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Thursday, October 19, 2006

Oracle Open World '06


Stop complaining about the Howard Street closure!

The Man Behind the Closure

The man in the photo is Larry Ellison. He's a San Franciscan. Larry lives in the City, but works a little south of here where he runs a company he created and developed.

Of course, a man who has $81-billion is likely to have an extra home or two and Larry is certainly no exception. In addition to his Pacific Heights mansion, he has a $200-million retreat at Woodside and paid another $65-million for a place along Malibu's Carbon Beach.

 In the beginning, Larry gave his company the right name: Oracle. According to the dictionary, an oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel. Today, Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company, providing software and services to enterprises around the globe.

Ellison was born in New York City and grew up in South Chicago. After leaving college, Larry headed West to California and settled here in San Francisco. He lives here today when not at one of his other summer homes or traveling aboard the Rising Sun, his $200-million yacht which is the third largest in the world. The royal yacht formerly used by Queen Elizabeth II, by example, is 412 feet in length. The Rising Sun is 453 feet in length.

San Francisco Closes Howard Street for Larry

Howard Street between Third and Fourth Street will be closed to all traffic for eight days, starting today. The street will be closed to accommodate Larry Ellison's Oracle convention.

Oracle is filling the massive Moscone Convention Center and filling Moscone West, the huge new addition to the center on Fifth Street. More than 40,000 conventioneers are expected to be in San Francisco for those eight days. Nearly every hotel room in the City has been booked. Tours, restaurants, theatres, limousine services and countless other local businesses will be ringing the hell out of their cash registers during Oracle Open World '06.

Mayor Newsom estimates that we will rake in more than $60-million during the eight days from the Oracle spenders. On top of it all, Larry Ellison is paying the City for the extra police protection needed and has offered to pay for all associated city workers overtime during the convention.

We're in the Entertainment Business

San Francisco is in the entertainment business. We have been in the entertainment business since the mid 1800's. My family first came to this City in 1849. In those days and well into the 20th century the Barbary Coast on Pacific Street offered fandango parlors, whore houses, noisy saloons, dance halls, restaurants specializing in beefsteak dinners, and lots of hotels everywhere. San Francisco was like a huge arcade and the people of San Francisco ran the business.

Today we still do run the business, collectively, as a community. A lot of people don't understand this because they haven't been in San Francisco long enough to become part of the inner fiber of the City. They are still newcomers in one sort of sense or another. These folks think it's somebody else who is responsible and it is somebody else who needs to contribute to the overall effort. Well, folks, the somebody else is us ... the people and citizenry of San Francisco.

Whether you are a newcomer or native-born with a San Francisco genealogy, the fact of the matter is that we, the people of the City of San Francisco, operate an entertainment business. In fact, we run the most popular entertainment destination in the United States.

ka-Ching! ... that sweet, sweet sound.

Entertaining the 40,000 Oracle guests is extremely important to our bottom line and to the future of our City. Any true, real San Franciscan will be absolutely delighted that we have booked a big party like Oracle. Ka-ching. It's money in the bank!

So, for those of you newcomers (and long-time residents who have never really become true San Franciscans) who feel imposed upon by the Howard Street closure, I have absolutely no sympathy at all. If you don't plan to be a part of our City's growth and development, then please get the hell out of the way.
on Thursday, October 19, 2006

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