This was the scene on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 in Golden Gate Park, where the Save the Stow Lake Boathouse Coalition traded raffle tickets, cookies and, yes, pink popcorn for signatures to “save” the Boat House at Stow Lake. Get up to speed on this campaign here and here.
It was quite the affair, with hundreds on hand. KCBS All News 740 /106.9 had a vehicle there, but it’s tough to see if they reported on the event, AFAICS. (Oddly, an entry for “Save Stow Lake” is on the KCBS home page under “KCBS NEWS LINKS.”)
From the Yelp:
“FREE Organic Coffee! FREE Popcorn! FREE Raffle with great prizes! Other surprises! Come celebrate the historic Stow Lake Boathouse that has provided affordable recreation for generations. Sat. Feb. 13th, 11am-1pm. Stow Lake Boathouse, GG Park. We’ll have petitions for signing and art work for the kids so they can let the City know they don’t want the Boathouse turned into a restaurant/cafe.
“Save the Stow Lake Boathouse Coalition (STSLBC) organized in response to a proposal by Rec & Parks to take over the entire top floor of the boathouse for an indoor restaurant/cafe. STSLBC wants to see the boathouse restored and improved without losing the quaint, old style snack bar and historic boat repair shop. STSLBC considers the restaurant concept in the building, as inappropriate and economically unfeasible, adding little, if any additional revenue, that would change the historic character and primary usage of the property, which for years has served as a boathouse offering a calm respite from city life for generations of San Franciscans and tourists.”
Now, do I begrudge these people when they collude with the current operator of the boathouse to hold a picnic to further their political cause? No.
And are they allowed to giveaway stuff “FOR FREE!” and then immediately hit you up for your signature on a petition? Yes, this is America.
But the problems include:
1. What park visitors were told just before they signed the petition while munching on their cookies, and;
2. The fact that the Recreation and Park Department’s plans for this area won’t “destroy” the boathouse, or for that matter, Stow Lake.
Will there be “room for kids and old people” at the Stow Lake Boathouse if a sit-down cafe opens up on the upper floor? Yes, of course. Will the old boathouse look substantially the same as before, no matter what happens? Yes.
Now, I’ll give you this, the people behind the STSLBC are doing better than before in articulating a basis for their cause. The problem is that their cause appears to be simply supporting the existing franchise holder at a time when others are bidding on a five or ten year contract to run the boathouse. Here are the bullet points from the online petition:
> The current tenant has never had a boating accident
> The current tenant has a long-standing, excellent relationship with their customers
> The current tenant has employees that have worked there for over ten years
> The current tenant has added healthy food options to the snack bar menu
> The current tenant is interested in adding additional items to sell to increase revenue
> The current tenant is open to improving the facility once a lease is in place
O.K., but the rules say that RPD has the right to open up bidding for a new tenant. Is that so bad?
Am I saying that there’s something wrong with avuncular Bruce McLellan, the current tenant who runs the place? No. But having a new tenant wouldn’t “destroy” Stow Lake neither, nor even the boathouse, right?
Obviously, RPD is looking for new sources of money. Will having a new cafe help to make more money for RPD and the tenant such that the price of paddle boat rentals could be lowered from the current $24? We’ll see.
Is this a message that comes from the grass roots? Really? Or in other words, “Bidder A is great, Bidders B and C are not.”
The site of the coming cafe. That’s the boat hoist that the City is trying to “heist.” “Don’t heist the hoist”is a slogan they’re using. Srsly.
All agree of the desirability of a long term contract, which would allow a new tenant, or the existing one, to upgrade aging equipment.
The oar your $19 rental fee gets you – it does the job, I s’pose:
Leave us now depart the Boathouse at Stow, home to the most ridiculous grass roots effort to come down the pike in a good long time. (And I’ve seen plenty.)
Only In San Francisco.
To Be Continued.
Tags: 106.9, 2010, 740, am, boat, boat house, boathouse, Bruce McLellan, budget, C.W. Nevius, cafe, chuck, coalition, community, department, dept., district, fm, free, golden gate park, historic, hoist, inner sunset, kcbs, lake, meeting, Nevius, Nick Kinsey, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, picnic, pink, popcorn, radio, recreation and parks, restaurant, rfq, row, rowboat, San Francisco, Sandy Weil, save, save stow lake, Save the Stow Lake Boat house, Save the Stow Lake Boathouse, Save the Stow Lake Boathouse Coalition, stow, Stow lake, STSLBC, sunset, Suzanne Dumont, Suzanne R. Dumont, yuppification
Hey SF Citizen, whoever you are… thanks for covering our event! We invite you to meet with us so you can get the real scoop.
