- Beginning in May of 2009, a series of clearly cloudy
"plans" were put forward to steal the San FranciscoCivic Center,
from ordinary citizens by privatizing access to the Civic Center, City
hall and virtually everything central to government and the arts in San
Francisco. Using legislative slights of hand and by using a series confusing
file numbers, along with an ever-shifting purpose behind a Civic Center
CBD; this convoluted and semi-secret "plan" is about to be passed,
without public-comment, if the Finance Committee can get away with it on
January 4, 2011.
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- This "plan" would lock-out the poor who will
be paying for it twice, once in the taxes that have already been paid to
do what the plan calls for and again to this private-for-profit CBD that
will benefit the Landlords within Civic Center. This will exempt the rich
that will directly benefit from its' unconstitutional directives and will
eliminate the ability of the public to demand equal access to their own
civic center and thereby to their own city government. Here is how this
began.
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- "The Civic Center Community Benefit District (CBD)
Proposal is contained in a report called the "Management Plan"
which is a slick bound volume presented by the "Steering Committee"
and MJM Management Group. The report contains no disclosure of who the
steering committee is composed of. All we know is that the resolution from
the Library Commission supporting the CBD states "Whereas, the San
Francisco Public Library is a founding member of the Civic Center CBD Steering
Committee." What we do know from the Management Plan is:
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- "In May 2009, the Friends of the Library funded
by a grant from the Office of Workforce and Economic Development (OWED)
contracted with MJM Management Group to investigate the possible creation
of a CBD in the Civic Center neighborhood. Even earlier in 2009, property
owners and others interested in forming a CBD form the Civic Center CBD
Steering Committee. Since that time, the 25 member Steering Committee,
with the assistance of MJM and OWED, conducted extensive outreach to the
community and property owners . . . ."
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- There is no explanation of what "outreach to the
community" means. There was no hearing in front of the Supervisors.
No discussion in front of the Library Commission before the day its endorsement
passed. As we have seen before, they don't want the broader community to
know about it.
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- So, except for the fact that the San Francisco Public
Library is a founding member and the Friends and Foundation of the Library
acted as the fiscal agent, there is no information on the parties involved
and it is impossible to identify their motives."
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- However it is possible to track the Library Commissions
history and track record by the way in which they came into existence in
the first place while they were busy privatizing the San Francisco Public
Library in June of 1997. (1)
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- The Rich Really Are Exempt: "But it is not impossible
to identify the motives of the Friends and Foundation of the San Francisco
Public Library. Privatizing public resources, and exclusion of the public
to do so, is their bread and butter. The MJM Management Group offers no
information on their website except a mailing address and programs they
already manage including, Union Square, YerbaBuena Gardens and Mission
Bay Parks. They are a legal corporation and their agent is Doug Murken,
an attorney with the law firm of Seifer Murken Despina, et al." (2)
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- "The resolution to establish the Civic Center Community
Benefit District is set for a public hearing and adoption on January 4,
2011, with yet another file number, file No. 101525. This was adopted without
committee reference, again at the request of the Mayor. Only the request
for the hearing was adopted and the resolution itself that will establish
the CBD is not publicly available. According to a letter contained in the
file, the residents of Opera Plaza who are high-end condominium owners
circulated a petition and received signatures of 173 property owners requesting
to be exempted from the Civic Center CBD. This letter addressed to Michela
Alioto-Pier, although Chris Daly is their supervisor, contains the understanding
of the Opera Plaza residents that the Steering Committee has agreed to
exempt them, and that based on this understanding a new Management Plan
"has been developed."
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- It is instructive that the high-end property owners,
who are the residents of Opera Plaza, are the "community" had
received the "extensive outreach" mentioned before. Having heard
the pitch these residents recognize that the relatively modest cost estimates
are merely an inducement for unknown future costs. The fact that these
residents want to be exempt should be taken as a warning.
