Not a pretty blue, an unnatural blue.
Other times, these ponds look more green or aqua.
I guess it’s because Rec and Park or whomever wants to cut down on the amount of light going in, but I can’t prove it to you.
Anyway, this pond looks blue to me IRL, if not so much in this photo:
Click to expand
I’ll tell you, the chances of some part of America, like the lake behind a new dam, getting named squaw-anything are about nil these days.
But naming your aging Audi “SQUAW?”
Well that’s A-OK:
Remember, Oprah believes this word means vagina.
Oprah.
Check out these recent shots from Nature’s Lantern.
“Freshly cut trees being stacked with more processed chopped trees in piles in the area behind Elk Glen Lake.”
Wow.
The bodies are being stacked like cordwood in Golden Gate Park these days:
Appears to be Blue Gum Eucalyptus (known for timber and gold rush SF History) and a mix of Pines possibly Monterrey Pines.”
Or an Entmarch, the trees of GGP could use a Lorax or an Entmarch.
Or even an Entmoot, that would be a start…
I haven’t heard word one about the long-promised lawsuit what was going to overturn SFGov and re-install the old tenant as the operator.
“The civil lawsuit begins March 2012 and will expose the truth about all the many laws that Rec & Park broke in order to bring in an out-of-state chain, with no boating experience to take over this historic boating recreation site.”
Oh well.
Just saying.
Ah, Stow Lake:
Click to expand
Oh, and the early reviews are in. And they’re pretty good, those reviews.
Leave us close this chapter of wealthy, white, real-estate-obsessed, dingbat, millionaire homeowner Preservationists vs. the Boathouse at Stow.
Start off here at Bluoz and then you’ll be able to link through to HawkManStan and others.
Here’s the latest, from Santa Clara County:
Via John K at Calaveras Reservoir – click to expand
What can I say but that it’s Bald Eagle Watch time, baby?
Dese boids are coming in from the north and from the south.
When will we have a nesting pair here in San Francisco?
Oh wow, man. Former Presidio Landmark Apartments doorman Tony Robles tells his tale in Poor Magazine (aka Prensa Pobre).
Alls I can say is that it’s an interesting mix of fact and opinion. One of the first grafs is below and the whole thing is in the link above.
Anyway, I guess a lot more people are living there these days – here’s what’s on Yelp about this building.
And here’s the place itself, way on the right, from the deck of one of those nearby multi-floor townhomes:
Click to expand
Here it is:
“The edifice I refer to is the Presidio Landmark Apartments, located in the city’s Presidio on Wedemeyer St. near 14th Ave. I was working at this insular, hermetically sealed, self-aggrandizing, pseudo palace—home to CEO’s and hedge funders—in the capacity of door attendant. My brown face was the first you’d see when walking through the French doors. There I would sit, donning a somewhat comical habiliment of tan dockers, innocuous (save for the itching) cotton candy blue shirt, bottomed off with clunky Timberland shoes. The Presidio Landmark—an ideal locale for one of those obnoxious Lexus Christmas commercials—home to some of the city’s highest rents–nearly $3000 a month for a “junior” one bedroom, $3200-3800 for a one-bedroom, upwards of $4000-5000 for a 2 bedroom, and $7000+ for a multi-floor townhome located in the periphery. The building casts an ominous presence when approached. It is situated on a grassy slope, adorned with foliage including succulents, native plants, African varieties—underneath canopy-like palm trees, impassive and pale, stripped of their natural skin. One gets the impression when approaching this fortress-like structure that something is terribly wrong. This home of the upwardly mobile, the hedge funders, gentrifiers of neighborhoods—this colonized place sits on the ancestral home of Native people. It is the structure that was once known as the Merchant Marine and Public Health Service Hospitals. It was a place that provided free care to native people, including native Hawaiians, people with leprosy, merchant marines and people who didn’t have access to decent healthcare. It is part of the 42 acre Public Health Service District. It is the place that was abandoned in the mid 80’s when it was decommissioned by the Reagan administration. It is a place whose cries can be heard, a place where ancestral spirits cry out for justice against land grabbing developers like Forest City, who, with the Presidio Trust, took the sacred Ohlone land to satisfy its voracious corporate hunger. The Presidio Landmark: home to the 1%.”
But what’s this, here’s an ad for just $2150, so maybe they’ve lowered their asking prices lately:
*Junior One Bedroom, One Bathroom available for move in 2/8/2012
*Brand New Luxury Apartment Home
*Presidio National Park address
*Beautiful finishes including hardwood floors, granite countertops and stainless steel energy efficient appliances
*Bosch full-size, in-suite washer and dryer
Presidio Landmark Features:
LEED Gold Certification
24-hour Door Attendant
Concierge Services
On-site Maintenance Team
Massage Room and Spa Services
Private Dining Room with Wine Cellar
Jacuzzi Hot Tub
Fitness Center/Yoga Room
Beautiful Interior Gardens with Fire Pit and breathtaking views
Parking available at $150/month
Live in luxury at the Presidio Landmark where there is plenty of room to stretch out and enjoy the great outdoors; you will have immediate access to the Marina, Laurel Heights and Presidio Heights. Nowhere else in San Francisco will you find an historic building that has been sustainably renovated with modern comforts and conveniences built right in. Host a private dinner party in our Dining Room or catch the MUNI to the Financial District for a night out.
