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Posted on 10/06/2009 8:04:20 PM PDT by Abakumov
Politicians with ties to land developers are trying to force the Navy to hand over one of the most valuable pieces of property in the country for free. The House version of the 2010 Defense authorization bill scheduled for conference today contains language that would speed the transfer of Naval Station Treasure Island to the city of San Francisco at no cost.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
If a congress critter arranged to have his mother’s body exhumed so he could sell her gold fillings, I’d beleive it.
PELOSI swindling AMERICA!! YET AGAIN!! OUTRAGEOUS!!!
No wonder Pelosi approves of Rangel’s Outrageous Behavior!
PELOSI Considers RANGEL a Rank Amateur!
are trying to force the Navy to hand over one of the most valuable pieces of property in the country for free
Isn’t it pretty much the same hands.
After the Naval Station closed in 1997, Treasure Island was opened to residential and other uses, but according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, the groundwater and air are contaminated with asbestos, plutonium, radium and other substances which are known to cause cancer and other illnesses.
Another risk of living on Treasure Island is the high risk of liquefaction during an earthquake. All of Treasure Island is built on landfill, and few if any of the buildings on the island were built to withstand a major earthquake, much less an earthquake magnified by liquefaction.
Looks like we've found a new home for West Coast liberal Politicians. Next earthquake and they're gone. Either that or a slow and lingering death from the toxic soil.
- Traveler
Which Politicians and “Friends of Government” are at it again for their own profit…name names; the price is way too cheap!
With the so supposed economic problems currently why not auction off all/each parcel to the highest bidder, instead of continuing corruption as usual.
And the developers will win, thanks to the Kelo decision by the SCOTUS.
Mark
Seriously?
A freaking memory hogging piece of junk PDF as a link without a warning?
Sheesh.
And now for the topic at hand - don’t forget how deep “Mr. Feinstein” is in land development and SF politics.
YEP! Just like Valerie Jarrett wanted the Olympics. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Sorry, I didn’t know there was supposed to be a warning for PDF’s. I know now.
Democrat Culture Of Corruption Ping!
Excellent link jazz!
PING to the political corruption players and connections.
http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/kirshenbaum_061029.shtml
How dare they!! Who's going to stop this blatant underhanded corruption ?? When will all this madness end ??
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*snip*
In order to see how this functions, let's start with the spectacular view of Treasure Island that the Ferry Building offices have. Treasure Island may be flat and man-made, but nonetheless it is land with a sparkling waterfront - it might as well be over 400 acres of undeveloped gold. It is irresistible to anyone with a nose for development and the wherewithal to make that development happen.
Treasure Island's fate seems to be following that of the Presidio. In 1994, the Presidio was formally transferred from the Army to the Presidio Trust (with the edges of the site going to the National Park Service) for "public-private" development and usage opportunities.
Three years later, the process started to transfer Treasure Island from the Navy to the city for development. Both transfers were initiated by former Mayor Willie Brown and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. The Treasure Island transfer was completed by Pelosi with Mayor Newsom.
Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Gavin Newsom attend the official opening of the $100 million Letterman Digital Arts Center, June 26, 2005.
The Presidio Trust, a group of well-connected citizens, was charged with stewardship of the new national park. The Trust made a big show of gathering public input, which it then ignored in favor of building the absurdly gargantuan Letterman Digital Arts Center.
It was a perfect example of how important it is to developers to ensure that appointments go to people who can be counted on to make development-favorable decisions. In the case of the Presidio, the Trust decided to transform a national park into an office park.
They also decided who got the lucrative building contracts. For a developer, it's just the way business is done. The Presidio continues to be stocked with new, private enterprises, and the tussling continues over Hunter's Point.
Right now, though, the next big, exciting opportunity is Treasure Island.
An undated aerial photo of Treasure Island. Photo by Luke Thomas
After some very serious wrangling over control (see "more info" below), the fate of Treasure Island rests mainly with TIDA: the Treasure Island Development Authority. Just as with the Presidio Trust, the people who comprise TIDA are awfully critical. It is they who decide what gets developed and who gets to develop it - and profit thereby.
Likewise, the person who appoints the people on TIDA and similar boards is also a key player, for he or she must be guided to select members who can be trusted to vote favorably to one's interests.
That's the entitlement portion of the Big Three: garnering approvals that entitle one to development and maximize profits by upzoning the land. (Upzoning means changing the rules to allow more profitable development than would otherwise be allowed.).
That's why forming relationships between would-be developers and appointing officials is crucial. Lobbyists like Platinum's Darius Anderson and Jay Wallace specialize in building those relationships, sometimes by finding sources of cash reserves for campaign contributions, or occasionally hosting key fundraisers.
Wallace was at one time Pelosi's campaign manager.
