Matier & Ross:
Red’s Java House on the waterfront may be the biggest winner in Warriors’ arena bid.
One big winner in the Golden State Warriors’ revised arena plan is the beloved burger joint along the waterfront, Red’s Java House.
The Warriors’ plan calls for Red’s to be picked up — lock, stock and beer barrel — and moved some 600 feet from the northwest corner of the proposed Piers 30-32 arena site to the southwest corner, about as far away from the team’s home as possible.
Red’s co-owner Tiffany Pisoni says she and her partner, Sal Chiavino, are fully on board.
“We don’t want to be hidden by a big building and a big driveway,” Pisoni said.
Because when all is said and done, she said, “we are still that little burger shack that stands alone.”
As for the possibility the old hut could be damaged by the move, Pisoni isn’t worried.
“The place has been remodeled so many times that there is not much left that is really the original facade,” she said.
Anyway, Pisoni said, “I don’t want a new, shiny place — I want Red’s Java House, and that’s what the people want.”
Milk deal: Gay icon
Harvey Milk won’t be getting all of San Francisco International Airport named after him — and perhaps not the international terminal, as some have suggested.
Instead, under a deal intended to avoid a ballot fight and a load of potential political embarrassment, Supervisor David
Campos has settled for putting Milk’s name on a yet-to-be-determined terminal.
The compromise comes after weeks of negotiations between Campos — chief backer of rechristening SFO in Milk’s honor — and the mayor’s office and some fellow supervisors who weren’t too hot on the idea.
Campos initially suggested he would be open to naming the international terminal after the slain supervisor. But some supervisors thought that should be reserved for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the former mayor who was instrumental in its building.
So instead, Milk’s name will go on a terminal to be decided by a nine-member committee appointed by Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors.
The deal takes heat off just about everyone involved, especially some gay politicians who felt compelled to support the change in public but privately fumed at Campos’ unilateral move.
Nervous supervisors won’t have to take a stand on whether to put the measure before voters. Campos — who is gearing up to run for the state Assembly in 2014 — won’t have to risk a loss at the ballot.
And Lee and others won’t be put in the position of having to publicly oppose the renaming.
“I think this is something that is going to bring everyone together,” Campos said of the deal. “One thing people agree on is that Harvey Milk should be honored.”
The only odd man out is Airport Commission President Larry Mazzola, who apparently wasn’t consulted on the latest deal.
He was against the airport renaming, but had already set up his own 13-member committee to study the issue.
Bridge call: Officials don’t appear ready to make the big call on whether the new $6.4 billion eastern span of the Bay Bridge will open by Labor Day weekend as scheduled.
“Not all of the tests are completed, including the one that simulates longterm stress on the bolts,” said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
For weeks, engineers have been trying to get a handle on why 32 key bolts snapped when they were tightened down.
The snapped bolts, in turn, led to questions about the long-term strength of another 192 bolts used in the span from the same manufacturer — along with 2,000-plus additional bolts that were made by various manufacturers to similar specifications.
Officials are expected to announce Wednesday the planned fix for the 32 snapped bolts, but the bigger question of what to do about remaining bolts is still up in the air.
None of those examined so far has broken, but no one appears ready to guarantee them for the long haul. Super bid: Free golf at Pebble Beach for owners and a dinner cooked up by Thomas Keller are just two of the perks the Bay Area boosters tossed into their Super Bowl bid.
Other treats meant to win the NFL team owners’ votes — hopefully for the 50th anniversary game in 2016 — include golf at the Olympic Club, tours of the Harlan Estate winery in the Napa Valley, free use of Google’s driverless cars, and each team getting a San Francisco streetcar in its honor.
On the money side, the deal also offers up to $2 million for NFL staff costs, practice fields at the 49ers and Stanford facilities, an Olympicstyle village and $4.1 million in free advertising in local media for the “NFL Experience.”
In a Silicon Valley tech twist, the bid was contained in iPads delivered to each owner.