Published since 2005. San Francisco is a city that belongs to the people of the world. Hence this blog has a global focus. The name "Sam Spade's San Francisco" refers to an exciting era in the City's history, the time of Dashiell Hammett's fictional gumshoe and San Francisco character, Sam Spade. My name is Tom Dunn and I edit the blog. I'm not as exciting as Sam Spade, but I am definitely a San Francisco character.Contact or on Twitter -- Search blog below.
Search This Blog
Loading...
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Crisis for the Port of San Francisco
On July 15, 1896, the U. S. Navy Battleship Oregon, built here in San Francisco, was officially commissioned. She was 348-feet in length and displaced 10,288 tons. Her sister ship, the USS Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flagship, was also built in San Francisco by Union Iron Works. Together they were two of the most famous warships of the Spanish-American War. A brief film documentary of the construction of the USS Oregon was made in 1898, one of the earliest films of its type. The scene is filmed at lunch time and shows the ship workers leaving the shops. Later, Union Iron Works built two U.S. Navy submarines in San Francisco, the USS Grampus and the USS Pike.
Still, things are not well for the Port of San Francisco.
The Port is in danger of losing seven historic piers and the historic buildings at Pier 70. Salt water, more than 100 years of wear and tear and required seismic upgrade work is estimated to cost more than $1.1 billion. The Port is short some $734 million!
The historic buildings at Pier 70 are those of the old Union Iron Works, the company that built the hero-warships of the Spanish-American War. It will cost $252 million just to rebuild and preserve the buildings.
The Board of Supervisors has not been helping matters. An $85 million hotel deal to have been built on Port property failed because of opposition from the Board. The Board of Supervisors also killed a deal to bring the USS Iowa to San Francisco, a project that would have been a huge tourist attraction and would have brought needed money to the Port of San Francisco on a regular and steady basis.
The USS Iowa is one of the most famous and largest battleships ever built for the U.S. Navy. It is more than 887 feet long and displaces 45,000 tons! It's four massive propellers deliver a total of 212,000 horsepower to bring the battleship up to a top speed of 33 knots. It would have been an amazing tourist attraction and a solid cash cow for the Port.
The hotel deal and the USS Iowa may not have been able to generate the entirety of the funds needed, but they would have substantially reduced the deficit and eased the crisis in which the Port of San Francisco now finds itself. Two amazingly inept decisions by the Board of Supervisors may now cost the City much of its history.
1 comments:
Anonymous said...
It is amazing. The Port of San Francisco owns some of the most valuable, most expensive and most visited real estate in California. If the port authority made decisions based on standard commercial considerations it would be generating a impressive income for the city. Instead, decsions made about the future and current use of the Port real estate are made by politicians. It is no wonder the Port is a mess.
1 comments:
It is amazing. The Port of San Francisco owns some of the most valuable, most expensive and most visited real estate in California. If the port authority made decisions based on standard commercial considerations it would be generating a impressive income for the city. Instead, decsions made about the future and current use of the Port real estate are made by politicians. It is no wonder the Port is a mess.
Post a Comment