When Anderson held a fundraiser a couple of years ago to retire Mayor Newsom's campaign debt, it raised eyebrows, but it is what lobbyists do. They specialize in creating access for themselves and for clients with the people who make appointments, sign or promote legislation, and grant entitlements to develop - all of which have big profit implications.
It's easy to conclude that clients are getting their money's worth from Platinum and friends - especially when the client is Platinum itself. TIDA has granted to Platinum the uncontested contract to be the sole developer of Treasure Island. Or, to be exact, that exclusive contract has been granted to Platinum's new entity, Treasure Island Community Developers, with the master plan component going to Anderson's other company, Kenwood Investments.
The entity Treasure Island Community Developers needed to be created because giving a development contract to a lobbying firm is like asking an ad agency to start a strip-mining operation: it doesn't make much natural sense. Unless the ad agency can't resist the thought of finding veins of gold in the ground, and creates an entity for that purpose.
Considering the grand, incestuous family that is politics, maybe it's no surprise that Platinum's development entity has been handed the Treasure Island bounty.
Given the Pelosi and Newsom history of enthusiasm for developing the Presidio, we should hope it's not too late to keep a close watch and short leash on Treasure Island developments. Unfortunately, this means paying attention to the entire family.
That would include even the new president on the Commission on the Environment, Paul Pelosi, Jr., who is Nancy Pelosi's son and Gavin Newsom's cousin. As for TIDA itself, all the members are appointed by the mayor; all but one is a City Hall official.
Who else will benefit from the arrangement? Certainly Lennar Corporation will. They are a partner with Platinum's Treasure Island Community Developers. Lennar has experience developing former military bases, and is one of the country's largest residential housing builders.
By what could solicitously be called a coincidence, Laurence Pelosi was president of acquisitions for Lennar. He is Nancy Pelosi's nephew, and currently works as executive director of Morgan Stanley's real estate division. As Newsom's former campaign treasurer, he would have worked with Darius Anderson on the campaign fundraiser for Newsom.
He's not the only one: Doug Boxer, son of Senator Barbara Boxer, is an attorney who has worked for Anderson as a Platinum lobbyist, and has been a partner with Anderson at Kenwood Investments.
+ + +
A case could be made that without Platinum and Lennar playing a role, there would be no financing and Treasure Island would remain a fallow relic of an outdated military past.
And without Willie Brown, Nancy Pelosi, and Gavin Newsom creating the situation for the necessary government entitlements, the land and the assets would simply sit.
Or would they? Is there really no recourse other than to deliver the choicest projects to our most skillful lobbyists? Even if everything described here is completely legal, is it right for our elected officials to hand over profits to their inner circle?
Are the ethical concerns greater when those profits involve our public lands? The children of politicians are allowed to join commissions and earn a living. But how certain are we that our leaders and their friends and families have the public's best interests in mind?
The other troubling problem is that we citizens get no substantial say in the matter, even when we know what is transpiring. We may have elected Pelosi and Newsom, but we didn't intend to cast votes for their relatives, too. Or their friends. Or their funders. And if there are certain players who are enriching themselves so handily with our public property, it wouldn't hurt to have a lot more transparency in the process.
Ok now tell everyone what we do to prosecute the corruption.
How can these people be checked?
That property belongs to the US taxpayer, and it is not for sale!
Thanks, the credit goes to smoothsailing for finding that.
Happy to see the Washington Times pick this up.
They definitely have an agenda and it’s not for the good
of our country. Greed rules with them!
“How can these people be checked?”
Good question. It would help if some republican members of congress would start shouting from the rooftops, but they never do. (sigh). Probably the best way is to use the enviromentalist nazi’s to ‘beat’ them. A little ‘Alinsky’ treatment...LOL! Check out post Traveler59’s post # 7.
(snip)
“After the Naval Station closed in 1997, Treasure Island was opened to residential and other uses, but according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, the groundwater and air are contaminated with asbestos, plutonium, radium and other substances which are known to cause cancer and other illnesses.
Another risk of living on Treasure Island is the high risk of liquefaction during an earthquake. All of Treasure Island is built on landfill, and few if any of the buildings on the island were built to withstand a major earthquake, much less an earthquake magnified by liquefaction.”
I say the best revenge is to blow the deal by making them live up to their own ‘values’. Like...’how dare they develop that ‘poisonous land’...LOL! We should demand that some enviro groups take them to court. Spend leftist money to stop leftist corruption. Two birds with one stone.
“It would help if some republican members of congress would start shouting from the rooftops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Time to separate the wheat from the chaff in the Repub Party.
Isn’t there enough to indict PELOSI yet???
Thanks for great post #16, STARWISE.
....”the groundwater and air are contaminated with asbestos, plutonium, radium and other substances which are known to cause cancer and other illnesses.”
