Crowd estimates for some days of our so-called “Summer of Racing” have gone down more than two orders of magnitude from just last year.
Yes, that means that the estimates are now at less than 1% of the 500,000 per day that ineffectual San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee was promising all the way back in 2012.
Here’s the news:
“We have decided to substantially lower our charter prices to benefit spectators who are seeking a unique and thrilling viewing experience of the races from prime positioning on the perimeter of the America’s Cup race course,” said Captain Stephan Sowash.
Of course most people won’t pay a dime to watch this unpopular “gentlemen’s match” It may or may not be broadcast on free TV for a zero or negative(!) broadcast fee. And some tickets have already been refunded (which didn’t cost the Larry Ellison people too much because how many people in the world would actually pay, really?)
Sailing Fearless, charter provider on an official America’s Cup stake boat in San Francisco, is pleased to announce a significant price reduction to its charter pricing for the On-The-Water Viewing Experience. Corporate charters and individual ticket prices on Odyssey, a 65 foot tri-level luxury yacht, have been reduced as much as 20% to make America’s Cup even more accessible for the public to watch the competition from the premier location on the perimeter of the race course.
“With the announcement of the schedule changes from America’s Cup on June 7th, we have decided to substantially lower our charter prices to benefit spectators who are seeking a unique and thrilling viewing experience of the races from prime positioning on the perimeter of the race course” said Captain Stephan Sowash.
As an official stake boat, Odyssey will depart from Emeryville marina to form part of the perimeter of the race course offering premium viewing of the AC72 catamarans with an unobstructed view of the competition. Odyssey offers a live feed and commentary via two HDTV’s inside the cabin, a spacious main salon with wet bar and large seating area, outdoor and indoor seating with protection from the weather, and a 360 degree view of the bay. With “gyro-controlled hydraulic stabilizers”, the yacht provides extreme stability regardless of sea conditions.
“Your experience aboard Odyssey will be the best possible when it comes to capturing the excitement of the world’s greatest yacht races. This is the closest to the action you will get within the comfort, style, and luxury of a beautiful motor yacht,” said Captain Stephan Sowash.
America’s Cup charter schedule on Odyssey is as follows:
· Louis Vuitton Cup Finals | August 17th – 30th
The Louis Vuitton Cup finals are an exciting match-up of challengers in which the winner goes on to compete against the defending America’s Cup champion Oracle Team USA.
· Red Bull Youth America’s Cup | September 1st – 4th
Red Bull Youth America’s Cup features young, talented sailors aged 19 to 24 comprised of six sailors on various national teams. This is an opportunity to see the next America’s Cup generation of competitors.
· Super Yacht Regatta | September 9th, 11th and 13th
Participating in their own regatta, these magnificent super yachts will astonish as they race for the very first time in this inaugural event.
· America’s Cup Finals | September 7th – 20th
For the first time since 1851, America’s Cup is being held in picturesque San Francisco and may not be back for years to come. A great match-up between defender Oracle Team USA and the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals.
Coast Guard certified for 40 passengers, Odyssey will provide chartering from 11:30 am – 4 pm for the Louis Vuitton and America’s Cup Finals and 10:00 am – 3:00 pm for the Red Bull Youth Cup and Super Yacht Regatta with catering provided by one of San Francisco’s finest restaurants Arlequin – of the Absinthe Restaurant Group. A fully staffed professional crew will be attentive to all guests’ needs.
For more information about booking a Corporate Charter or individual tickets with Odyssey visit http://www.sailingfearless.com.
About Sailing Fearless
Sailing Fearless is a San Francisco based charter company owned and operated by Captain Stephan Sowash. With over 30 years experience on the water, Captain Stephan offers America’s Cup Charters and Dinner Cruises on a luxurious 65 foot tri-deck Hatteras yacht U.S Coast Guard certified for 40 passengers. He also Captains a 30 foot Cherubini Hunter for more intimate charters on his 6 passenger sailboat. For further information, please visit Sailing Fearless’s website at http://www.sailingfearless.com.
