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Supes Say Yes!

Hurrah! Two steps closer to the AC!

© 2010 America’s Cup / Carlo Borlenghi

After months of buildup, the race to clear the two most significant initial legislative hurdles for hosting the 34th America’s Cup on San Francisco Bay happened so fast that we had to pinch ourselves. Yesterday, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to approve the term sheet that will serve as an outline for the City to hammer out the deal that will hopefully bring AC 34 to the Bay. The vote followed on the heels of a 3-0 vote by the Supes’ Land Use Committee the day before, where a cadre of local sailors, supporters, and even a couple ‘concern-voicers’ showed up to testify about the value of having the next Cup on the Bay.

The mood of Monday’s meeting was very positive, by and large, and showed the broad support that this proposal is engendering among the various parts of the City family. Port Director Monique Moyer reported that Piers 30/32 at present have "negative value" in their current state, and that although there had been occasional interest from commercial developers over the years, nothing had ever gotten beyond the idea stage. Moyer also noted that none of the other ideas had ever been for a maritime use.

Kyri McClellan, the project manager spearheading San Francisco’s bid for the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, laid out the City’s working proposal with the help of Craig Hartman of the ‘starchitect’ firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill’s San Francisco office. She also laid out the admittedly tight timeline, and produced a ream of paper — literally — that represented the only printed copy of all the emails sent to the Mayor’s office in support of City’s bid.

By now you may have heard that a termed-out supervisor — one of yesterday’s "no" votes — who is not on the Land Use Committee, effectively hijacked the meeting for what seemed like a half-hour, initially bringing up some valid questions about the speed of the process and budget analysis before devolving into a protracted rant that at one point had him questioning what his own point was. He claimed that as the Supervisor representing the district which would be impacted the most by the event, he had not been contacted by the Mayor’s office, a charge that has since been refuted. But you probably haven’t heard about the affirmative nature of the comments given by committee members David Chiu, Eric Mar, and committee Chairwoman Sophie Maxwell — who said she had enjoyed taking sailing lessons many years ago in Sausalito, and lamented not being able to pursue it more frequently.

Not all the folks you see here were at the Board Supervisors Land Use Committee meeting to show their the support for the City’s bid for the next America’s Cup, but we guess it had to be in the 90% range! There were so many people in fact, that they had to use the overflow room to accommodate everyone who showed up.

latitude/Rob
©2010 Latitude 38 Media, LLC

If you want to see America’s Cup 34 sailed on San Francisco Bay and were unable to attend Monday’s meeting, rest assured that you were represented strongly by what appeared to be in the neighborhood of 70 or so supporters including: Cree Partridge, Rich Jepsen, Kimball Livingston, Ronnie Simpson, Drew Harper, Garett Greenhalgh, Hans Bernwall, Carissa Harris, Jay Palace, Mark Leonard, Mia Bernt, Kevin Manel, Shawn Grassman, Marceline Therrien, BAADS, Jack Majszak, George Clyde, Loreen Novakm, Renee Linde, Timothy Ballard, Anthony Sandberg, Vince Casalaina, Norm Pierce, Bob Arndt, Michelle Slade, Patrick Benedict, William Piehl, Geoffrey Faraghan, Marina V. Secchitano, Gunnar Lundeberg, Anthony Poplawski, Christian Yuhas, John Arndt, Kame Richards, Sally Richards, Peter Stoneberg, Laura Paul-Munoz, Jon Haverson, Bob Tellefsen, Rob Grant, Adam Correa, Bruce Ladd, Synthia Petroka, Jim Antrim, Paul Anderson, Stan Honey, Sally Lindsay Honey, Kerry Keefe, Paul Kaplan, Chrissy Kaplan, Dan Haynes, Ariane Paul, Paul Oliva, Bob Naber, and Ron Young.

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