(Click image to enlarge) Above, an uncredited Google map with AND's proposed uses- affordable housing, tennis, and a bike center- in colored pencil. Photo Credit: Northeast Waterfront Plan via FOGG; green text and arrows, Curbed SF
Last week, FOGG, aka Friends of Golden Gateway Tennis Club, launched their new NIMBY Trojan Horse, a comprehensive plan for the Northeast Waterfront- A Vision for the the Community. It was assembled by AND- no shortage of acronyms around here- also known as Asian Neighborhood Design:
This Vision for the Community is a well-constructed, comprehensive Plan. It is not to be read and then put on the shelf and forgotten. It has many elements that will improve our waterfront neighborhoods: transportation, public activities along the Embarcadero, open space, and proper development of the Port’s Public Trust property.No, it should be read, laughed at, and shredded. Sadly, that doesn't happen much in the real world. Sadder still is the jumble of contradictions and misinformation it contains- AND didn't so much make a plan for the Northeast Waterfront as type up FOGG's agenda. Not that it's not full of eminently laudable ideas, but with the exception of affordable housing, they're all knee-jerk grad-school level solutions without much basis in reality. No one disagrees that the Embarcadero needs improvement, folks. A bike center across from the Ferry Building would be great to complement a redesign of the Embarcadero bike lanes. Of course, they site their new bike center in the same location as the proposed 8 Washington/Seawall 351 development next to the existing and still walled-off tennis club. And without so much as mentioning the changes in the 2010 redesign of that project, which reduced the mass of the buildings, reduced parking, included affordable housing, re-opened Jackson Street to the Embarcadero, and included a bike center and child day-care.
Complaining about the temporary privatization of public open space- Peter Pan, of all things- while enshrining a private tennis club in perpetuity is just plain wrong, especially when you say things like "Development should be accessible to all, not just developed for a few". It goes on. The plan touts hotels as the best commercial use- forgetting about privatizing public space- and cites the eight-story Vivande Hotel as an example. But the hotels have to be under forty feet high. They suggest a cultural/theater/performing art center at Broadway. As long as it's under forty feet high. The America's Cup gets a nod- as long as its under forty feet high. You get the picture. Something tells us nothing will happen here for a while. Ironically, AND does not credit any of the images they've used-some lifted from private online archives- in the plan.That's just cheesy.
· North Waterfront- A Vision for the the Community AND Northeast Waterfront Plan [FOGG]
· JM Barrie's Peter Pan [ThreeSixtyº]
· 8 Washington/Seawall 351 Coverage [Curbed Sf Archives]
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