.

I'm good with that.

[AJ Dual]

How's about the rest of the country vote to erase San Francisco and replace it with a naval shipyard?
Those of us in other parts of the Bay Area are just placing bets as to how long The City takes to implode.

So you want to force the cancer to flee and metastasize across a wider area?

Personally, I'd commence with an arial spraying program of patchatouli oil, and, er... random drawings for Volvo's as door prizes to make them all cling even tighter to the area.

[Boomhauer]

How's about the rest of the country vote to erase San Francisco and replace it with a naval shipyard?
Those of us in other parts of the Bay Area are just placing bets as to how long The City takes to implode.

So you want to force the cancer to flee and metastasize across a wider area?

Personally, I'd commence with an arial spraying program of patchatouli oil, and, er... random drawings for Volvo's as door prizes to make them all cling even tighter to the area.

I vote for a few neutron bombs to do the erasing. Then we could ride cable cars and motorcycles up and down the hills at high speed.

Take it over for APS. It's a pretty area, just get rid of the hippies. And, it's a perfect home base for our pirate hunting expedition. We'll declare it autonomous from California and the US.

[Tuco]

Am I the only one who finds that picture quite beautiful?

No. 
I find the shipyard picture beautiful, also.

[AZRedhawk44]

Take it over for APS. It's a pretty area, just get rid of the hippies. And, it's a perfect home base for our pirate hunting expedition. We'll declare it autonomous from California and the US.

And then we can take the USS Iowa and re-commission it as the APS Iowa!  Yar!

[flynlr]

Am I the only one who finds that picture quite beautiful?

No. 
I find the shipyard picture beautiful, also.

I love that picture and here it is today .. so sad

[Leatherneck]

SO, the armed services are closing down and giving away all these shipyards, based, etc.

So, when the next existential conflict arises, where do they think they are going to train the men, build the ships, train the pilots, etc?

Others of us also worry that the BRAC process is irreversible. Once the facilities are converted to civilian use, it's unlikely that they could ever be recreated in time of emergency.

TC

[MicroBalrog]

SO, the armed services are closing down and giving away all these shipyards, based, etc.

So, when the next existential conflict arises, where do they think they are going to train the men, build the ships, train the pilots, etc?

Others of us also worry that the BRAC process is irreversible. Once the facilities are converted to civilian use, it's unlikely that they could ever be recreated in time of emergency.

TC

Have you ever heard of the "Peace Dividend"? Do we EVER get to collect?

[Fly320s]

and necessary environmental remediation

So, who has to pay to clean-up the toxic waste?



The artice says up to 10,000 house, surely they mean up to 10,000 housing units.  I.e: condo-minimums.

[PTK]

Wait, wait, I have a GREAT plan guys... let's take even more unstable coastland and build 10,000 homes, a stadium, and shopping centers on it. That way, when the next quake ruins this area, we'll be out ANOTHER few billion on top of the rest of the VERY BAD locations we've chosen to build!


"Hey, sounds great!"