Read more at http://www.onenewspage.com/n/Press+Releases/74vw268ao/America’s-Cup-Tickets-Reduced-up-to-20-for.htm#51lQOdF6AXm8V7J0.99
So, just as the horrible SFMTA recently conducted focus groups on the future of Polk, 6th Street is getting its turn.
I’ll tell you, if I were in charge of making 6th street safer, I don’t think I’d put “Slower Cars” at the top of the list.
How about “Less Untreated Mental Illness” instead?
Anyway, our blessed SFMTA will be hosting ”an interactive activation project on 6th Street (between Market and Stevenson)” on May 18th, 2013.
And Twitter will be there too, sort of.
In a better world, Twitter would participate because it wants to, not because it’s contractually obligated to do so.
(And Twitter would pay its fair share of taxes under the rules signed into law by that wild job-killing radical, Gavin Newsom, all the way back in 2004. Twitter, just give me your tax returns and I’ll figure how much more you should have paid and then you can write a check for the difference and send it in to the General Fund.)
NEWSFLASH: The people from the residential hotels you don’t like on 6th Street aren’t going anywhere.
By law.
Oh, and lots of people working at Twitter would still prefer to labor in northern San Mateo County, just saying.
Safer 6th Street is a collaboration between SFMTA, District 6 Supervisor’s Office, Twitter, Neighborland, SPUR, URBAN SPACEship and other community organizations to address the issue of safety in the 6th Street corridor, and gather further input from the local community as to what can be done to create a safer area for residents, workers and passersby alike.
There is an on-going community process to implement safety measures in the 6th Street corridor, including:
In alignment with this process, we ask – how can we, as a community, create a safer 6th Street?
On Saturday, May 18th, between 12-6pm we will be hosting an interactive activation project on 6th Street (between Market and Stevenson), to engage the community and gather ideas and feedback towards this question, with the aim of envisioning a vibrant area and helping to prioritize treatments to the 6th Street design.
Pick your medium – we’ll have a Neighborland board for you to freely write on, a Twitter photo booth, and a collaborative mural installed by ArtIsMobilus.
Until then, share your ideas and comment on others here or on Twitter using the hashtag #safer6th. Through a new integrated platform between Neighborland and Twitter, your tweets will display on the Question page. Any tweets that start with “I want …” and contain the hashtag will auto-magically become ideas on the Question page.
Come join and take part in creating action on the ground!”
Well I suppose if the San Francisco Establishment wanted to claim that it had support “across the spectrum” for the arena deal, they’d have Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, Aaron Peskin and a whole bunch of San Francisco Giants baseball players up there with them on the steps of City Hall today.
But this group will have to do.
All the deets:
“GROUP OF SAN FRANCISCANS TO LAUNCH NEW ORGANIZATION AND EFFORT TODAY SUPPORTING GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS’ WATERFRONT ARENA PLAN - Group consists of community leaders, Warriors fans, business, labor, entertainment industry representatives, and residents from across the Bay Area - Supporters plan to be out in force supporting the waterfront plan at public meetings, neighborhood events and community festivals
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – A group of enthusiastic San Franciscans from across the spectrum plans to launch a new organization today supporting the Golden State Warriors’ proposed waterfront arena plan. The group consists of community leaders, Warriors fans, representatives from the business and labor community, entertainment industry representatives and residents from across the city and the Bay Area.
The group has secured a diverse mix of local leaders to serve as the co-chairs for the effort, including:
Honorary Co-Chairs
Chris Mullin, Former Golden State Warriors player
Jim Wunderman, President & CEO, Bay Area Council*
Carmen Policy, Former NFL executive and San Francisco 49ers Team President
Community Co-Chairs
Jim Lazarus, Senior Vice President, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce*
Katherine Webster, President, South Beach-Mission Bay Merchants Association*
Shamann Walton, Executive Director, Young Community Developers*
Dr. Joseph Marshall, Founder, Omega Boys Club*
Members of the newly formed group plan to be out in force over the next several months supporting the arena project at public meetings and hearings, neighborhood events and community festivals.
