Latest North Beach rift not unlike others
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Columnist
September 30, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — Neighborhood battles are a rich part of San Francisco’s cultural fabric, and nowhere is that quilt so combatively tugged at as the area encompassing North Beach and Telegraph Hill, where the fights are long and legendary.
You could say since that part of The City is the one most tourists see when they think of San Francisco, there’s a reason so many clashes take place. The residents have a strong belief that it’s an area worth fighting for. But I think the reason is simpler: For the people there, fighting has become routine, like jogging or dinner or taking the dog for a walk.
That will explain why they fight about playgrounds and condo projects, music festivals and beer gardens. They fight over whether there are too many bars and restaurants, too much drinking or not enough. They even fight over yogurt-shop permits, showing that if there’s a fight to be had, they’ll more than likely have it.
This brings us to the latest fight, or rather, the latest round in an old clash. And it’s something of a classic, because the reason they’re fighting now is that all the arguments for why they were fighting in the first place have changed.
Flash back to five years ago when two developers were in the process of building a nine-unit apartment complex on a 4,000-square-foot parcel at 701 Lombard St. that has come to be known as the “triangle.” After receiving planning permits, the developers somehow ran afoul of Nancy Shanahan, the community’s self-appointed land commissioner, who is also the wife of district Supervisor Aaron Peskin.
After several attempts to get the developers to scale back the size of the complex — all of which were rebuffed by city planners and the appeals board — Peskin came up with the novel idea of seizing the property through eminent domain. Peskin strenuously argued that the neighborhood needed more open space and parks to back up his position. After years of rancorous maneuvers and lawsuits, the Recreation and Park Department ended up paying $2.8 million to the developers, allegedly for a new park.
Meanwhile, plans for a renovated library in North Beach were moving forward to expand the size of that nearby site adjacent to a neighborhood playground. And advocates for an expanded playground wanted to upgrade the facilities, but, alas, Recreation and Park officials had no money. And then, after a few meetings to discuss the so-called North Beach Master Plan, voila, the magical forces that seem to arise to meet the tides of resistance landed upon a plan that seemed to go where no plan had gone before. And after the Library Commission and the Recreation and Park Commission this month gave it their seal of approval, this is where the battle over 701 Lombard now stands.
The triangle that proponents said was needed as open space for a park will now be the new site of the North Beach Branch Library. The library, which wanted to expand, will now be smaller. And Joe DiMaggio Playground will be enlarged, the tradeoff for losing the much-ballyhooed triangle.
“This was not the picture that was painted for this neighborhood,” says resident Karl Beale. “It’s crazy and unbelievable, and we’re not halfway through.”
Playground backer Julie Christensen, who helped engineer the new “compromise,” says it was the only idea that allowed the park to expand and keep the old library open while a new one was constructed.
“In five years, people are going to realize that it was the best thing to do,” she says. “This appears to be more of a fight than it really is.”
And Meagan Levitan, a Recreation and Park commissioner who voted for the new plan, says the “net effect is a win for the community,” even though she adds that she would have voted against the eminent-domain land grab had she been on the panel when those proceedings took place.
Now, it goes through more planning channels, environmental reviews, newspaper reports and the usual bumpy steps along the way. Or, as they like to say in the local cafes and watering holes, it’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood.
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