The City has treated the current lease holder badly… putting him on a month-to-month lease in 2006 and now complaining because he hasn’t done repairs on their building. Bruce McLellan put a new roof on the boathouse, even though Nick Kinsey says Rec & Park pays for that….. and soon after a Rec “Wreck” & Park crew showed up and installed “bird proofing” on the roof with hundreds of tiny nails, invalidating his warranty…and creating hundreds of holes in a brand new roof… just one example of what it’s like to do business with Rec & Parks.
Save the Stow Lake Boathouse Coalition is not “wedded” to keeping Mr. McLellan as the tenant, god knows the man has suffered enough! He makes peanuts for all his hard work and has to have a day job to support his family. Why does he do it? He loves the kids, the boats, the tradition that his grandfather started in 1946 and Stow Lake, the site of 1 of only 3 blue heron rookeries in the City.
Silly us to think that the City should be respectful to a family business that has been creating the City revenue for 65 years WITHOUT generating any lawsuits! We welcome anyone to apply for the concessions who can prove they provide the type of liability insurance needed to rent boats to people who have never stepped foot in a boat before.
If we sound supportive of Mr. McLellan, it’s because we have learned how much he gives to the community every day…. free boats for kids groups, support to the elderly community that hangs out there every day, and great service to the customers. Check out his Yelp ratings! No other venue in the park has ratings as high as his… 4.5 stars out of 100 ratings.
We’d love to explain “Don’t Heist the Hoist” to you, if you dare…
(BTW, you might want to correct your $24/hr. paddle boat statement… they are $19/hr. and the row boats are $14/hr.)
We sincerely hope to talk with you, whomever you are!
It certainly appears to me that the person(s) behind the online petition are wedded to keeping Mr. McLellan as the tenant.
What you call putting on a month to month lease I’d call “the lease went month to month in ’06.” I’m not an alarmist, tho.
I think the people bidding on this contract know what it’s like to deal with Rec and Park. Does Bruce want to sue the City over his roof? OK, but I don’t see how that affects park goers.
It wouldn’t be silly to change your name to Respect the Boathouse, if that’s your mission. People literally laugh at the name SaveStowLake – were you planning on working on other issues when you got that URL?
Those bidding on taking over the boathouse don’t need to qualify with you or anyone else, of course. I don’t know what the insurance requirements are.
Anybody can rent out boats, right? It’s not hard.
Believe the Yelp ratings are for the boathouse and not Bruce himself. We’ll see how things go if there’s a new tenant, the ratings could go down of course, we’ll see.
Honestly, it doesn’t really matter how the boats get moved around. They’ll figure things out. Black cat or white cat: If it can catch mice, it’s a good cat.
I have multiple statements about $19 and $24 as what people paid for rentals the past year. Did they just lower the price or something? Does the boathouse have a website? They could start one up for free, of course.
Obviously I don’t approve of what was said at your picnic. You do. Obviously, you think your efforts have a chance of serving to “save” Stow Lake. I don’t.
Fair enough.
thanks for the reply, whomever you are… our offer to meet with you stands. I don’t see your reply to our invitation in your response. Until then I assume that you have something to hide…otherwise why hide your identity?
Feel free to assume I have something to hide. It’s your right. Your reaction is to go ad hominum, ala famous NIMBY Crazy Rob Anderson. That’s your right as well. Is it possible that people could be aware of the details of your cause and yet not agree with you?
How would it serve this blog’s half-dozen readers for me to meet with you all? Instead, how about meeting with Nevius? He has millions of fans all around the world.
Speaking of whom, he had the paddleboat rental at $24 as well. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22they+could+lower+the+boat+rental+fee%2C+which+is+currently+%2424+an+hour+for+a+pedal%22&aq=f&aqi=&oq=
I haven’t rented a zero-legroom paddle boat in donkeys years so i don’t know for sure – it was a lot cheaper back in the day, that’s for sure.
Absolutely anyone can disagree with us…. raising awareness and discussion is good if the facts are straight. And since you have not spoken with us you don’t have the benefit of what we know about the Rec & Park proposal. The invitation still stands to meet with us. We don’t mind a good debate at all. It sounds like you WANT or NEED to remain anonymous which reduces your street cred with us.
Then post your facts and allegations then, right? What’s such a secret that you know about the RPD?
And what facts, if any, aren’t straight? Feel free to say that “oh, those were the old prices I was quoting – my bad,” if that applies.
I’ve made thousands of your-baby-is-ugly blog posts in my life and not a once has somebody wanted to meet with me, not even Crazy Rob Anderson, San Francisco’s very own EPIC BEARDED GUY.
I’ve offered my unsolicited advice to your organization, but that’s it, you can reflect on that or not. Why should I care about my street cred with your organization?
IMO, “SAVE STOW LAKE” doesn’t apply to your efforts.
Your website’s photos are way too big – you have multiple photos that over 2 megabyte in size. You could compress them so that they’re only 5% as big and they’d look that same. I don’t know, Picasa or something could do that.