November Update

First, answering some questions we received since last month:

OLD ARMY MUSEUM AND THE FUTURE FOR THE PRESIDIO AS A HISTORIC PARK

The old Army Museum was in the beautiful historic building on the corner of Funston and Lincoln, which was a Civil War era hospital. The Museum was closed by the Park Service because the Army took most of the collection when it left. The old building also did not meet the standards of the American for Disabilities Act. The mission of the Presidio Historical Association is to preserve (no more Fisher Museum) and educate (do all we can to get important, entertaining and educational displays on the Presidio so people understand America's presence there.) Under public pressure organized by the Association, the Trust now seems to be moving to help with history education... but no museum yet.

The Park Service has the responsibility for educating the public, but has little funding. When the Park Service pushed back against recent Trust development plans, it also renewed its interest in a real Visitors Center and in historic education programs. The outlook is much better for making the Presidio a park where people can learn America's history at the Golden Gate while they enjoy the Presidio.

But, the money is not there now to do what is needed for museums and visitor centers.

THE CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM IS GONE, SO WHY SHOULD THE PUBLIC CARE ANYMORE?

Whoa! It's not time to slack off. The Presidio Trust still is proposing a large hotel complex dead center in the old Presidio. It still wants to build an enlargement of the historic theater building that is larger than the historic structure itself. It wants to build a "public program facility," which they cannot explain, on the site of the Bowling Alley. These development ideas are irresponsible for the Trust to push. After all, the Trust is directed by Congress to preserve the national historic landmark. If the public- YOU - takes its eyes off the Presidio, the developers will win.

Okay for the questions, now more update:

Doyle Drive and Trees. Some of the tree removal has been part of a science based reforestation plan. Others by Doyle Drive have had to come down to make way for the temporary construction roads that are necessary for Doyle Drive construction that will begin this year.

What's Happening with Building Plans of the Trust? A major conference of the federal agencies and public groups that are official participants in the process will be held this month.We expect that the Trust will be directed to make additional modifications to its plans in order to protect historic integrity of the Presidio. The game is not over.

New Trust Board Member. John Reynolds, retired Deputy Director of the National Park Service, began serving on the Trust Board of Directors at a meeting September 17. He will speak directly for the Secretary of the Interior, an influence that has not existed before. He is dedicated to Park Service values and has many years of top level management. Three more appointees are waiting for White House confirmation. There will be some surprises, I bet. The question is if the Trust can get their building plans to a vote before the new directors are appointed. That's what the game looks like.

The Fight to Make the Presidio a Great Historic Park Is Not Over- Stay with us!

SEPTEMBER UPDATE

RESPONSE TO COMMENTS: 

The Trust does not control Doyle Drive's removal of trees. The Drive project is a billion dollar BIG DEAL that the Trust, the NPS and the Presidio Historical Association all have participated in, but Doyle has huge momentum because of design and seismic safety issues. Trees and a few  historic buildings will come down. The Trust also is doing some necessary tree removal because the trees simply are too old and becoming dangerous. Give the Trust credit for getting long overdue reforestation started.

Yes, the Trust has revealed a new proposal for a "public program facility" at the Bowling Alley site. What in the name of full disclosure is that? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe the Trust does not know and just put a "filler" in their plan. The big new hotel and the extension that more than doubles the size of the historic theater are still being proposed. More on this later.

Who is responsible for the long-standing fiasco over the Fisher Museum and the continuing difficulties? There is enough blame to go around, including the very design of the Trust Act that set up the Trust. That was done by an in-group of businessmen including Don Fisher, but a Republican Congress made it worse in an ideological campaign that wanted all national parks to pay their way. The Presidio Trust was a model for their nutty idea. Sure, the present Board of Directors should have seen the mess that the Fisher/hotel scheme would make of a national park. Yes, the staff did not do the job it should have forecasting what the mess would be. Were the staff blind cheerleaders or good soldiers doing what they were told after they voiced honest opinions? Who knows? Let's not point fingers. Let's move on and get this mess behind us so there will be a great historic park at the Presidio that is unlike any in our city or our state.

BIG HISTORIC PRESERVATION MEETING IN AUGUST RAISED MORE DOUBTS ABOUT TRUST PLANS.

A lengthy, contentious but productive three days was spent with the top federal and state historic preservation agencies, the Trust, and concerned public organizations. The Trust persisted in seeking approval for its plan for a hotel. enlarged movie theater and now a much smaller "public program facility" instead of the Fisher Museum. (Remember when the Fisher Museum was disguised as a "cultural facility"?)

At the end of three days, it was pretty clear that the federal and state leaders believed that there was a long way to go with historic review and design modifications before this turkey will fly.

An explanation and design of the "public program facility" is necessary, and then it will remain controversial from a historic preservation viewpoint. Is this a compelling need in a national historic landmark?

The idea of a Holiday Inn style motel was shot down. The Trust will look at their early plans for dispersed lodging in  historic buildings. Any new construction would be smaller scale and dispersed.

The shape and glassiness of the theater addition are in question, as it its size, which is more massive than the original historic theater. When does the addition become the main theater and the historic theater become an addition to the modern part?

There is no way that the Trust will meet its revised deadline for a Board vote on a final plan by the end of this year, and the outlook for anything like what has been on the table for two years is dim. Remember, three more director's appointments have expired and we are waiting for the White House to name replacements, for better or for worse.

YAHOO! WHAT A MONTH JULY HAS BEEN! THERE IS A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN.

