Posts Tagged ‘stadium’

Golden State Warriors Modify Semi-Publicly-Financed Arena Proposal – Say Hello To My Little Friend!

Sunday, May 5th, 2013

Well the announcement is officially coming this AM, but Messrs. Matier und Ross already have the skivvy on the brand-new, slightly-more-NIMBY-friendly proposal.

And, here, check the latest illustrations.

From the former proposal, a silvery looming UFO with kayak access…

…to the new proposal, a slightly lower silvery looming UFO without kayak access:

So Warriors, take that 13% rate down to 3% and then you might have something, you might have a privately-financed stadium deal.

Now let’s review our waterfront proposals.

The America’s Cup deal was poorly-negotiated on purpose so we could pay for Larry Ellison’s ego trip. It’s an ongoing travesty.

And 8 Washington is corruption.

But this here arena proposal seems OK fine to me, more or less.

I’ll now invite the rich, property-owning NIMBYs of SoMA to move to Fairfield, where 15% of the houses are in foreclosure.

MSM vs. Amateur Blogger Showdown: The Tens vs The Nevius – Who Has a Decent Giants Fireworks Shot and Who Doesn’t?

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

Up first is the effort from official Mayor Ed Lee lickspittle CW Nevius:

Click to expand

Mmmm…

I’ll reserve comment else I’ll get Blocked from his Twitter feed (again. You know, for calling him an SFGov lickspittle last month, which he totally is.)

So that was the pro journalist.

Comes now, The Tens.

Same night, same show:

Oh that’s right, CW Nevius gets paid the same whether he does a half-assed job or not.

(And CW’s Conventional Wisdom writing is worse than his photography.)

Oh well.

(And switch cameras (or devices or whatever) and the The Tens would still take much better photos.)

A clear victor: The Tens.

Thx 4 playing…

The Tiny Town of Santa Clara Says,”I’m a Big Boy Now!” – An Odd 49ers/Super Bowl-Related Press Release

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

“Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara Stadium Awaits 49ers”

YEP. HOW IS THIS NEWS?

“SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 30, 2013 / — The city of Santa Clara is surrounded by San Francisco to the north and San Jose next door to the south. Its population of just over 118,000 is well below these neighboring cities, yet as of August, 2014 the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers will be playing home games in Santa Clara, California. Already longtime headquarters for the team, the city is poised for permanent placement in the national and international sports spotlight.

UH, ACTUALLY, SC, YOU’RE SURROUNDED BY _SAN JOSE_ TO THE SOUTH.

RIGHT?

ALL RIGHT, READ THE REST, GENTLE READER, TO TRY TO SEE THE POINT OF THIS RELEASE. TTFN!

“The $1.2 billion Santa Clara Stadium will have the flexibility to host domestic and international soccer, college football, motocross, concerts, various civic events, and can be expanded for major events such as the Super Bowl. In fact, it has already been announced that the stadium is one of two finalists to host Super Bowl L in February, 2016 or Super LI in February, 2017. The stadium also will be home to the annual NCAA college football Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl beginning in 2014. Santa Clara Stadium will be the first professional football stadium to open with LEED certification, the recognized standard for measuring building sustainability.

Surrounding this unique sports venue is the city’s Santa Clara Convention Center, California’s Great America theme park, high-tech giants including Intel Corporation, Cisco Systems, and many others as well as a variety of major brand and independent hotels. For more details and images of Santa Clara, California and the new Santa Clara Stadium, visit www.SantaClara.org/Media.

www.santaclara.org

CONTACT: David Andre
408.380.1235
david.andre@santaclara.org

SOURCE Santa Clara Convention and Visitors Bureau

Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130130/DC51137

http://photoarchive.ap.org/

Santa Clara Convention and Visitors Bureau

Web Site: http://www.santaclara.org

So the Golden State Warriors are Inviting Random San Franciscans to Ask Them Questions? Yes – Big Conference Call Tonight

Monday, November 12th, 2012

So there I was feeding Pendragon and Tatsu yesterday (Veteran’s Day 2012) when I get a robocall at 7:07 PM* from Your Golden State Warriors basketball team, Caller ID 888 479 4667.

