Everybody fights, housing loses

Guess I should start a series of articles called 'housing loses'... Because that's what continues to happen in our lovely town, courtesy of our jackass Board of Supervisors.

Today's oh-so-common topics: Trinity Plaza and the Armory (again)

First, the 'good' news. The 1,900 unit Trinity Plaza development was approved AGAIN on Thursday by the Planning Commission.

Everything was previously on track till 'Supes Maxwell and McGoldrick (looking to get their names in print, undoubtedly) threw a stick in the proverbial spokes last November, putting the project into yet another tailspin.

Never mind that Trinity is not in either of their districts, or that the 'Supe for that district (Daly) was in full approval of what was then-agreed-upon.

But once again, it's about making a name for oneself through headlines and/or attempts at setting a new standard in developer extortion or affordable housing minimum requirements. I mean, why should Chris Daly get all of the headlines?!?

From Friday's Examiner,

The commission’s second vote on the amendment came after the Board of Supervisors refused to adopt it in November 2006, as the project became bogged down over competing visions for how much affordable housing should be included.

In the coming weeks, the Board of Supervisors Land Use and Economic Development Committee is expected to hold a hearing on the proposed development, which would go in at the four-acre site on Market and Eighth streets. [more...]

So although we saw the Planning Commission give it yet-another thumbs-up, we are still in for another round of silliness with Maxwell & McGoldrick...

From Friday's BeyondChron,

Now the question on everyone’s mind is if the same shenanigans will happen all over again. Board President Aaron Peskin has chosen to keep both Maxwell and McGoldrick on the Land Use Committee, allowing for the possibility for further shenanigans. It also means that 1900 units of rental housing might never be built. [more...]

And what is the fight really about right now? McGoldrick wants another 46-48 units made affordable. So in his fight to get less than 50 units designated affordable, he's willing to screw you, the residents of San Francisco, out of a MUCH-needed 1,900 units of housing. That makes a lot of sense.

Then again, let's not forget about 2007's favorite cocktail party topic, the conversion of the Armory (14th & Mission) into (depending on who you ask) a big film production facility that will benefit all of San Francisco with the economic boost, not to mention the clean-up of a very dirty and dangerous block, or on the other hand, a den of perversion which threatens to corrupt any school-age child within a one-mile radius.

The point of bringing up the Armory in this discussion is plain and simple: learn from your mistakes! The well-intentioned folks at the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, Mission Neighborhood Center, et al. pressured their 'Supe (Chris Daly) along with their other 'Supe (Tom Ammiano) into restricting what that HUGE space might have been used for.

First they wanted affordable-only housing. But that wasn't enough. Then they wanted low-income housing. And that wasn't enough, either. Then they wanted NO-INCOME housing. And in the meantime, developer after developer got sick of waiting and moved onto greener pastures (likely outside of SF).

So in his own free-market brilliance, the most-recent owner did what every good capitalist would: he found a buyer that wasn't going to use the space for housing, made them agree to a confidentiality agreement (so nobody would get wind of the transaction till it was done), and cashed-out.

The other key piece to this puzzle is that the new owner, who we all know to be kink.com, is not planning any changes that would require government intervention. Meaning they are not changing the use of the building (it has been a commercial use and will continue to be a commercial use). They also are not making any exterior changes to the building, short of repairing windows, and cleaning up, so they are not subject to any scrutiny from the Planning Department. Besides, if this wasn't such a big news piece, would anyone have known was was going on behind the tall, brick walls?

From Friday's Chronicle,

[Peter Acworth, kink.com's CEO, says that] the film company will be a good neighbor. Acworth already has met with a housing organization and a merchants group, he said, and is open to meeting with others. He also has reached out to the mayor's office and Daly, he added, but was unable to talk about the sale publicly before it was finalized because of a verbal confidentiality agreement with the building's previous owners.

Acworth said he also would like to explore the idea of turning part of the armory into an assembly room for community use, he said, and plans on making improvements to the exterior. "It's not a porn shop at all -- it's not as if it's open to the public," Acworth said. "I have been in business for 10 years" in three other locations in the city "and I'm not even sure the neighbors knew what we were doing," he said. [more...]

So where does that leave us? Well, from that same Friday Chronicle article, we find that the Mission neighborhood groups are REALLY sore losers. They thought they had Daly in their back pocket (they do, actually), and that they would ultimately find someone dumb/rich enough to create a little utopia of no-income housing, without any subsidy from the city or state. But since a few decades have passed and nobody rich or dumb enough has come along, the building finds a buyer in kink.com, and the neighborhood groups are crying foul.

Like a bunch of spoiled children.

Whether you like kink.com or not, they bought the building and they will do what is necessary to follow any/all laws/rules/regulations governing the business that they do in the space. And like it or not, there's really not much anyone in the Mission or down at City Hall can do about it.

Unless we want to get into a conversation about eminent domain. But we all know that the City of San Francisco doesn't have $15M to plop down on that sort of solution...

So what's the moral of the story? Tell your Supervisor (no matter what district you live in) to quit fighting about this crap and move some of these housing projects forward. Can you imagine if some deep-pocketed shopping mall developer got wind of the problems at Trinity Plaza? Perhaps he offers Sangiacomo a very large sum of money, and converts all of that potential housing to yet-another shopping mall.

What would Maxwell & McGoldrick have to say about that?

It's time to quit fighting and build more housing. Now.

Amendment propels Trinity Plaza project [Examiner]
Planning Commission Approves Trinity Plaza -- Again [BeyondChron]
No welcome mat for adult film studio [SFGate]
Porn wins, housing loses [SFHomeBlog]