And there you have it.
I don’t know, when you have like just one member of the public show up at a meeting hosted by Rec and Park, would you call that a successful joint?
This was the scene for last Thursday night’s big PowerPoint presentation. You had people there from the new tenant and the new tenant’s Marin operation and RPD and etc.
Is this low turnout due to the fact that grand battle has already been won by the new tenant, or is it due to the fact that there was zero publicity for this particular meeting,* or maybe a combination of both reasons?
Click to expand
Anyway, the latest developments at Stow are detailed here by Rachel Gordon.
And oh, the lawsuit against the City from the old tenant should have some activity soon, maybe something is scheduled for Superior Court in March 2012.
And the latest from the absurdly-named Save Stow Lake Coalition has to do with paint with lead in it, which, Gentle Reader, I’m sitting two yards from right now. And, this is true for you too, G.R. You know, ’cause paint with some amount of lead in it is everywhere. Simply everywhere. (If it turns out that this coalition is some long-running anti-NIMBY performance art project, I won’t be surprised…)
Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Enjoy your upcoming rain-free, vernal paddle-boating season, everybody…
*I don’t know, was this meeting posted on the internet anywhere at all? NTMK.
Here’s the word on the street:
“The Recreation and Park Department and Ortega Family Enterprises are hosting a community meeting to discuss the upcoming renovations of the Stow Lake Boathouse. The work will include creating an indoor seating area so that the building is open to the public for the first time, adding an accessible bathroom, upgrading the building systems as well as upgrading the general condition of the building.
Date: January 26, 2012
Time: 7PM
Location: Hall of Flowers (County Fair Building)”
But, am I getting punk’d here? ‘Cause I can’t find any evidence of this meeting online.
Now, I can find the Save Stow Lake insanity* webpage, right here.
And, I can find the Official Twitter for Stow Lake Boathouse LLC, right here.
But, to review, I can’t find any evidence of this meeting online.
Oh hey, look, it’s Ortega Family Enterprises’ Armand Ortega hisself, at the last big Boathouse meeting (the last one that I know of, anyway) at the Hall of Flowers.**
Click to expand
Oh well.
*Uh, Ortega Family Enterprises has “boating experience” now, doesn’t it? You might want to change that. And do you want the City and County poking about buildings in your real estate empire looking for paint with lead in it? I’d bet they’d find some. Oh no! And shrillness-wise, you’re giving us a 9. How about giving us a 3 instead? All right, take two, roll film, action.
**Yes, that’s the actual color of the interior of the Hall of Flowers. I call it indescribable green.
[UPDATE: Bagdad by the Bay just looked into things.]
Well, everything’s going great at your new and improved yet-pretty-much-the-same-except-for-the-food Stow Lake Boathouse in Golden Gate Park.
Here’s what it looks like these days:
Click to expand
Just check the Yelp for early reviews. They’re almost all highly positive.*
But what’s this? Some “brother” from Oakland, “Les. L,” is not happy, not one bit! He’s the only Yelper giving a less than positive review.
I’ll allege that Les is not some youngish dude from Oakland, but rather a wealthy, white, preservationist-minded, NIMBY-mentalitied, real-estate-obsessed, highly-opinionated woman of a certain age who lives in the West Bay.
Let’s check it out her one-star report:
“What happened to the cool local people that worked there?”
Um, this is an improbable start to a Yelp review. Gee, maybe they busy themselves with sock puppetry on Yelp these days, just like you, “Les L?”
“Everyone we saw was white, which is weird for SF. We drove over from the East Bay to rent boats with my 2 kids and my mom.”
Oh what’s that, Les? There’s not enough flava for you over here in the West Bay? That’s funny? Did you know that all the people behind the old boat house and the Save the Boat House Coalition are white, or pretty much? What were you expecting?
“The kids couldn’t reach the pedals in the boat we rented. How’s that? It’s for kids, right?”
The old boats, the ones sold off for $500, maybe they were inappropriate for adults? Maybe the kids can just come along for the ride? A paddleboat is a paddleboat, pretty much.
“After a unhappy boatride, my mom tripped on the crappy stairs in front of the boathouse. She was bleeding, the kids were crying, and no one bothered to help us.”
What were you unhappy about, Les? That Bruce lost his lease? It happens. Or you were unhappy because there were too many Whities about?
“An old man sitting on a bench helped us and said the boathouse was just taken over by a New Mexico chain. We won’t be back.”
More improbability. Oh well.
Oddly, Les L., straight outta Oak-Town, also has a big beef with Chicago Title Co. in lily-white Campbell, CA, the wealthiest(?) part of the South Bay.
And, oddly, “his” dentist, with whom “he” also has a big beef, is clear all the way in the burbs of the West Bay.
On It Goes…
*Perhaps too positive. “Ashley c.” is a another one of those Yelp fraudsters, it would appear.