Bet my son will wish he had known this BEFORE he spent all last year living on the island and going to grad school.
I’m a bit confused....why the need for “Treasure Island Community Developers”.... when Treasure Island is already developed?
“Isn’t there enough to indict PELOSI yet???”
It’s been going on for quite awhile(check out the democrats in the Bay Area Billionaires Club):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/06/26/BAG7B7CDMQ1.DTL
The rich get richer and it’s Bush’s fault.
This land is too valuable for it to be for the common person. It is EXCLUSIVE man-made real estate that will only be used for the ultra-rich and famous. I see a major yacht club and resort, or some other billionaire venture for this property.
For proof, look at what happened to the properties on Florida's intra-coastal waterway in the wake of the Kelo v. New London eminent domain ruling. People who retired to South Florida in the 1970's and built era-common homes on the waterfront were having their property condemnded by city councils because the land was "too good for the people who owned it." They wanted to turn the land into marinas for yacht clubs, because the revenues would be worth more than the property taxes that the rightful owners were paying.
Treasure Island is just like the Florida intra-coastal waterway. It is too good for the people who own it, and it is being coveted by thieves who have the authority of government to simply take it.
-PJ
There has to be a special place in hell for these individuals that misuse their power for personal gain.
He sees and He knows. Teach us how to fight and win.
I lived at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS) from 1965-1967, WONDERFUL place to live ...
I lived at 540 Innes Avenue - on a hill, house with a bay window and a MILLION dollar view ... overlooking SF Bay towards Alameda ...
Course, we DID NOT know about all the contamination at that point - may have contributed to some of my health problems over the years ...
We used to go to Treasure Island (TI) ALL the time to swim - HPNS did not have swimming facilities, TI had a 50 meter pool ...
TI REALLY is something - but I assume that there will need to be MAJOR cleanup - same as HPNS is going through right now ...
But, it will be the Ritchie Riches that eventually get ahold of the property ...
HPNS, OTOH, is slated for more reasonably priced housing (for the SF area) - with maybe 7,000 units going in there and I have heard POSSIBLY the NEW Candlestick Park for the 49ers ... and associated shops, etc.
But, it will be the Ritchie Riches that eventually get ahold of the property ...”
My son rented a condo on the island. I guess anyone who currently owns property there is SOL, just like any other E.D. case.
That was my thought when reading this story. Highrises on landfill during an earthquake?
And an interesting link "Lawmakers see Profit Potential
I had just gotten out of A school and they sent me to San Diego for my first ship. When I got there I couldn't find it though, it seems that my ship was actually in Australia. oops.
So, after about a three hour wait at the base HQ they stuck me in a cab to the airport and flew me to San Francisco, then a bus to TI. I sat there playing cards and twiddling my thumbs until they called me in and put me on another bus to Travis AFB.
I took a MAC flight to Hawaii, then Guam, then Clark AFB. Then a bus to Subic where I met my first boat. It was an UGLY thing, an LST.
Ping.
Michael Savage said a month ago, Pelosi wants this property for her and her political money friends.
Feinstein and her husbands no bid contracts in Iraq have to be a part of this picture. And her 25 billion FDIC bailout that went to her husbands company.
There is information here I did not know. Pelosi has her hands in everything. Was her son part of countrywide when they were bailed out?
This picture is why many companies say no nepotism. It breeds corruption too many times.
That's cool. Just make sure Pelosi, Newsome and Feinstein are living there first.
They want the property free but they will expect GVMT to do all the stabilizing and any cleanup. We have air bases that were closed that are still not clean enough in some areas. The land sits there. People want to use it but it would be another love canal.
When the city went bankrupt that controls treasure island,which escapes me now, I looked into the massive corruption then. Money was flowing like crazy everywhere.
Has anyone been able to find the link where Feinstein used insider trading and made 10 million overnight buying GE stock when she knew GVMT was going to bail them out? I read it but could not confirm it.
As George Soros lied about Cheney’s former company doing work in Iraq, Feinstein handed no bid contracts to her husband. She was making out like a thief. Then of course once Soros destroyed the business, he purchased millions in stock.
Wow! How cool is that.Do you have more pictures? I think historians are always needing pictures and of course genealogists love them.
I have posted a few on my Freeper Home page.
Pelosi is a “pimp” for her husband.
No doubt in my mind that they are. I haven't researched this so don't know any time lines but the Pelosi family, inlaws from her husbands side are in this up to their necks.
She sure is, there have been numerous times she has said she would distance herself because of connections but saying it and doing it are two different things.
Those of us who know teh democrats on the local level, know they are all about money from developers.
The “party of the people” is full of wealthy land developers, highway billboard promoters, etc. It’s all about the money.
Pelosi is stealing Treasure Island?
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