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Posted on 10/06/2009 8:04:20 PM PDT by Abakumov
Politicians with ties to land developers are trying to force the Navy to hand over one of the most valuable pieces of property in the country for free. The House version of the 2010 Defense authorization bill scheduled for conference today contains language that would speed the transfer of Naval Station Treasure Island to the city of San Francisco at no cost.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
If a congress critter arranged to have his mother’s body exhumed so he could sell her gold fillings, I’d beleive it.
PELOSI swindling AMERICA!! YET AGAIN!! OUTRAGEOUS!!!
No wonder Pelosi approves of Rangel’s Outrageous Behavior!
PELOSI Considers RANGEL a Rank Amateur!
are trying to force the Navy to hand over one of the most valuable pieces of property in the country for free
Isn’t it pretty much the same hands.
After the Naval Station closed in 1997, Treasure Island was opened to residential and other uses, but according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, the groundwater and air are contaminated with asbestos, plutonium, radium and other substances which are known to cause cancer and other illnesses.
Another risk of living on Treasure Island is the high risk of liquefaction during an earthquake. All of Treasure Island is built on landfill, and few if any of the buildings on the island were built to withstand a major earthquake, much less an earthquake magnified by liquefaction.
Looks like we've found a new home for West Coast liberal Politicians. Next earthquake and they're gone. Either that or a slow and lingering death from the toxic soil.
- Traveler
Which Politicians and “Friends of Government” are at it again for their own profit…name names; the price is way too cheap!
With the so supposed economic problems currently why not auction off all/each parcel to the highest bidder, instead of continuing corruption as usual.
And the developers will win, thanks to the Kelo decision by the SCOTUS.
Mark
Seriously?
A freaking memory hogging piece of junk PDF as a link without a warning?
Sheesh.
And now for the topic at hand - don’t forget how deep “Mr. Feinstein” is in land development and SF politics.
YEP! Just like Valerie Jarrett wanted the Olympics. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Sorry, I didn’t know there was supposed to be a warning for PDF’s. I know now.
Democrat Culture Of Corruption Ping!
Excellent link jazz!
PING to the political corruption players and connections.
http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/kirshenbaum_061029.shtml
How dare they!! Who's going to stop this blatant underhanded corruption ?? When will all this madness end ??
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*snip*
In order to see how this functions, let's start with the spectacular view of Treasure Island that the Ferry Building offices have. Treasure Island may be flat and man-made, but nonetheless it is land with a sparkling waterfront - it might as well be over 400 acres of undeveloped gold. It is irresistible to anyone with a nose for development and the wherewithal to make that development happen.
Treasure Island's fate seems to be following that of the Presidio. In 1994, the Presidio was formally transferred from the Army to the Presidio Trust (with the edges of the site going to the National Park Service) for "public-private" development and usage opportunities.
Three years later, the process started to transfer Treasure Island from the Navy to the city for development. Both transfers were initiated by former Mayor Willie Brown and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. The Treasure Island transfer was completed by Pelosi with Mayor Newsom.
Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Gavin Newsom attend the official opening of the $100 million Letterman Digital Arts Center, June 26, 2005.
The Presidio Trust, a group of well-connected citizens, was charged with stewardship of the new national park. The Trust made a big show of gathering public input, which it then ignored in favor of building the absurdly gargantuan Letterman Digital Arts Center.
It was a perfect example of how important it is to developers to ensure that appointments go to people who can be counted on to make development-favorable decisions. In the case of the Presidio, the Trust decided to transform a national park into an office park.
They also decided who got the lucrative building contracts. For a developer, it's just the way business is done. The Presidio continues to be stocked with new, private enterprises, and the tussling continues over Hunter's Point.
Right now, though, the next big, exciting opportunity is Treasure Island.
An undated aerial photo of Treasure Island. Photo by Luke Thomas
After some very serious wrangling over control (see "more info" below), the fate of Treasure Island rests mainly with TIDA: the Treasure Island Development Authority. Just as with the Presidio Trust, the people who comprise TIDA are awfully critical. It is they who decide what gets developed and who gets to develop it - and profit thereby.
