Action by the state Legislature is probably the only way that San Francisco’s Community College Board can get back to work; leave matters the way they are and it could be years before the state gives up control. (What happens if we have an election for the City College Board, but the board can’t meet and doesn’t have any authority?)
So here’s the interesting question: Who will oppose the bill?
Obviously, the state chancellor, whose power would be clipped, will oppose. The odds are good that the teachers unions will support Ammiano. I bet the SF Board of Supervisors would sign on. But what about the mayor?
Mayor Ed Lee has never been a big supporter of the current College Board, and only very recently has he signalled that he wants City College to stay open. Is he going to endorse the continued ability of state officials to take over local government? Will he just duck the whole thing?
His press office hasn’t answered my question. I’ll let you know if I hear.
Some tech industry leaders are doing their own cause such damage that it’s almost hard to believe. Not only does VC icon Tom Perkins say that tech workers are being treated like Jews in the Holocaust, but others in the industry come to his defense. It’s gotten so bad that even ol’ Chuck Nevius is starting to come around.
The two of us were on KQED’s Forum Jan. 24, and while Nevius and I disagreed about the role the tech buses play in the region, and how the community and government agencies should respond (and jeez, there was SO much talk of class warfare), in the end he agreed that the leaders of the industry aren’t doing themselves any favors.
The tech buses are a failure of regional government. There was a time (not so very long ago) when companies like Apple and Google and rich people like Mark Zuckerberg and Ron Conway paid reasonable taxes, and that money went to things like transportation – so that if companies on the Peninsula needed a way to get their people to work, the government build (for example) BART. Why SamTrans and Muni can’t work together to provide public transit for tech company employees (oh, and everyone else) is something we all ought to think about.
Because if private companies provide the transit solutions of the future, a lot of people who don’t work for them are going to be left with second-class transit systems.
Still, Nevius agrees with me that the tech titans need to come to the table and help out a little more than they have. The class warfare that is defining San Francisco has become news all over the world. And it’s going to get worse.
Opponents of the Warriors’ arena aren’t the only ones who now say it’s going to be a struggle to get the project built by 2017. The team’s owner now agrees:
“I think that is going to be a challenge. We’re trying. We’re going to keep trying, but we need to do it right. It’s not just about getting it done. It’s about getting it done right. If it takes a year a longer, it takes a year longer. I’m not going to be concerned with that.”
I think even a year longer is optimistic. Right now, the market is booming, the money is out there, and the polls are in favor. A year or two from now? Not so clear.
Because at some point, the voters are going to demand not just a height limit on waterfront development but a new master plan for how we want to use the Port’s land – and maybe intense commercial development won’t be at the top of the list.