Appears that I’ll need to opt out to avoid getting another call at 7:00 PM tonight (a national holiday, Veterans Day 2012, observed) that’s going to turn into some big conference deal where I, yr obdt srvnt, will get to ask Management “any question” I want!

1. My first question will be this:

You motherfuckers want to charge us a 13% rate of return, guaranteed, on the new taxpayer-subsidized waterfront stadium deal? WTF? Isn’t that nuts? Isn’t that kind of shady?

San Francisco Multi-Purpose Venue Project on Piers 30-32 and Seawall Lot 330 Findings of Fiscal Responsibility and Feasibility

“As presented in the Conceptual Framework, no public monies will be used to fund any portion of the multi-purpose venue or any other structure. The rehabilitation of Piers 30-32 will also be privately financed by GSW. The City will reimburse GSW for the infrastructure improvements to the Pier, which will remain in City ownership, up to $120 million with a 13 percent annual return on costs.”

Follow-up: What other Easter Eggs do you have hidden inside this deal, SFGov / Golden State Warriors? And does Willie Brown get a piece of the action, like with the wasteful and expensive Central Subway? Or like with Rose Pak and 8 Washington? Or like with Thomas (“Coates Likes Boats”) Coates and the America’s Cup financing boondoggle? Or like with Ron Conway and the corrupt Twitterloin? I mean, who’s profiting off of this public private partnership?

2. My second question will be this:

Do you promise not to allow Larry Ellison to ever ever ever be involved with the new stadium deal?

Let’s get that in writing, why not. I mean, I think we’ve had enough of that deadbeat wanting us to fund his hobbies, am I right Warriors Fans? That America’s Cup is costing us eight figures, which is money that Larry Ellison should reimburse us for, like right now, the deadbeat.

3. My third question will be this:

Is Casey on the line?  

Or Karlee or Amira? You know, somebody who’s a veteran Warriors Girl. No rookies please. And then I’ll have a bunch more inquiries about what it’s like to be a WG in the 510.

Oh, wait a second, I’ll be at the office,** so your call just might go to VM, Warriors.

Oh well.

*The 20th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Do you make all your spam calls on national holidays, GSW? Do you pay your robocallers, you know, a little extra for working evenings on a Sunday / national holiday? I hope so. 

**Do I have the day off? No. Do I get paid extra for working on a national holiday. No. Oh well. Poor Pendragon. Poor Tatsu.

The Incredible Hair of the San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush Cheerleading Squad – Homecoming Rally 2012

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

As seen in 1/8000 of a second at Justin Herman Plaza, September 12th, 2012:

Click to expand

Voluminous.

And see what Vernon Davis thinks about the upcoming game with the Detroit Lions Sunday night at the ‘Stick right here at TV 49.

Speaking of which, check out the New Santa Clara Stadium, which is probably going to be about 20 times better than Candlestick Park.

All right, tink happy toughts until 5:20 PM Sunday…

Explaining to PG&E CEO Anthony Earley How “Superheated” Copper Had Nothing to Do With His Recent Candlestick Park Failure

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Here’s the latest from San Francisco Chronicle writer Jaxon Van Derbeken on PG&E CEO Anthony Earley:

“It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my career — I was literally walking into the owner’s suite,’’ he said. “And the lights went out.’’ 

[Earley] said two power feeds serve the stadium, one had a repair of a previous break, known as a splice. He said the utility does visual checks of splices before the games, but the problem with the splice was apparently not visible, it became superheated and failed.”

Uh, “superheated,” sometimes referred to as boiling retardation?

‘Cause that’s what you’re saying.

You know, like this:

Oh, what’s that, you were just waxing poetic ‘n stuff?

No.

No, no, no.

The time to bandy about with the allegory and whatnot is not when you’re explaining why your big blow up occurred.

If you meant that the thing got too hot, then just say that the thing got too hot.

All right, PG&E, Go, and Sin No More.

Oh, and you know what you should be embarrassed about, Mr. Early, is having your spokesmodels out there Blaming SFGov First during this particular crisis. I know that’s what they’re taught to do, deflecting blame during an emergency, but, you know, isn’t that a bit cheesy?

And in fact, Mr. E., there are many, many other aspects of PG&E that you should be embarrassed about as well.

