article: Lennar's plan illustrates San Francisco's redevelopment problem | San Francisco Bay Guardian

Lennar's plan illustrates San Francisco's redevelopment problem
San Francisco Bay Guardian | 07.26.10  | Sarah Phelan

read the article and comments: http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/07/26/lennars-plan-illustrates-san-franciscos-redevelopment-problem

Today, the Board of Supervisors confirmed that though they are elected officials, they have been told that they can't do anything except second a massive redevelopment plan for the Bayview that was developed, first by Mayor Willie Brown and then by Mayor Gavin Newsom's administrations. in cohoots with Lennar, an out-of-state private developer, and approved by a bunch of Brown and Newsom's political appointees.
"At this point, a deal has been done and the Board has been neutralized," Arc Ecology's Saul Bloom said today. "It says a great deal about the process."
Bloom spent today visiting the supervisors to explain the problems with the current Lennar plan, including a bridge that is proposed to be built across the environmentally sensitive Yosemite Slough.
"Sup. Ross Mirkarimi said the bridge plan reminds him of the exact same through way that was argued for during the Fillmore plan," Bloom said."That would never happen now, at least not overtly,
Bloom added that shopping the no-bridge alternative around to the Board today wasn't exactly uplifting.
"The sense we got was that we were dragging a dead body around."
So far, Board President David Chiu has taken major heat by deciding to suggest a narrower bridge rather than no bridge.
But at least he took a stand. That is more than can be said for those colleagues of his on the Board that sat silently through the July 13/14 proceedings, presumably making sure they can be reelected with the help of deep-pocketed developers.
Here's hoping that this latest redevelopment charade convinces the progressives on the Board to reform the Redevelopment Agency, so that private developers and political appointees can no longer trump the legitimate concerns of the residents of San Francisco and their duly elected supervisors
And no matter what people in the Bayview have been led to believe, the sad truth if that the promised jobs and housing aren't likely to happen any time soon.
"The developer is not going to be running hog wild out there," Bloom observed. "Part of the sad trick is that the only rush was for them to have control over the property."
Bloom predicts that the plan will ultimately be headed to court.
"They will have lawsuits and elections to contend with," he said. "The message that the environmental community takes away from all this is that it doesn't pay to play well. No matter how much you spend to try and ensure that litigation is not the only way to obtain the desired outcome, ultimately the message that comes back from the city and the developer is, 'Sue us!' That brings out the worst political conduct not the most appropriate."
The good news? Lennar's Treasure Island's EIR is on the street, and environmental justice advocates should be fully versed in reading such hefty tomes and figuring out where the body is buried. The bad news? Redevelopment and the Mayor's Office still control the process.

read the article and comments: http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/07/26/lennars-plan-illustrates-san-franciscos-redevelopment-problem
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article: The bridge isn’t the only problem with Lennar’s plan | San Francisco Bay Guardian

The bridge isn’t the only problem with Lennar’s plan
San Francisco Bay Guardian | 07.26.10 | Sarah Phelan

read the full article:  http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/07/26/bridge-isn%E2%80%99t-only-problem-lennar%E2%80%99s-plan

Kelly worries that the city and Lennar’s joint redevelopment plan is being allowed to squeak past the Board’s financial review simply on the basis of vague estimates.
“They rely once again on promises that won’t show up,” Kelly said, pointing to a recent report that emerged from the Controller’s Office.
Arc Ecology’s Saul Bloom notes that the Controller used averaged figures in that report, an approach that neatly obscures the fact that many of the project’s alleged and benefits-- will not be created or felt for years. Bloom for his part is hoping the Board can introduce a maritime uses amendment. This would allow relatively unskilled jobs to be created at the shipyard in short order, compared to vague promises of building a green tech office park there, some day.

 read the full article:  http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/07/26/bridge-isn%E2%80%99t-only-problem-lennar%E2%80%99s-plan
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article: At Hunters Point, a Shrinking Bridge Does Not Appease | The New York Times

At Hunters Point, a Shrinking Bridge Does Not Appease
The New York Times
By ZUSHA ELINSON
Published: July 24, 2025

read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/us/25bcbridge.html

If it gets built, the bridge over Yosemite Slough will surely be a monument to political compromise.