Likewise, the person who appoints the people on TIDA and similar boards is also a key player, for he or she must be guided to select members who can be trusted to vote favorably to one's interests.
That's the entitlement portion of the Big Three: garnering approvals that entitle one to development and maximize profits by upzoning the land. (Upzoning means changing the rules to allow more profitable development than would otherwise be allowed.).
That's why forming relationships between would-be developers and appointing officials is crucial. Lobbyists like Platinum's Darius Anderson and Jay Wallace specialize in building those relationships, sometimes by finding sources of cash reserves for campaign contributions, or occasionally hosting key fundraisers.
Wallace was at one time Pelosi's campaign manager.
When Anderson held a fundraiser a couple of years ago to retire Mayor Newsom's campaign debt, it raised eyebrows, but it is what lobbyists do. They specialize in creating access for themselves and for clients with the people who make appointments, sign or promote legislation, and grant entitlements to develop - all of which have big profit implications.
It's easy to conclude that clients are getting their money's worth from Platinum and friends - especially when the client is Platinum itself. TIDA has granted to Platinum the uncontested contract to be the sole developer of Treasure Island. Or, to be exact, that exclusive contract has been granted to Platinum's new entity, Treasure Island Community Developers, with the master plan component going to Anderson's other company, Kenwood Investments.
The entity Treasure Island Community Developers needed to be created because giving a development contract to a lobbying firm is like asking an ad agency to start a strip-mining operation: it doesn't make much natural sense. Unless the ad agency can't resist the thought of finding veins of gold in the ground, and creates an entity for that purpose.
Considering the grand, incestuous family that is politics, maybe it's no surprise that Platinum's development entity has been handed the Treasure Island bounty.
Given the Pelosi and Newsom history of enthusiasm for developing the Presidio, we should hope it's not too late to keep a close watch and short leash on Treasure Island developments. Unfortunately, this means paying attention to the entire family.
That would include even the new president on the Commission on the Environment, Paul Pelosi, Jr., who is Nancy Pelosi's son and Gavin Newsom's cousin. As for TIDA itself, all the members are appointed by the mayor; all but one is a City Hall official.
Who else will benefit from the arrangement? Certainly Lennar Corporation will. They are a partner with Platinum's Treasure Island Community Developers. Lennar has experience developing former military bases, and is one of the country's largest residential housing builders.
By what could solicitously be called a coincidence, Laurence Pelosi was president of acquisitions for Lennar. He is Nancy Pelosi's nephew, and currently works as executive director of Morgan Stanley's real estate division. As Newsom's former campaign treasurer, he would have worked with Darius Anderson on the campaign fundraiser for Newsom.
He's not the only one: Doug Boxer, son of Senator Barbara Boxer, is an attorney who has worked for Anderson as a Platinum lobbyist, and has been a partner with Anderson at Kenwood Investments.
+ + +
A case could be made that without Platinum and Lennar playing a role, there would be no financing and Treasure Island would remain a fallow relic of an outdated military past.
And without Willie Brown, Nancy Pelosi, and Gavin Newsom creating the situation for the necessary government entitlements, the land and the assets would simply sit.
Or would they? Is there really no recourse other than to deliver the choicest projects to our most skillful lobbyists? Even if everything described here is completely legal, is it right for our elected officials to hand over profits to their inner circle?
Are the ethical concerns greater when those profits involve our public lands? The children of politicians are allowed to join commissions and earn a living. But how certain are we that our leaders and their friends and families have the public's best interests in mind?
The other troubling problem is that we citizens get no substantial say in the matter, even when we know what is transpiring. We may have elected Pelosi and Newsom, but we didn't intend to cast votes for their relatives, too. Or their friends. Or their funders. And if there are certain players who are enriching themselves so handily with our public property, it wouldn't hurt to have a lot more transparency in the process.
Ok now tell everyone what we do to prosecute the corruption.
How can these people be checked?
That property belongs to the US taxpayer, and it is not for sale!
Thanks, the credit goes to smoothsailing for finding that.
Happy to see the Washington Times pick this up.
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