Posted on 03/18/2009 8:29:58 AM PDT by KingofZion
Even amid the real-estate bust, waterfront property in the San Francisco Bay area is a luxury few can afford. That's why some California lawmakers want to sell San Quentin State Prison -- which houses more than 5,300 inmates on prime land with stunning views of the bay -- to developers who might pay as much as $2 billion.
State Sen. Jeff Denham, who has sponsored a bill to sell the complex of historic buildings for private development, thinks the proceeds could help replenish California's recession-depleted coffers.
"I believe maximum-security inmates shouldn't have waterfront property," said Mr. Denham, a Republican from Modesto, in the state's Central Valley. "They could build a new facility somewhere else in the state and it could be done at a fraction of the cost."
First, he and other lawmakers who agree with him would have to block Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to spend $356 million as early as May to expand San Quentin's famous death row, *** California's deep recession has rekindled a debate over the use of San Quentin, a 432-acre peninsula on the edge of the tony town of Larkspur in Marin County. The debate also highlights long-running questions about the viability of the state's capital-punishment system, in which nearly 650 male death-row inmates are more likely to die of natural causes than by execution as they wait for appeals.
*** What most everyone agrees on is that San Quentin is one of California's costliest and most decrepit prisons. Built in 1852, it houses the state's male death-row inmates and its only gas chamber. The complex includes about 200 buildings, the oldest dating from the 1850s, including nearly 90 homes for employees. It also features an exercise yard from which inmates can survey the rolling hills across the bay and inhale a salty breeze.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I’ve been to San Quentin - the views are not all that stunning.
...And deprive prisoners of that stunning view?....what an outrage!
What were you in for ? (yuk, yuk)
LOL!
And I thought the house depicted in ‘Poltergiest’ had bad karma!
Visiting my father.
My question is, if they sell the property and move the inmates to a new prison. Will the new one have a death row?
Will the new one have a death row?
...and a stunning view?
I’ve been saying this for years. The State of Kalifornia has numerous public facilities on prime real-estate that could be relocated so the property could be sold and put to better use. San Quentin and Folsom Prison are just two. Both would yield billions of dollars on the open market and the cost of building replacement facilities in lower cost parts of the state would be only a fraction of the proceeds.
A Tribute to my Father http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1739415/posts
157 years of toxic build-up on that piece of property (both chemical and spiritual) and they think people will want to build their homes on it?
Not only Kalifornia , the Federal Govt. could sell off the Presido in San Fransico and pay off the national debt(I jest).
On this news CA floated a $2 billion revenue anticipation bond and blew it all within a few minutes.
But NOOOOOOOOO .......
Sounds like prime real estate for a new UN complex
Great....sorry I missed that at the original posting.
No problem - I’m just glad that it’s in the archives.
Death Row needs to be moved to Pelican Bay. The only reason it hasn’t already happened is that the anti-death penalty lawyer/protestors all live in the Bay Area, and don’t want to make the all-day drive up to Crescent City, where they won’t get any community support.
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