UNITS PLANNED ON POLLUTED ENVIRONMENT
AT THE FORMER SCHLAGE LOCK PROPERTY (12/06/10)
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The old Schlage Lock property ones employed thousands and generated a lot of income to the businesses around Little Hollywood and Visitation Valley. Further away on San Bruno Avenue in San Francisco. In its hay day when Armininos, La Bella Pizza, Lido's, and a host of other businesses attracted good customers and prosperity was seen everywhere.
When the Schlage Lock Company decided to move away, it failed to do the necessary clean up and so this was brought to the attention of the Department of Toxic and Substances Control (DTSC) and other regulatory agencies. The main issue was with the dumping of the toxic waste such as chromes waste. The entire area has its Watershed polluted. This one fact should keep people from building high density units on this site. However, Sophie Maxwell, Fran Martin, and a few others are quick to exploit. The main goal is not so much the interests of those that will live there; but to exploit the developers to give money to build some facilities in and around Visitation Valley with some of that money funneled elsewhere without any accountability and transparency. Fake meetings have been held where most folks that have little knowledge about good planning, and less about toxins and dangerous particulates, people participate in good faith, encouraged by SF Planning Department and the SF Redevelopment Agency that has NO intention what so ever to help anyone, less the constituents, that are being taken for a ride. As recently as a few weeks ago, the toxins have surfaced and the constituents informed about some wells that have been bored to address the situation. However the area is bombarded by other very dangerous particulates from the millions of vehicles that ply on the road less then fifty feet from the site. The Brisbane Petroleum tanks are close to the site and emit fumes that are not taken into consideration. Further, the Southern Pacific tracks are polluted and an areas some ten square acres plus - further polluted by the past activities of Santa Fe and South Pacific - same snake different head. Some years ago Home Depot wanted to build a build a place to show case their products but Fran Martin with Sophie Maxwell led the charge to send Home Depot packing away. When Home Deport decided to build their facilities at the old Goodman's Lumber, they met with obstacles from Tom Ammiano and other small business, further away and closer to Mission. Now, we have a LOWES because Home Depot decided to turn over and make some money linked to their long fought and hard won permits; to LOWES and make good of what they had in hand. The above point is made because Sophie Maxwell positions herself to make money on any deal. If fact she made money with Home Depot and it's initially standing at the former Goodman's Lumber. Then she made deals with LOWES, the second time around and took money and saw that $750,000 was given to Young Community Developers (YCD). Prior to that YCD also got money from Home Depot even though they decided not to build anything at the old Goodman Lumber - site and wasted money on so called training and other machinations. High density units more inferior buildings have been built in recent years and we see thousands of them on the Third Street corridor. No one is buying these units and even when these units are put for rent. There has been no movement for over three years on these brand new units. I have stated this fact again and again but no one seems to be paying any attention. In the interim the present economic crises has hit everyone. Middle class is suffering badly, so you can imagine the thousands of poor that have no jobs and less no food to put on the table. You can imagine the thousands of youth that go to bed hungry and the elderly who live on fixed income and have no money left past the first week of every month and surely after the second month. The average income to put it the scene into perspective is around $10,000. The various centers that distribute food through the San Francisco Food Bank are their only salvation of the very poor. Our politicians are not aware of this and could not care less, not Sophie Maxwell and for sure not anyone that pretends to represent and has not been doing due diligence. To add fuel to fire the San Francisco Planning Department is in a mess. Some Senior Planner led by the Zoning Czar Larry Badner were caught red handed, distributing pornographic material while at work. In all over ten of them, all supposedly with a lot of experience, many Senior Planner- were fired. Our SF Planning Department has long been corrupt and favored Big Developers that have bribed them. This is not a secret; the present economy does not allow anyone to do business easily. Most hurt are crooked Big Developers who cannot access banks and financial institution without any sound equity. The old days of gaining fake loans and deceiving are long gone - even Lennar with its own Financial Institution is hurting so bad that it is slowly drowning, in the CESSPOOL of its own creation. Just like I predicted a long time ago and have again and again and again that this would happen. It does not help that Michael Cohen has jumped ship and formed his own Real Estate office. Tiffany Bohey, Michael Cohen side-kick, is also confused and will lose more sleep, even as she tries to stay afloat. The SF Redevelopment Agency and its corrupt Commission - can bluff so much - now, they are all at a stage where the hens are coming home to roost. It is called KARMA - you show bad seed and guess what you reap the worse of worst and that is what is happening right now. The crooks are looking at their conceptual plans. The have just awoken from their on going lies and dream. The dream has turned into the worst nightmare