All right, GASNM.

OMG, Now CW Nevius is on KGO Radio!

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Well here’s the news, CW Nevius has taken to the air, once again.

Here’s an early review, from Rich Lieberman 415 Media:

“I heard Chronicle metro writer, Chuck Nevius’ new report on the 810 “news” Tuesday. It was plain horrific and god-awful. Nevius’ forte is as a writer. He’s NOT a radio guy. His voice was tantamount to listening to wallpaper. He tried in vain to be funny. He was not. The subject matter was the lights going out at Candlestick at the 49ers game Monday Night. It would have been merely bad if the segment ran a couple minutes. Nevius’ piece droned on well past four minutes. If this is supposed to draw listeners, then some moron needs to get his head examined.”

(Meesa say, “How wude!”)

Anyway, listen for yourself:

SF Chronicle columnist CW Nevius has joined the KGO 810 news team as a daily news commentator.

Nevius is well known to Bay Area readers for his unique look at the Occupy Movement, San Francisco politics, and even street toilets. His first commentary for KGO is a sad farewell to Candlestick Park, where Monday Night’s blackout during the 49er’s game may have signaled the end of the stadium.

C.W. Nevius has been a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle for over 20 years, covering sports, reviewing movies, and spotting trends. He is currently a metro columnist, appearing on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

As a sports columnist he climbed the ski jump at the Norway Olympics, ate bee larvae in Japan, and skied in the French Alps. In all he covered eight Olympic Games, from Australia to Spain to Korea. (And the strangest place of all, Los Angeles.)

He also wrote about riding the “Straight Talk Express” with John McCain during his first presidential bid, parachuting out of an airplane, and running the Boston Marathon. Although he only reviewed movies for a year, he did rate a blurb with his byline on the DVD box of “Santa Clause II,” to the undying embarrassment of his kids.

He co-authored “Splash Hit,” about building the Giants’ new waterfront stadium with Joan Walsh. His latest book is, “Crouching Father, Hidden Toddler. A Zen Guide for New Dads.”

News and Program Director Paul Hosley said, “We’re thrilled to have a journalist of CW’s caliber join the news team. We look forward to hearing his perspective on the Bay Area’s news stories.”

Realize that this might mean that you’ll have less Nevius to kick around, SF Chronicle-wise.

Oh well.

Invisible airwaves crackle with life 
Bright antenna bristle with the energy 
Emotional feedback on timeless wavelength 
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free 

 

PG&E, San Francisco National Laughingstocks – Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Have a Normal Gas and Electric Utility?

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

I don’t know, PG&E. Don’t you know by now that you’re a loser organization?

So how does it help to have your spokesmodels Blame the Customer First?

Right now, we’re actively investigating the cause,” PG&E spokesperson John King said shortly after the outage. “It could be a number of things, from customer-owned equipment to PG&E equipment…”

Oh, I know. The answer is that it doesn’t help.

It doesn’t help at all.

Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job:

Via David Yu - click to expand

Here’s the latest:

PG&E and the City and County of San Francisco Investigate Power Outages at Candlestick Park

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19, 2011 — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) issued the following statement from Geisha Williams, executive vice president of electric operations, about the power outages that impacted Candlestick Park this evening:

PG&E is working closely with the City and County of San Francisco, owner and operator of Candlestick Park, to determine the cause of tonight’s power outages. The first priority for both PG&E and the City and County has been to get the power restored as quickly and safely as possible and keep the power on through the rest of the game. Determining exactly what happened and working to prevent something like this from happening again is very important to everyone involved.

SOURCE  Pacific Gas and Electric Company”

And from SFGov:

“MAYOR LEE’S STATEMENT ON POWER OUTAGES AT CANDLESTICK PARK

Mayor Edwin M. Lee today issued the following statement on the electric power outages at Candlestick Park at tonight’s San Francisco 49ers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Monday Night Football game:

“Following the loss of electric power to Candlestick Park before kickoff this evening, I directed our Police, Fire and Recreation & Park Departments and our Public Utilities Commission to work closely with the 49ers and PG&E to ensure that maintaining public safety and restoring power to the stadium were the top priorities. City staff worked immediately to deliver backup power and support PG&E staff in their repairs.