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- This presumably means that the estimates of the taxpayers'
costs will be revised upward to accommodate the swells from Opera Plaza
being exempted. What we might say about this from a "good government"
perspective should reflect total shock. Every sort of due process has been
bypassed. We don't have a final version of the resolution that will be
passed on January 4, 2011, or any transparency of the process that got
the Opera Plaza residents excluded. We can certainly say unequivocally
that there has been no respect for the informed consent of the taxpayers
that are on the hook for this nonsense.
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- This would be different if this did not represent a complete
attack on democracy and involves the privatization of Civic Center, and
if it was not conducted by the same people who caused so much harm by privatizing
our public library." (2)
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- This shoddy pieced of stealth was put together by some
third rate politicians in concert with proven privatization power-brokers
to strangle the democratic process while ridding themselves of those people
that routinely ask the questions that keep any society free and viable.
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- To insure passage of this CBD, Supervisors have emptied
the files of any complaints: which is why they keep changing the file number.
In fact because of a mayoral mini-scandal involving the outgoing Mayor,
who is moving up to Lt. Governor, and the Board of Supervisors: The Board
of Supervisors on June 4, wants to call up File No. 101525 and approve
it with no public comment if they can manage that. Which is why your
interest is needed to stop what is being attempted here.
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- Conveniently, because of the overwhelming and threatening
air of "suspicion" that is everywhere today; this program has
its own fascist element that will soon see checkpoints appearing inside
San Francisco's CivicCenter; in the guise of "Ambassador-enforcers"
(Uniformed mercenaries) who will answer only to the Board of the CBD, and
to no one else. Of course these 'Ambassadors' will not bother any of the
obviously rich; because their reason for being (by design) is to harass
and evict all those that are not on easy-street and those who do not kneel
to the CBD or to any of its sponsors.
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- This criminally-inclined program was created by people
that have always seen their titled mission in life as something quite literal.
Many of these individuals actually believe that they are Lords of the Land,
despite all the rules which San Francisco has imposed upon their supposedly
sovereign titles that do not actually reflect any royal status whatsoever.
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- If you want the whole story of this impending stranglehold,
please see the second footnote which is an interactive website for "Let's
Keep San Francisco's Civic Center Public." The Date this travesty
comes up for public comment is January 4, 2011 at 3 pm in front of
the Board of Supervisors, in City Hall; or write to the Board of Supervisors
because they will need to hear from anyone that opposes this stealth-document:
File No. 101525.
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- If this can happen in San Francisco, then no city will
be safe from these types of continued attempts at the privatization of
city governments, nationwide. Also while it might not be possible at this
moment to do much about TSA or VIPER: This story and its actual outcome
could be the first of many set-backs for the still unopposed forces of
PRIVATIZATION that have swept over this country as clearly as the blizzard-conditions
have nearly frozen the Eastern Seaboard since before Christmas: The difference
is that the snow will eventually be gone; while privatization, once unleashed
will eventually completely destroy whatever it sets its sights upon. So
far we have watched it destroy competition in every field where it has
made an entrance, now it wants to go after civic government as well!
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- Privatization has smashed the public sector into a billion
now useless pieces and decimated this society in the process. San Francisco
will be the first transparent and very public challenge, to the privatization
of citygovernment in America. This potential travesty should also bring
about real consequences for this blatant attempt to privatize city hall,
and to kill the ability of the public to challenge its own city government,
by preventing the least among us from appearing before the government when
their views are needed the most.San Francisco could also send a message
about the pending 'security check-points' in Civic Center that are not
only not needed, and are Unconstitutional as well.
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- If this passes here's one sign that lots of people are
going to learn to hate.
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- PRIVATE PROPERTY
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- "PERMISSION"
- REQUIRED
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- TO BE IN THIS AREA!
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- PROTECTION PROVIDED BY PRIVATE SECURITY
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- kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net
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- 1) High Tech Barbarians at the Gates, The Plunder of
the San Francisco Public Library
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- http://www.kirwanesque.com/politics/articles/2006/art27.htm
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- 2) Let's Keep San Francisco's Civic Center Public
- http://www.keepciviccenterpublic.com
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