Like I said a few weeks back, once the Task Force realized they will save millions by building parking around the new Events Center instead of tearing down HW, they would change their song and dance;
A couple options come from road construction planned for 2011 and 2013, as outlined Wednesday by Mike Cooper, the city’s planning and zoning director.
Work on West Avenue and Russell Street, and buying commercial buildings on the north side of Russell, would give the city enough space for arena parking, he said. Longer-term possibilities include a redesign of Western Avenue, buyouts of area homes and other buildings west of the arena, and relocating the McCart softball fields.
Kinda sounds like their plan is changing everyday. While you are at it, why don’t you build the EC downtown and fund it with a BB & B Tax.
Dout there is space downtown to make center big enough for Gravedigger to haul balls full throttle . That is what is importint
L3wis shoots and scores.
and what the fuck are they thinking with:
“and buying commercial buildings on the north side of Russell, would give the city enough space for arena parking, he said. Longer-term possibilities include a redesign of Western Avenue, buyouts of area homes and other buildings west of the arena, and relocating the McCart softball fields.”
So now we are going to go out and buy the National Guard building, the Navy Reserve building, Scott Hoy’s office, First National Bank’s office, AAA building and the others along there so we can tear them down and have parking across the street? Did we not notice none of these places are for sale? So that means it will take years and we’d have to pay a premium on them just like the hostpitals have experienced. And if just one resists selling it torpedos the whole goddam idea.
There’s your $200 million plus price tag right there. This plan needs to go in the shredder and any Mayorial candidate that agrees will get mine and a lot of others support.
Anominous:
“Dout there is space downtown to make center big enough..”
There’s already plenty of space downtown, and when they finish pulling the tracks there’s another 20 new acres of ground within a 2 block radius.
It is still a work in progress. From convo’s I have had with DT people, there is still hope for the DT location. My feeling is that the funding source will fail big time, and it will go back to the drawing board. What I cannot figure out is why anyone would let Terri Ellis Schimidt tell them what is best? She runs an org that is subsidized by tax payers and loses money every year, all the while telling us the great economic impact the CVB has on SF. People who are invested in restaurants and hotels are the only ones seeing results.
Sy: And if just one resists selling it torpedos the whole goddam idea.
There is always that awesome “eminent domain” option, but it seems more reasonable to go West considering the values of those homes and the fact that we would have to build a pedestrian bridge over 4 lanes and a median if we went North.
Still a lame idea any way you slice it. The existing Arena location is the worst possible location and yet seems to be the only option the braintrust task force is willing to speak about.
I feel bad for Jim Woster. I really have a lot of respect for Jim, and I think he is trying to make the best of a bad situation and is having zero luck getting the ‘HAVES’ on the the TF listen to his concerns about the retail tax increase.