The bridge is but a sliver of Lennar’s 10,500-home project, to be built on the old Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The project is now in the final stages of approval after years of planning. But environmentalists have vigorously opposed plans to span the mouth of the slough — a San Francisco Bay inlet bordered by a state park. They say it will damage wetlands and wildlife, and ruin the view.
The bridge has become a 950-foot-long chicken bone that keeps getting stuck in San Francisco politicians’ throats.
David Chiu, president of the Board of Supervisors, effectively cut the bridge in half — to two lanes from four — to help the Lennar project win an important vote two weeks ago. And on Thursday Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said he would try to amend the plan to eliminate the bridge altogether.
“They would never think of putting a bridge in a park like the Presidio or Crissy Field,” Mr. Mirkarimi said.
People involved in the planning privately joke that what started as an expansive overpass will end up as a footbridge.
Lennar maintains that the bridge is critical to connect the isolated Bayview neighborhood to the rest of the city and to manage traffic flow when the 49ers play at nearby Candlestick Park. Original plans called for a bridge 81 feet wide — wider than the Bay Bridge — with four lanes for buses and cars and other lanes for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Arc Ecology and the California State Parks Foundation were appalled.
The parks foundation, which is restoring the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area around the slough, dropped its opposition after the width of the bridge was halved. Kofi Bonner, who directs the project for Lennar, said the developer and the foundation were in talks about a less-intrusive “higher and narrower” design. The smaller 41-foot-wide version would allow buses, bikes and pedestrians, but no cars.
The changes have not appeased the Sierra Club, and Arthur Feinstein, a member, said the club was prepared to sue.
“That we’re going to put a bridge there to save two minutes of travel time, it’s mind-boggling that liberal San Francisco is proposing this,” Mr. Feinstein said.
Although sources familiar with the board said that as of this week there were enough votes to stymie Mr. Mirkarimi and to approve the smaller bridge, Mr. Chiu said he would “listen to both sides.”
But he maintained that the “alternative of not having the bridge would make it difficult for this project to work.”

A version of this article appeared in print on July 25, 2010, on page A25A of the National edition.

read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/us/25bcbridge.html 

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article: Even Abridged, Span Meets Resistance | The Bay Citizen

Even Abridged, Span Meets Resistance
Proposed bridge at Lennar's Hunters Point development is half the original plan
The Bay Citizen
By Zusha Elinson
July 24, 2025

Even Abridged, Span Meets Resistance - The Bay Citizen

If it gets built, the bridge over Yosemite Slough will surely be a monument to political compromise.
The bridge is but a sliver of Lennar’s 10,500-home project, to be built on the old Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The project is now in the final stages of approval after years of planning. But environmentalists have vigorously opposed plans to span the mouth of the slough — a San Francisco Bay inlet bordered by a state park. They say it will damage wetlands and wildlife, and ruin the view.
The bridge has become a 950-foot-long chicken bone that keeps getting stuck in San Francisco politicians’ throats.
Board of Supervisors President David Chiu effectively cut the bridge in half — to two lanes from four — to help the Lennar project win an important vote two weeks ago. And on Thursday Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said he would try to amend the plan to eliminate the bridge altogether.
“They would never think of putting a bridge in a park like the Presidio or Crissy Field,” Mirkarimi said.
People involved in the planning privately joke that what started as an expansive overpass will end up as a footbridge.
Lennar maintains that the bridge is critical to connect the isolated Bayview neighborhood to the rest of the city and to manage traffic flow when the 49ers play at nearby Candlestick Park. Original plans called for a bridge 81 feet wide — wider than the Bay Bridge — with four lanes for buses and cars and other lanes for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Arc Ecology and the California State Parks Foundation were appalled.
The parks foundation, which is restoring the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area around the slough, dropped its opposition after the width of the bridge was halved. Kofi Bonner, who directs the project for Lennar, said the developer and the foundation were in talks about a less-intrusive “higher and narrower” design. The smaller 41-foot-wide version would allow buses, bikes and pedestrians, but no cars.
The changes have not appeased the Sierra Club, and Arthur Feinstein, a member, said the club was prepared to sue.
“That we’re going to put a bridge there to save two minutes of travel time, it’s mind-boggling that liberal San Francisco is proposing this,” Feinstein said.
Although sources familiar with the board said that as of this week there were enough votes to stymie Mirkarimi and to approve the smaller bridge, Chiu said he would “listen to both sides.”
But he maintained that the “alternative of not having the bridge would make it difficult for this project to work.”

