The San Francisco Citizen

The 14th Annual San Francisco Aloha Festival,  co-sponsored  by the Presidio Trust, Southwest Airlines, and the Halekulani Hotel, runs from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM this weekend:

The Pacific Islanders of the San Francisco Bay Area offer their talents in music and dance during this FREE ADMISSION, two-day festival of arts held during the first full weekend of every August. Entertainment highlights include Pacific Islander music as well as Polynesian dance. The festival will also feature arts & crafts vendors, island cuisine, educational exhibits and workshops, and an `Ohana Korner with simple games for the kids!

Directions.

Speaking of Hawaii, where the weather is always fair, you can get to it fairly cheaply these days with the sort-of-secret “L class” fare.

And while you’re there, take notes on your favorite restaurant, send them into Zagat, and maybe you’ll get a free Zagat’s guide to use on your next trip to the (808) state.  

Aloha. See you there!

San Francisco’s Festival of Sail started yesterday - read all about it.

Movie star The Bounty in front of Alcatraz, as seen from the Crissy Field Overlook in the Presidio. Click to expand:

The Coast Guard’s Eagle, just after passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. Lot’s of great photos here, from Telstar Logistics. Can you spot the baggywrinkle?

A different view of the Eagle, next to the Alpha Tower of the Bay Bridge as witnessed by Petty Officer Sherri Eng:

Lots of people came out to see the SS Jeremiah O’Brien slowly chug along:

See you at the Festival of Sail!

The Presidio Trust and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy opened another overlook today: 

The Crissy Field Overlook is the third major vista point to be completed in the Presidio. The Overlook is part of a program to nearly double the size of the Presidio’s trail system and create new ways for the community to experience the Presidio’s great outdoors. The stone plaza features views of the waterfront, San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz, and the San Francisco skyline. The Overlook was supported by a generous gift from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.

Click to expand:

You don’t need a car to get up there, so check it out. 

It’s on! Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, July 22, 2008, you should come on down to San Francisco’s waterfront and check out all the old school ships. You’ll be able to see 32 Tall Ships sail through the Golden Gate starting at around noon. You can get good views from the Presidio and Fort Mason.

Look out for the Nazi-built war prize USCGC Eagle (you can’t miss it, it’s huge).

tall ship Pallada, via Towse’s photostream in front of Treasure Island

Don’t miss the Pirate Academy!

There will be three Festival of Sail villages at:

AT&T Park (Green Village),

Ferry Building (International Sail Village), and

Pier 43-1/2 (Marine Educational Village).

Purchase Boarding Passes online for one of three villages, which will feature several vessels and other maritime-history highlights ($10 to $20). Board the Red and White Fleet Water Taxi to connect between the three villages. Book online ($16) for a full day pass.

See you there!

The Presidio Trust wanted a big turnout, and that’s what they got. How many folks showed up last night at the Presidio Trust Public Board of Directors meeting? More than 500 and less than 1000. Read a vivid account here.

These poor souls had to wait about 45 minutes before being admitted, but nobody was “turned away,” as has been alleged. Across the street you can see the “First Amendment Area” at Moraga and Monkey. That’s the nicest time, place, manner free speech area this lawyer has ever seen.

The news of the evening is that public comment period will be extended to September, so expect another big meeting like this one. A transcript will be available soon, so let’s wait on that before getting into this too much.

Is there a NIMBY backlash developing among area youth?

The Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, was booed by a good chunk of the mob after he voiced support for the CAMP museum as well as the entire Presidio Trust proposal. Only in San Francisco….

In the words of world-famous architect Richard Gluckman, “Working in San Francisco is not like anywhere else.”

Here’s what Angelo King of the Bayview Hunter’s Point Project Area Committee has to say, and here’s the official case made for the museum:

To be continued…

Well it seems like it takes forever to get anything done in this town, but we’ll be passing another milestone tonight. In the words of well-informed Marisa Lagos:

“Controversy over a series of proposed developments in the Presidio’s Main Post- most notably Gap founder Don Fisher’s 100,000-square-foot modern art museum - is heating up in advance of a meeting Monday.”

Make sure you get to the correct location: 

Presidio Herbst International Exhibition Hall, 385 Moraga Avenue (next to the Presidio Officers’ Club on the Main Post). The public is invited to offer comments on the draft Presidio Trust Management Plan Main Post Update Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (read more). If you have questions, please call the Presidio Trust Public Affairs Office at (415) 561-5418. View the board meeting agenda.”

There seems to be a lot of interest in these developments:

This is what the start of the Main Post Walking Tour looks like. Feel free to check out this guided tour before tonight’s board meeting:

“Monday, July 14, 4:30 to 6 pm. Meet Outside the Presidio Officers’ Club, 50 Moraga Avenue. On this easy-to-moderate 90-minute guided walk, Presidio Trust staff will discuss ideas for revitalizing the Main Post as the heart of an urban national park. Get answers to your questions and find out how you can make your opinions heard in this public process.”

But what about you? Where can you protest?

“A ‘First Amendment’ Area has been established on the lawn at the northwest corner of the intersection of Montgomery Street and Moraga Avenue, set back five feet from any sidewalk.”

(Yes, it’s odd that the San Francsico index of streetnames has two Moragas and two Montgomerys.)

Conveniently, this location is right next to the board meeting, the site of our new Richard Gluckman-designed CAMP museum, and the defunct movie theatre that’s scheduled to be reopened one of these days.  