of their lives. The many sellouts do not know what to do, the well is dry, and they talking and say boldly, remember what Francisco said, it is true! Further, reality is hitting other Big Developers in some measure and they are all hurting. We will see this with Tutor Saliba jumping ship and going into the Entertainment Business. Long know for its ties in construction and its deep ties with the thug, former Mayor or San Francisco - Willie L. Brown Jr. Another developers that has maxed out on its surety bonding, Webcor. A Big Developer it is flaking with its contracted employees protesting because Webcor cannot pay for work done - in some cases, six and seven months after the job was completed. We are seeing changes and watching the Big Boys consolidate and prepare themselves to begin the begin - Parsons has been bought by Belfour - and, who is Belfour you may ask, well find out and you will learn a little more. Jacobs is positioning itself an East Coast firm doing well on the West Coast. Shaw and Tetra Tech are working on our polluted Navy base and both of them want more but the Department of Defense budget will be less - in coming years. Signs of the times. The John Stewart Company is wasting time, delaying and pussyfooting around Hunterview closer to Parcel A that Lennar is doing nothing about and has defaulted on the Disposition and Development Agreement. The corrupt, inept, SF Redevelopment is linked to these projects but being a quasi-State agency, anything goes. The State of California has expanded over $150 million to the John Stewart Company that has used it elsewhere but not on the Huntersview Project. John Stewart was once fired from Fanny Mae - go figure! The SF Redevelopment is also linked to the Schlage Lock area, the area on Potrero Hill with Bridge Developers and of course a large tract of land that Mercy Housing wants to develop at Sunnydale. The bastards, cannot do much because the economy is spiraling and being sucked by this big black hole and money is non existent. Moreover, the SF City and County of San Francisco has no leadership and the promises Gavin Newsom made on all the above projects and Treasure Island - mostly hot air and is evaporating. Gavin Newsom is out and all his drab talk, ploys and machinations, the cluster fuck of conceptual plans including the recent one linked to the Americas World Cup is - just that a - cluster fuck. The Main Media and even the on line blogs seem not to investigate and with poor investigative reporting comes poor facts - and that is what we read all the time. Some think it is the truth when it is not and mostly - all garbage and to those that know another word for human waste - excreta. In areas where people cannot go to college and have no access to expertise you have hot-spots of ignorance, confusion, and apathy. Of course you can uplift yourself and learn using the Internet and of course by just asking. But, in the poorer areas of the Southeast Sector this is a gigantic task of sorts. There are so many hotspots of ignorance that trying to explain technical terms - baffles those in attendance and I have seen it again and again. The U.S. Navy has meetings and most of those in attendance hear the technical words and cannot comprehend. The same happens when SF Redevelopment Agency fails to provide documents on time when requested. More prepares fake Environmental Impact Reports (EIR) and circumvents the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) again, and again, and again. Fake conceptual plans are afoot to building thousands of units on polluted ground and more surround by more polluted air. No one really cares and not this City and County of San Francisco that will tell you they have reduce their Carbon Emission to those of the late 1990s. But, cannot prove it with empirical data, Gavin Newsom lies so much that soon the lies become facts. I know of large areas mainly landfill where daily thousands of tons of Methane Gas spews into the air. The areas from Mission Bay, to Hunters Point Shipyard, to Candlestick Point, to Visitation Valley and way beyond. Add to this mercury, copper, lead and a host of dangerous particulates from the various sources - the many concrete and aggregate companies, the Shipyard that has toxic dirt, laced with Asbestos Friables and Radiological elements - all documented. No one has ready fully the Final Historical Radiological Assessment Report and its amendments. Not the Mayor, not the SF Redevelopment agency staff, not anyone in the Mayor's Office of Economic Development and Workforce. They all listen to the lies of certain so called experts who vouch and swear all is fine. It is not. All this in the year 2010 when we are supposed to be educated on issues. In any average year over 80,000 tons of Methane Gas is released into the air and this is a conservative number. Multiply that by 22 to give you the Carbon Dioxide total which is extraordinary but poor Gavin Newsom would not know that, not until he inhales something to find out the truth, that he runs away from, each and every day. With him the so called other agencies that tweak the figures and project statistics that are false. There is only so much tweaking you can do and I have been monitoring the statistics for the last 35 years plus and have kept good records. Sometimes, you have to test the air and keep your own records. We have done it before and shamed the Bay Area Air Quality District the Environmental Protection Agency and other Regulatory Agencies. Our children are slowly dying; years have been taken from the adults, more from the elders. Asthma, Cancer, and a host of other ailments are on the increase in the Southeast Sector. But, we still want to build homes in the middle of Chernobyl. What about abatement? What about mitigation? What about telling the truth for once? Aho.
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