|
Just how much is that weed patch going to cost us?
I find Keith Fromm and his associates arrogant, obnoxious and aggressive.
If they chose to listen to my suggestions, they'd accomplish their goals
and develop the so-called Fish and Bowl while making friends of Pacifica
and of Pacificans.
I don't think they were smart or well-advised to sue the city, even though
they won the lawsuit, but it is also true that the leaders who lead our
city into this debacle of a lawsuit could have used more fiscally prudent
ways to achieve some sort of acceptable agreement. Surely if it had been
better handled, Pacifica would not be on the hook for so much money. We
citizens are perilously close to a financial disaster with no discernible
upside.
While I don't much care for Fromm and his group as people, nevertheless,
they're perfectly justified in removing weeds from their property, as
they'll be justified in developing the property for the benefit of owners
who've invested in and paid taxes on the land. The city will even come out
ahead several ways when some housing is put on that property.
I've yet to hear a good reason from a City staffer or Council member
explaining why this property has any value to Pacifica other than as an
efficient property tax producer after an appropriate number of homes or
condos are built. Until the bulldozers did their job of removing weeds and
trash, the F & B seems to have been only the home of a few coons and feral
cats. In that it's not different from my Linda Mar ranch home, where we
feed one of the neighborhood feral cats and try to keep the local raccoons
away from the cat food.
I've been waiting patiently for some rational civic leader to emerge who
will take us to the promised land on this matter, and on the other
horrendous financial problems which threaten our city. For example, the
city owns several acres on the San Bruno side of the Sweeney Ridge
parkland, and instead of seeking out a buyer who will give us the best
price possible, probably some developer type, the goal seems to be to give
the property away to open space fanatics who will pass it on to the GGNRA,
which in turn will make sure it's never used for anything worthwhile.
If the kind of thinking used in recent years about housing development had
been in place in 1953, Linda Mar would still be all artichokes and peas,
and thousands of Pacificans would not exist or would have grown up
elsewhere, perhaps in the Tenderloin or the Western Addition or the
Haight-Ashbury.
Think about it. You might have had to put up with eight years of Willie
Brown and Terrance Hallinan. Or you'd simply not exist.
While I can see many areas where our city cries out desperately for
leadership, I hope we can do it with the leaders we've elected. I've never
understood those who would recall politicians except when those politicians
were taking money under the table. We elected the present council to make
decisions, just as we elected the previous council in the early nineties to
make decisions. I disagreed in 1992 with that recall, successful though it
was, and I hope the present effort to recall will be defeated soundly. I
think the best way to defeat the current recall effort would start with
rehiring Dave Carmany as City Manager and finding some inexpensive
compromise with the owners and would-be developers of the Fish and Bowl
properties.
Paul Azevedo expresses his own opinions as The Reactor. His
e mail address is Paul@thereactor.net.
Check The Reactor's website at www.thereactor.net.
|