I have directed Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White and SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington to conduct a full investigation into the cause of both outages and, with PG&E, identify immediate actions that must be taken to prevent incidents such as this from happening again.

Tonight we all share in tremendous pride for our San Francisco 49ers. We must make every effort to support continued victories for the team and fans across the Bay Area in the weeks ahead.”

And from Mayor Ed Lee on September 1, 2011, during the one-year anniversary of PG&E’s incompetance killing eight people in San Bruno:

 “They’re a great company that gets it.”

Uh, nope!

OMG, San Jose Has a Skyline That You Can See From SF – City Hall, Bank of America Building – They’re Just Like Us!

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Well this is the view you can get from Buena Vista Park in the middle of San Francisco.

That’s world-famous* Candlestick Park, Home of the 49ers and the Gold Rush, in the foreground, and in the background camera left is the City of San Jose, California’s third-largest and the Capitol of the Bay Area:

Click to expand, of course

Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, “Enhance that image.”

Well here you go, it’s downtown San Jose with all those tall buildings. See? It’s San Jose City Hall, “The 88″ residential building (which is actually only 87 meters high but let’s not dwell** on that), the Bank of America Building (nee Bank of Italy) from 1926, and the “Knight Ridder Building” (per Google Earth, I don’t know what they call it these days).

Oh, and somewhere in the mix there’s also Mineta San José International Airport – Silicon Valley’s Airport and the San Mateo Bridge and the Dumbarton Bridge.***

Anyway, I didn’t know San Jose had a skyline what you can see from the 415.

But don’t look for it to get any easier to spot in the future owing to the fact that that SJC international airstrip is right in the middle of it all and there’s a height limit of 87 meters (I think?) in the area.

So, San Joser has a big, domed City Hall and a tall Bank of America Building and whatnot. They’re just like us!

(Oh, and speaking of the Niners, enjoy our winning football team(s), Santa Clara County.)

*No, not “world-class.” 

**Check it: 

Eighty-eight (88) symbolizes fortune and good luck since the word 8 sounds similar to the word Fā (发, which implies 发财, or wealth, in Mandarin). The number 8 is considered to be the luckiest number of all in Chinese culture and prices in Chinese supermarkets can often be found containing many 8′s (see numbers in Chinese culture). The Chinese government has even been auctioning auto license plates containing many 8s for tens of thousands of dollars. The 2008 Beijing Olympics opened on 8/8/08 at 8 p.m. The shape of the Chinese character for 8 (八) also implies that a person will have a great, wide future as the character starts narrow and gets wider toward the bottom. 88 is used to mean “bye bye”; found in Chinese-language chat, text, SMS, IM. 88 is pronounced in Chinese Mandarin language as “ba ba” (“bā bā” to be precise), simulating the sound of the English language farewell “bye bye”.

And there’s this:

Eighty-eight is used as code among Neo-Nazis to identify each other. H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, so 88 is taken to stand for HH which in turn means Heil Hitler.For example, the number is used in the song “88 rock’n'roll band” by the neo-Nazi group Landser. The late convictedOrder terrorist David Lane wrote “Fourteen Words” and 88 Precepts, and the numbers are often found in combination (1488, 14/88, etc.). This form of the number has inspired the naming of the groups Column 88Unit 88, White Legion 88 and Barselc88. Holocaust museum shooter James von Brunn often signed his writings as “JVB-88.”

***Both of which were featured in the 1992 Robert Redford movie Sneakers. Hurray!

“Redford tries to describe to Strathairn, who is blind, what he heard while in the trunk of a car. He remembers going across a bridge and being in San Francisco it means one of four possible bridges: Golden Gate, Bay Bridge, San Mateo, and the Dumbarton. They rule out the first two and then narrow it down to San Mateo based on the sound and frequency of the seams in the concrete.”

Getting to Know Your New “San Francisco” 49ers Stadium and Testing Your Internet Connection at the Same Time

Monday, June 13th, 2011

If you haven’t seen what the 49ers are saying will be their home come 2015, here it is.

(You kids don’t remember dial-up modems, but this site brings back memories for me. Click, load. Click, load. So much for the “high-speed” connection I have…)

Click to expand

Are the Niners really going to leave?

Oh well…