This article also appears in the Bay Area section of The New York Times.



read the article: http://www.baycitizen.org/development/story/even-abridged-span-over-wetlands-meets/
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Rumors fly that Board can't amend Lennar deal, after all | San Francisco Bay Guardian

Rumors fly that Board can't amend Lennar deal, after all | San Francisco Bay Guardian

28 July: Hunters Point Shipyard Business Technical Meeting

The Department of the Navy invites the community to participate in a Hunters Point Shipyard Business Technical Meeting. The Navy will be discussing and answering questions regarding the current groundwater remediation field work on Parcel C.

Hunters Point Shipyard Parcel C Groundwater Remediation Field Work

Wednesday, July 28, 2025
6:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

Bayview YMCA - Conference Room
1601 Lane Street
San Francisco, CA 94124

For more information on the cleanup activities at Hunters Point Shipyard, please contact:

Mr. Keith Forman
Navy Base Realignment and Closure Environmental Coordinator
1455 Frazee Road, Suite 900
San Diego, CA 92108-4310
Local telephone number: (415) 308-1458
Office telephone number: (619) 532-0913
Fax number: (619) 532-0995
E-mail: [email protected]
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article: Redevelopment requires “duty of loyalty” from Arc Ecology | San Francisco Bay Guardian

Redevelopment requires “duty of loyalty” from Arc Ecology
San Francisco Bay Guardian SFBG
07.21.2010 | Sarah Phelan

Redevelopment requires “duty of loyalty” from Arc Ecology | San Francisco Bay Guardian

As a longtime member of the Mayor’s Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), Scott Madison took exception to a "duty of loyalty" clause in Arc Ecology’s most recent contract with the Redevelopment Agency.

This new requirement in Arc's contract came up for discussion during the CAC’s July 12 meeting, Madison said.The rest of CAC did not rise up in support of his concerns, Madison adds. But he is convinced the requirement will harm the community that surrounds the 770-acre area that the city and Lennar want to develop with their massive Candlestick-Shipyard redevelopment plan.

The Board of Supervisors will consider that plan at their July 27 meeting, along with suggestions that Arc and the Sierra Club have been making for years. These suggestions include strengthening the terms governing the transfer of Parcel E-2, the most polluted shipyard site, and removing what Arc and the Sierra Club believe is an unnecessary bridge over the environmentally sensitive Yosemite Slough.

Arc has been monitoring the environmental impacts of the shipyard since 1984, and has provided neighborhood groups with information and technical support related to cleanup and redevelopment since 1986. And more recently, Arc Ecology opened a “community window on the shipyard cleanup" on Third Street, which is also accessible online, to provide information and resources for more meaningful community involvement in the cleanup.

Arc hosts environmental education discussions and community workshops and submits written comments to the Navy about the cleanup and to appropriate agencies on related shipyard redevelopment and reuse plans.

“We are working with the BVHP community to ensure that the transfer, redevelopment, and reuse are to the maximum benefit of the neighboring community,” Arc’s website states.

But in the past few years, as Lennar’s political Candlestick-Shipyard juggernaut has been gathering speed, Arc has ruffled feathers in the Mayor’s Office by developing Alternatives For Study, a document that explores detailed alternativesto the current Candlestick-Shipyard plan.

None of ARC's alternatives are opposed to the development, but they all suggest ways to improve it, including an option that would not involve building a bridge over the slough, or a stadium on the shipyard, and would prevent the taking of 23 acres of state park land which Lennar wants so it can build luxury waterfront condos in the middle of the current Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, a plan that would be unthinkable if it was proposed for Crissy Field.

But the city, and in particular Michael Cohen, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s top economic advisor, view these alternatives, as signs of disloyalty, as they seek to rush Lennar’s massive 770-acre redevelopment plan over the finishing line, while arguing that any further amendments will make the plan more difficult for Lennar to shop around to investors, especially in light of the depressed economy.

The growing coziness between the city and the developer was put on full public display last week, when Sup. David Campos asked the project’s proponents to step forward at the Board’s July 13 hearing on the project’s EIR.

As Lennar Urban’s Kofi Bonner began to rise from his seat in the public seating area, Cohen, who had just finished answering Campos’ questions about the bridge and the project’s financing liabilities from the city’s bullpen in the Board’s chambers, raced over to the podium before Bonner had a chance to speak.