The group is also planning to hold playoffs viewing parties across San Francisco to cheer on the team as they make a run for an NBA championship.
Who: More than 100 supporters are expected, including:
Adonal Foyle, Former Golden State Warriors player
Carmen Policy, Former NFL executive and San Francisco 49ers Team President
Jim Lazarus, Senior Vice President, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
Dr. Joseph Marshall, Founder, Omega Boys Club
Janet Clyde, Owner of Vesuvio’s
Tom O’Connor, President, San Francisco Firefighters Local 798
Bob Graham, Supportive neighbor
Shamann Walton, Executive Director, Young Community Developers
What: Diverse group of San Franciscans to launch new organization and effort supporting the Golden State Warriors’ waterfront arena project
When: Today, Tuesday, April 16, 2013 12:00-1:00pm
Where: City Hall Steps, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place (Polk St. steps between Grove and McAllister Streets)”
“There’s really only one question to ask about the proposal to bore a light-rail subway deep under the heart of downtown San Francisco. You’re kidding, right?“
“Just the initial math makes your head hurt. Basically it works out to somewhere between $1.22 billion and $1.4 billion for an underground railway that runs for less than two miles and has only three stops. That’s not a transit system, it’s a model railroad.“
“Throw in a few of the inevitable cost overruns and this could work out to a billion dollars a mile.”
“No matter. This is the kind of big, splashy project that city officials love to put their name on.”
“Basically, the argument seems to boil down to this - we’ve got the money (as if federal tax dollars grow on trees), the Chinatown community is behind it, why not build it? Oh, let me count some of the reasons.”
“But, critics say, a stop on Market beneath which BART and other Muni lines already run might have made this whole thing an easier sell. That would have created an opportunity for a single station where riders could make connections between regional and local trains, almost like Grand Central Terminal in New York. Instead, riders will have to walk all the way up to Union Square.”
“Oh, and did I mention that in order to get under the BART tube, the subway station at Union Square will have to be at least 95 feet below the surface. That’s nine stories.”
“What is it about that image of deep, underground dirt-munching machines in earthquake country that makes me wince?”
Of course that was from a half-decade back, but it shows how he actually felt about this boondoggly boondoggle, about Big Dig West.
I mean, the Central Subway proposal hasn’t gotten better the past five years, has it? Five years ago, the promise was that it would “make money” for MUNI, that it would subsidize other parts of the system by generating a surplus. But now we know that it will burden the SFMTA and the current projections for the number of riders per day is down dramatically from what people were promising back then.
So what’s a matter Neve? Why don’t you write things like this anymore? Cat got your tongue?
Pak got your tongue?
The Old Nevius wasn’t afraid to be labeled a racist who’s against “transit justice.”
The Old Nevius wasn’t so monomaniacally dedicated to write source greasers every chance he got.
Or you can ask Microsoft Yammer why it doesn’t want to pay its fair share of taxes.
Leave us begin.
In 2004, the Mayor of San Francisco signed a law that closed a tax loophole.
Later on, that very same Mayor took a lot of money from the owner owner of a building with which you Microsoft Yammerers should be familiar, the Twitter Building:
That kicked off the whole tax boondoggle that Microsoft Yammer is taking advantage of now.
Oh, here it is:
“THIS COMMUNITY BENEFIT AGREEMENT 2013 MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING is made as of January 1, 2013 in the City and County of San Francisco, State of California, by and between YAMMER, A SUBSIDIARY OF MICROSOFT(“Microsoft”) and the CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, a municipal corporation (“City”) acting by and through the City Administrator”
And it goes on and on talking about all the things that Microsoft is obligated to do for non-profit organizations that just happened to have endorsed Appointed Mayor Ed Lee.
So, well meaning white people who appear to be so, so, soooooo very proud of giving monitors worth (let’s hope) at least the contractually obligated $10,000 agreed to by MS….