But the whole idea is to get inside and participate in the process, so why not? You’ll be able to see how many NIMBYs will turn out - you know, San Francisco has more than its fair share of NIMBYs. They’ll identify themselves by telling you how many years they’ve lived in such and such neighborhood.

Then they’ll proceed with their favorite rhetorical trope, the metaphor. Which metaphor will prove most popular?

A. Monster. Includes “giant” and other words connoting size.

B. Alien. Includes any reference to otherworldliness.

C. Disease. Includes anything cancer-related, such as “spread” or “metastasize.” (This one is a long-shot)

D. Any other metaphor.

And while we’re on the topic, the drinking game watchwords tonight will be separated into two categories, adjective and adverb. Hoist a drink upon hearing any mention of the word inappropriate. That game is for professional drinkers only, so as an alternative, take a drink of your favorite intoxicant when you hear either completely or totally in the same sentence as the aforementioned inappropriate.

So there you have it. See you there!

To begin, John King is the San Francisco Chronicle’s Urban Design Writer. And an equine dentist is one who looks a gift horse in the mouth. And CAMP is the proposed Contemporary Art Museum of the Presidio. Now you’re up to speed!

Here’s the deal. Check out John King’s Fisher’s Awkward Location for Presidio Museum article and this graphic to see where he’d prefer our new museum to be.

If you like huge parking lots and “historic” freeway on-ramps, then you’ll want to delay any changes at the main post of the Presidio for as long as possible.  

Now here’s the case for keeping the proposal where it is. By the numbers:

1. Framing. CAMP would help to “frame” the newly-green main parade ground, which is now a huge parking lot of course. That’s the basic version, but internationally-famous architect Richard Gluckman would probably be able to expand on that. He should be more than capable of doing so, as his name is literally synonymous with from Bauhaus to our house minimalism. See and hear for yourself on July 10 in San Francisco, if you can pony up the dough.   

2. The view from inside of CAMP. Check out this graphic - it’s a glass wall that would let visitors look to the north. JK’s idea would be to keep the proposed location of CAMP empty in order to let future generations to decide what’s best. But the glass wall and other features of the building certainly suggest it was designed for this particular site.

3. The proximity to Building 101. You can see 101 here - it’s the middle building on the right. There’s your administrative offices for the museum and also the place for workshops and programs. It would be nice to be able to have the main museum building reserved mostly for display space leaving Building 101 for other things. And of course, it would be nice to have these two locations close to each other.

So there you have it.

Would John King prefer chucking the whole idea of CAMP if it can’t be placed at his preferred location?

That, unfortunately, remains left unsaid. 

No, not that Presidio Theatre on 2340 Chestnut in the Marina District.

This Presidio Theatre at 99 Moraga in the Presidio. The one that is temporarily closed.

A sad scene from the Main Post Theatre featuring a poster advertising a showing (The Blob, featuring Steve McQueen and Burt Bacharach’s campy music) from five years ago.

But that’s the way it goes with single screen movie houses these days.

C’est la vie, mon chéri

The Presidio of San Francisco, on the northern waterfront to the left of the newly upscale Ghirardelli Square, hasn’t seen this much action since they filmed The Presidio, starring Sean Connery. It appears that a mounted member of the United States Park Police briefly detained a Google Maps camera car for some sort of driving infraction this morning. Oh noes! Don’t impede this car - it’s gone to some interesting places. It’s not scary at all, right?

[Update: National Park Service employee and Commenter #67 Motorcop_2000 disputes any account that has the Googler getting a ticket. MC_2K indicates that this driver merely got lost and was trying to get "back to the Avenues" (meaning the Richmond or the Sunset districts). Bad driving and Toyota Priuseses seem to go together, so this story rings true.]

So the photo below shows how the magic of Google Street View happens - you can see their method all laid out. In this case, Google is using a brand-spanking-new Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid (wouldn’t a 50-state VW Jetta TDI diesel get better mileage?) and a rather tall metal mast with mad cameras, GPSes and SICK laser range finders. Click to expand:

Courtesy of damianspain of the San Francisco Bay area. Thanks Damian! Check out his flickrstream for lots of great shots of San Francisco, including a rare blue sky at the North Beach Festival.

(Normally, the Presidio is a quiet place, except for people feuding over the location of the new CAMP museum and the occasional coyote attack. And Hooverball - the kids these days make all sorts of noise throwing their old school medicine balls around.)

Keep up the good work, Google Street View drivers. Just make sure to watch out for The Man (as well as all those sexy pedestrians trying to catch your attention).

Well, as promised, park officials over at the Presidio led a tour on Sunday describing new proposals for the area around the Main Post.

Yesterday, a good turnout of about 75 people went on a 1.5 hour tour of El Presidio and the Main Post. Tour participants inside the Presdio Officer’s Club, click to expand:

It’s your Presdio, of course, so feel free to attend other walking tours scheduled for this summer:

Come see for yourself what proposals for the Presidio are all about. On this easy-to-moderate 90-minute guided walk, Presidio Trust staff will describe the birthplace of San Francisco at the heart of the Presidio – the historic Main Post – and discuss ideas for revitalizing it as the heart of an urban national park. Learn about proposals for a heritage center, an archaeology lab, public uses in the iconic brick barracks, a park lodge, reuse of the historic theatre, and a museum of contemporary art. Get answers to your questions and find out how you can make your opinions heard in this public process.

July 14th will be the next big event in the process of Bringing Back the Heart of the Presidio, as they say.

See you there!