This uneasy closeness between city and developer, along with Arc’s extensive background in shipyard related matters, are why Madison believes the city’s residents are best served when Arc can express its opinions freely, even if that involves critiquing plans that the city seems to have grown increasingly defensive about, ever since it entered into a partnership with the Florida-based Lennar.

“Yes, it’s true that the city is paying for this contract with Arc, but it seems to me that this particular contractor’s responsibility should be primarily to the Citizen’s Advisory Committee, and not the city,” Madison said. “What if Arc reaches a conclusion that is odd with the developer, city agencies and other consultants? Would Arc be prohibited from making it public?”

Madison says the city has claimed that Arc would not be prohibited from such activities, and that the contract contains standard language. But he also adds that certain parties who are boosters for the city’s redevelopment plan object to what Arc and Bloom are doing in terms of raising valid science-based concerns.

“At the meeting, Al Norman said he hopes the Redevelopment Agency handcuffs Saul, not just by the hands but by the ankles,” Madison claimed.

And Bloom said that after his group made a video of him walking around wearing a "Can I buy your park?" billboard to illustrate what Lennar's plan will do to the only state park in San Francisco, he was told that if Willie Brown was still mayor, Arc would have lost its contract, and all department heads who had been supportive of awarding it to Arc, would have been fired, too

Bloom notes that under Mayor Brown, he was awarded several contracts and helped author Prop. P, the measure that voters approved in 2000, which called upon the Navy to clean up the shipyard to the highest levels practical.

“Even Willie understood the need for balance,” Bloom said.

Bloom protested the city's "duty of loyalty" requirement at the CAC’s July 12 meeting, but has apparently decided that the clause isn’t an insurmountable obstacle, because he has apparently since signed the contract.

But Madison notes that it’s common sense that if you want a truly independent voice advising Redevelopment on the shipyard cleanup plan, then that voice should be allowed to be genuinely independent.

“The fact that the city is paying the bill for the contract shouldn’t require an organization to sign an extraordinary Duty of Loyalty, which conflicts with its true loyalty to the surrounding community,” Madison said.

The Guardian’s recent immediate disclosure request to Redevelopment should reveal the exact terms of Arc’s Duty of Loyalty requirement. And Matt Dorsey, spokesperson for the City Attorney’s Office says such clauses are rare.

“We are unaware of any confidentiality requirements being made, except in very rare circumstances, such as contracts related to the airport where there may be terrorist concerns,” Dorsey said. Stay tuned.

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http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/07/21/redevelopment-requires-%E2%80%9Cduty-loyalty%E2%80%9D-arc-ecology
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Arc Ecology and Anders & Anders team up for job services

Arc Ecology and Anders & Anders Foundation meet the needs of ex-offenders and break the cycle of recidivism.

Jobs in CONSTRUCTION
PRE-APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS

Call for appointment and hours:

Terry Anders 415-309-6330
Mindy Kener 415-385-5721

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article: Make or break time for shipyard project | San Francisco Chronicle

Make or break time for shipyard project
C.W. Nevius
San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, July 13, 2025

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/12/BAM71ED7S7.DTL#ixzz0uGgFRuor

Saul Bloom is executive director of Arc Ecology, which has been monitoring the cleanup in Hunters Point since 1986. He's managed to walk the middle so effectively that he's made both the developers and the opponents angry. Mostly what he's seen is two sides yelling past each other.

"The polarization between the pro- and anti- sides has taken all the air away from what I call the reasonable middle - those of us that want the project to be approved, but improved," Bloom said in an e-mail. "So the only stories that ever get told are the Lennar City point of view or the wacky, seeming rude opponents. Sad."

Coming together is possible. For instance, Bloom's group is adamantly opposed to a transit bridge over Yosemite Slough. He says if the bridge is built, the environmental community will raise legal obstacles at every turn. Cancel the bridge, Bloom says, "and all that goes away."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/12/BAM71ED7S7.DTL#ixzz0uGRgbzNx

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/12/BAM71ED7S7.DTL

article: Study highlights shipyard benefits on eve of vote | San Francisco Examiner

Study highlights shipyard benefits on eve of vote
San Francisco Examiner
Katie Worth
July 13, 2025

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: Study highlights shipyard benefits on eve of vote | San Francisco Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — Thousand of jobs could be created and more than $20 billion over 20 years could be injected into The City’s economy by redeveloping the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, according to a city report released on the eve of a critical vote.