….my question to you is this:
WHY DON’T YOU SIMPLY PAY YOUR FUCKING TAXES INSTEAD OF DOING ALL THIS POLITICALLY-CONNECTED, PAT-YOURSELF-ON-THE-BACK RIGMAROLE?
I’ll do all the legwork if you’ll give me some basic tax and income information. So maybe some years that could end up being a lot of money. I’d say, ooh, IPO! That’s going to cost Microsoft SF a few million bucks. And then you’d cut a check for the general fund.
There’d be no Ron Conway-type exception for you.
What’s that? You can’t afford to pay the oppressive taxes and loophole closures signed into law by the San Francisco Mayors of Yesteryear?
You know, I don’t believe that, Yammer Micro$oft.
What’s that, you’d rather move to Brisbane or someplace in San Mateo County?
Well, then be my guest. (You know, most people pricing apartment rentals in town lately would welcome your departure. You think I’m joking? No, I’m srlsy.)
What’s that, you like “giving back” to the corrupt Twitterloin, ’cause you think it’s a kewl thing to do and whatnot?
Fine, do that AND pay your fair share of taxes to the General Fund, why not?
That would be groovy.
But what you’re doing now is getting involved with SFGov corruption in the most corrupt big American city west of Chicago.
Oh, no no no no no. The original estimate of the “economic benefits” (whatever the Hell that amorphous amorphism means) of the 34th America’s Cup was $9.9 B-as-in-boy billion.
“America’s Cup organizers are falling short in their efforts to raise private donations to help pay for the cost of bringing the America’s Cup sailing competition to San Francisco — and that could leave the city on the hook for about $20 million. The Board of Supervisors holds hearings Wednesday to discuss the shortfall. Supporters say even without all of the promised private funds, the city still benefits financially from hosting the America’s Cup.
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
Jane Sullivan, city spokesperson for the America’s Cup
John Avalos, San Francisco supervisor representing District 11″
I understand that Mayor Ed Lee has a cheerleading function as a part of his job. Fine.
But what’s this? What the Hell?
“We expect to have some 500,000 people on a daily basis…”
Just take a look on the YouTube, at around 9:30 and, mind you, this is AFTER everything blew up and people started realizing that the 2013 America’s Cup won’t be anywhere near as popular as advertised:
So, does Ed Lee actually believe that there’s a chance that the America’s Cup will attract anything close to a half million people “on a daily basis?”
No he does not.
So why does he say it?
Mmmm…
Now, speaking of cheerleading, @olivaglobal is the dude who was hired by the San Francisco Chronicle to promote the America’s Cup over the next 1.5 years. Here he goes:
“The America’s Cup is the world’s third-largest sporting competition, after the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup.”
Here it is in the flesh:
So, let’s think about this here. I guess the bullshit Bay Area Council Economic Institute (BACEI) organization is allowing that the Summer Olympics and the World Cup just might possibly be bigger than an America’s Cup. But what about the Winter Olympics? Oh, and what about the Super Bowl?
Who actually believes that the America’s Cup, that thing where half the staff just got laid off and NBC needs to be paid in order to broadcast, is actually going to be bigger than a Super Bowl?
Nobody.
Not even the cheerleaders.
So why do they say these kinds of things?
All right here’s one more from the messed-up study what’s going to cost the taxpayers of San Francisco tens of millions of dollars. It discusses, and I’m srlsy, the “fleet of super yachts” what are going to be attracted to the bay area due to the America’s Cup, and then it talks about how much money we’re going to make by gassing them up and Windexing the shiny parts and stuff like that.
I’m srsly.
These cheerleaders are members of a modern day Cargo Cult and we’re all along for the ride.
And oh, we’re going to get the Golden State Warriors without funding the stadium at Piers 30-32? All right, so why then are we funding Larry Ellison’s ego trip of a boat race? Why are we allowing Him to get away with this?
I know not.
Screw the America’s Cup.
“The world’s most popular sport may be soccer, but in cold, hard dollars, nobody throws a party like the National Football League.
