S.F. board’s progressives back Lucas museum plan
Will the Force be with San Francisco as it tries to land George Lucas’ futuristic museum on Treasure Island — or will the “Star Wars” creator take his $1 billion legacy project to Los Angeles, where he is being lured with a largely ready-to-build site at Exposition Park?
Lucas has made it clear to both cities that he does not want a replay of the delays that caused him to pull the planned Museum of Narrative Art from San Francisco’s Presidio and Chicago’s lakefront. So a big part of the San Franciscoversus-Los Angeles jump ball will rest on how quickly our City Hall can overcome the state and local environmental challenges that come with any big waterfront project.
So far, the museum’s reception from the progressives on the Board of Supervisors, who often stand in the way of big developments, has been all thumbs-up.
Supervisor Jane Kim, whose district includes Treasure Island and who has been meeting with Lucas’ design team, is already planning to introduce a board resolution this week in support of the museum — a project that Lucas said he would build with his own money.
“Free is good,” Kim said of the plan after drawings of the proposed museum were released last week. “It’s the right plan in a great place and will bring cultural opportunities and jobs to the people of San Francisco.”
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose waterfront district includes some of the NIMBY groups that killed the 8 Washington condo project and the Warriors’ original plan for an arena at the base of the Bay Bridge, is on board as well.
“I read (the proposed museum) as an iconic San Francisco landmark, and after all the commenting, I think people will come to the realization that it works, whether it looks like rolling fog or something else,” he said.
Peskin said the cultural attraction would help kickstart ferry service to the island. The city will need that for the 20,000 new residents it intends to put on the former Navy base in the coming years.
“It is going to mean we end up with a robust ferry service five years earlier than we would otherwise have,” Peskin said.
Lucas’ team has been working with Treasure Island developers Wilson Meany and Lennar Corp. to smooth the way for a museum on 4 acres on the San Francisco side of the island. The site had originally been marked off for a 200-room hotel and conference center.
Thanks to the already-vetted hotel plan, Lucas can build his 12-story museum without going through much of the city’s roller coaster planning process — most notably an extensive environmental review that could have been a deal killer.
What’s more, since the museum will be set back more than 100 feet from the water’s edge, it won’t need approval from the even more tricky Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the regional agency that helped drive a stake through the Warriors’ proposed arena at Piers 30-32.
There was a bit of a chill on the welcome party at a Board of Supervisors committee hearing last week, when Peskin demanded more answers on the funding of affordable housing at Treasure Island. He wanted those answers before signing off on infrastructure improvements that will be essential for the island’s new construction, including the Lucas museum.
But when pressed on the subject, Peskin told us he has no intention of doing anything that would stand in the way of getting the museum built.
“We want it,” he said. “We are welcoming them with open arms.”
Lucas reps have told the city that they expect to make a final call on the winning city at their museum board meeting in early January.
Not feeling the Hillary: The California Nurses Association, the liberal labor powerhouse that sent thousands of volunteers across the country in support of Bernie Sanders’ presidential primary run, appears to be sitting out the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
“Our position is still under consideration,” said union spokesman Chuck Idelson — though he added, “We know that nurses are not going to vote for Trump.”
On the other hand, union President RoseAnn DeMoro did rake Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta ina Twitter blast last week for a WikiLeaks email showing “Clinton camp trying to get press to attack #Nurses supporting Bernie. Never happened in Obama era.”
The nurses union’s problem with Clinton appears to be her unwillingness to support single-payer health care coverage. Sanders, on the other hand, embraced the single-payer plan.
It’s not the first time the union has declined to back the Democratic presidential nominee.
In the 2000 election, the nurses backed Green Party candidate Ralph Nader — whom some still blame for draining off votes from Al Gore in Florida and handing the presidency to George W. Bush.
“Yes, CNA endorsed Nader in 2000,” Idelson said. “He embodies the same values our nurses do: single-payer health care — and boy do we need that now — curbing the enormous power of Wall Street and corporate America over the lives of working people, economic justice, a humane foreign policy, and so much more.”
“In fact,” Idelson added, “the same policies and issues Bernie articulated so well in his campaign.”