The mammoth plan to re-create the former military property — which will add 10,500 new homes and 885,000 square feet of retail space to The City — has been wending its way through the approval process. Today, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to weigh in on several appeals to the project’s environmental impact report. If supervisors find the appeals valid, the project could be set back.

San Francisco would gain about 2,100 jobs a year during the 20-year project, according to the report by the city controller’s Office of Economic Analysis. The numbers hinge on whether a new stadium for the 49ers is constructed or whether the land is used for an office and laboratory center for science and technology companies.

The full project would add about $11 billion to The City’s property tax base. The vast majority of tax money will go back into developing the neighborhood, with $4.8 million a year going into city coffers for the first 45 years of the project’s life.

But Saul Bloom of Arc Ecology, which has been contracted by The City to research and share environmental information about the project, warned that the job and economic impact numbers were not in fact as impressive as they could be. The report said during construction, the project is only expected to create an average of 2,100 direct and indirect jobs per year. He said only about 30 percent of the annual jobs created are likely to go to members of the community.

Concerns about the project were raised Monday during a hearing of the board’s Land Use and Economic Development Committee. Five amendments to the project proposed by board President David Chiu were approved.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Study-highlights-shipyard-benefits-on-eve-of-vote-98297559.html#ixzz0uGPAYXpr
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article: Bayview businesses back Lennar's Hunters Point bridge | San Francisco Business Times

Bayview businesses back Lennar's Hunters Point bridge
San Francisco Business Times
J.K.Dineen
Monday, July 12, 2025

Read more: Bayview businesses back Lennar's Hunters Point bridge - San Francisco Business Times

Saul Bloom of Arc Ecology, which is pushing the alternative route, said the alternate route would cost about $50 million less than the bridge. While he said he sympathizes with the property owners, he said mass transit line is an appropriate use for the railroad right of way. He said Lennar’s plan to eliminate sidewalks and parking spaces on Ingalls and Innes streets will have an adverse impact on more property owners than building a road along the old tracks.

“While I can see that those individuals now squatting on the public property of the alignment may find it inconvenient to adjust, the modifications to Ingalls - actually quite close to takings - will have a far larger impacts on many of those businesses.”

Bloom said the alternative is the best bet for allowing the project to “move forward unimpeded by litigation and with the least impact to the environment, public, residents, and the neighborhood’s economy.”

“While I am sympathetic to the concerns of those few businesses the police have allowed to squat on the right of way, it nevertheless appears to be a very significant and untaxed public subsidy bestowed on a very small number of people apparently without ... any formal oversight or public process,” said Bloom.

Read more: Bayview businesses back Lennar's Hunters Point bridge - San Francisco Business Times

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http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/07/12/daily9.html
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article: Scientists and community reject Lennar’s EIR | San Francisco Bayview

Scientists and community reject Lennar’s EIR
San Francisco Bayview
July 12, 2025

read the full article: Scientists and community reject Lennar’s EIR

POWER and prominent environmental justice experts such as scientist Wilma Subra, the Sierra Club, Green Action and California for Renewable Energy (CARE) have voiced aggressive opposition to developing before a full cleanup of the Shipyard. POWER, CARE, the Sierra Club and Arc Ecology have all recently filed separate appeals to the joint Planning and Redevelopment Commission’s approval of the EIR.

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http://news.arcecology.org/2010/07/scientists-and-community-reject-lennars.html
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Man walks every street in San Francisco

A man named Tom Graham has finished walking every street in San Francisco:

Walking every street in San Francisco seemed an endless task. Pieced together, the pavement would stretch all the way from here to Juarez, Mexico.

Only a handful of people have done it. And now I can say I have. All 2,612 streets.

For the past year, I concentrated on walking Bayview-Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Treasure Island, Yerba Buena Island and the alleys in Chinatown, North Beach, downtown, Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill, South of Market and the Mission.

The shipyard resembles a ghost town. Streets empty. No street signs. Mazes of chain-linked fences topped with barbed wire block roadways. Long-abandoned buildings with broken and boarded-up windows and peeling lead paint line street corridors. Broken-down wharves are occupied by brown pelicans and seagulls. An eerie silence hangs over this once thriving World War II shipbuilding mecca.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/11/PKA21E6POL.DTL#ixzz0uGBdbZ1f