City events should be wary of the legislative hammer

Add a Comment

July 21, 10:25 PM

by , Fault Lines

 

 

That way he won’t have to wait several weeks to watch his legislative colleagues gleefully shoot it out of the air.

And that’s likely what the Board of Supervisors will do today, since it appears an economic analysis will be required for future street-closure events, focusing on the mayor’s proposal to shut down Third Street and The Embarcadero for two four-hour periods on Aug. 31 and Sept. 14.

There are many ways to look at the imbroglio that developed out of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s plan to bring the communities of the Bayview and Chinatown together by linking them by an open, car-free road for a spell. It was either a bold proposal to publicize the merits of open space and exercise or a bungled attempt at getting people under a big tent without having that structure’s requisite support.

And right now the mayor is no doubt viewing it as a wonderful parting gift from his former colleagues as he heads to his fiancée’s Montana ranch this week to tie the knot.

Or as the restaurant owners at Fisherman’s Wharf like to say about the popular open-road Sundays down in Bogota, Columbia, where the whole concept started two decades ago: What happens in Bogota stays in Bogota.

I was never that enthusiastic about Project Open Road Connect or Sunday Streets or whatever nickname the Mayor’s Office came up with for the proposal, since it was always portrayed as a keen way to get people to exercise. I would counter that people who want to exercise will exercise and that you don’t need to close a major thoroughfare for four hours to get the same effect, no matter how many hula hoops, dance classes or roller-skating exhibitions you serve up along the way.

But after talking to the mayor last week, I got a better handle on the “vision thing.’’ He just saw it as a new grand event to bring people to San Francisco and to do so along its beautiful waterfront. It’s worked in Paris, Portland, Ore., and Kiev, Ukraine, for God’s sake — why not try it here?

“Everywhere it’s been done, it elevates the profile of that city,’’ Newsom told me. “Every time it’s been done in another city or country, it’s been wildly controversial and then wildly successful. But there’s been so much controversy over this, it’s almost like it’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy.’’

Except this one won’t be fulfilled because politics reared its ugly head and small business owners who are usually at odds with the board for its lavish tax-and-spend policies this time teamed up with their legislative representatives because it appears those eight hours of summer road closure are just too precious.

Of course, business owners in the Sunset and Richmond districts had their concerns about economic impacts completely dismissed when the same board was pushing for Saturday road closures in Golden Gate Park.

And in a rather ironic twist, the same groups promoting that issue (and originally against Newsom), such as the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, this time sided with the mayor, because anything that closes roads to cars at any time is good to their way of thinking.

Restaurant owners and business officials at Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf complained mightily about not being consulted on the plan, but Newsom said there were nine mitigation measures taken to address their concerns, including keeping The Embarcadero open from Washington Street north. And, he noted, both events lasted only four hours — how devastating could that be?

Yet the legislative hammer came down, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Here we have a board that for years has consistently refused to do any economic analysis of laws it was passing. Now supervisors want to consider doing a fiscal impact study of an event lasting a total of eight hours?

I pity the poor sponsors of any future events who would have to travel along that path. You only have to remember the great ski-jump event on Fillmore Street that was nearly canceled because of neighborhood complaints — that faux-snow flurry turned out to be a universal blast.

Giving full credit to Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who first suggested it, I told Newsom that maybe he should re-think the planned route and instead hold the extravaganza on upper Great Highway, which wouldn’t impact many businesses — and he welcomed it.

At the same time, there won’t be many businesses that would benefit from it, so in terms of the economic impact, it could end up being a wash.

There’s a thought — we could call it Sink or Swim.


 

   Subscribe   Feed

Include other special offers from Examiner.com
Terms of Use