YES! First, Don Fisher recognized that no way in hell was he going to be able to build his art museum as he wanted, where he wanted, on the heart of the historic Presidio. He packed up his marbles to play elsewhere. Thanks to the public for that - those hundreds who wrote letters and attended endless meetings.

Then, The National Park Service named Jon Jarvis to be the new head of the National Park Service in Washington. Jon has been a professional with great integrity to protect Park Service values. As the recent Superintendent of the Pacific West Region of the NPS, he was the head Smokey the Bear fighting against Trust projects that would impair the Presidio National Historic Landmark. It is wonderful to have him as the top man in Washington.

Today, July 29, the Secretary of the Interior named his designee to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors to replace Dave Grubb, the construction executive who now holds the key position as President of the Presidio Trust Board. The new Secretary of Interior appointee is John J. Jarvis, a very experienced high level retired Park Service professional who is deeply familiar with the Presidio situation. John Reynolds was at the Presidio when it was transferred from the Army to the Park Service. He rose to be the number two man in the Park Service. He has great judgment and skills working with the pubic - qualities that will help the Trust Board.

What does all this mean? To me, it means that the Park Service will no longer look the other way when the Trust wants to ruin the Presidio as a national park. There is a new sheriff in town. I also believe that these great developments could signal a new era of cooperation of the Presidio Trust, the National Park Service and the public to bring to reality the great promise that the Presidio has a wonderful national historic park.

IT'S NOT OVER YET, BUT CELEBRATE FOR NOW

Yes, Donald Fisher has finally realized that his vision is not going to happen to convert the Presidio's Main Post, which is the center of a National Historic Landmark, into a grand mall for his contemporary art museum . He is packing up his marbles to play his game somewhere else. Let's hope that he finds the right spot in San Francisco.

I believe that three things happened.

First over 3,000 official comments from the public were overwhelmingly opposed to the art museum as the wrong idea at the wrong place. The public respected the Presidio as a special place with a remarkable history.

Second, public voice gave political backup to the National Park Service, those people who wear funny Smokey the Bear hats. The Park Service devastated the Trust for its plans. The Park Service has a proud tradition carrying out its legal role to protect the nation's historic landmarks from well intentioned bad ideas. I'll thank every Smokey the bear I see for their courageous stand. After all, they had to oppose the Speaker of the House, who can cut their budget or blackball their promotions. Bravo, Park Service! Gutsy bureaucrats standing up for what they believe !

Third, comments submitted June 1 from historical organizations and neighborhood groups were very well prepared. In contrast to previous environmental reviews by the Trust, this time the public organizations understood the legal framework and played hardball instead of rolling over to be "partners" with the Trust. The Trust finally recognized that if this mess were presented in court, the courts would throw out the environmental review. It has been badly mismanaged. The Trust Board members did not want that kind of embarrassment.

The terms of fours of those people appointed by the White House to the Trust Board have expired. They serve only until replaced. They are the ones who wasted about five million dollars of your money on this fiasco. They forced about 12,000 hours of the public's time to be spent opposing their plans. They are the ones who have been tone deaf to public outrage. They are the ones who should be replaced if the Trust is to regain public confidence. Will Nancy Pelosi name people who are sensitive to public concerns and who value historical parks, or will she ask the President to appoint more of her real estate mogul Pacific Heights cronies who again will try to make the Presidio their private playground? How about an educator and a historian instead? Let Pelosi know who you want on the Presidio Trust Board: write her, call her office or e-mail.

The Big Bad CAMP is gone. Let's celebrate today and get back to work on the next steps at the Presidio tomorrow! No new hotel building. No movie theater. But, yes a real honest to God way to teach the public about America's history found at the Presidio.

What are your comments?

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN --- THE PRESIDIO TRUST FACES NEARLY UNANIMOUS OPPOSITION

Hundreds of letters and e-mails slammed the Trust before the June 1 deadline for public comments.  Trust plans for a contemporary art museum and a hotel in the center of the national historic  landmark and the illegal review process were opposed by every major comment that I have read. (The Mayor and some form messages were the exceptions.) Many were detailed, expert and legally important papers: for example, by  the City and County of San Francisco, Presidio Historical Association (presidioassociation.org,) Save the Presidio (savethepresidio.org), the Cow Hollow Association, the Sierra Club, the Marin Community Association,  the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Descendants of de Anza and Portola Expedition, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and many, many more organizations and private individuals.

THE PUBLIC WANTS AN UNDERSTANDABLE PROCESS, HONEST DOCUMENTS, A REAL NEED EXPRESSED, AND PROJECTS TO PRESENT HISTORY, NOT HOTELS OR ART UNRELATED TO THE PRESIDIO.

NEXT: The Trust will need several months and a lot of lawyers to revise their messed up environmental review. If they persist with their reckless plan, then the public sees a "final" Impact Statement and has 30 days to comment before the Trust can declare its approval for Fisher's museum. That looks possible (but unlikely) in early Fall. 

A lot is going to happen before then, I predict. My personal belief is that the Trust will find a way to kill this skunk before it becomes a real stinker in court. How deep into the doodoo will the individual Trust board members, who otherwise have prominent and respected reputations, wade before they wake up to the fact that they are being associated as individuals with the stink coming from this mess? 

THE PUBLIC WANTS AN HISTORIC PARK THAT WELCOMES ALL THE PEOPLE.

I Sense the Tide Has Turned

On April 7, the Trust Board held a public meeting. A revised - but the same- plan for the art museum was presented with a lot of spin. The first hour of comments was dominated by well dressed people we had never seen at a previous meeting. I am told that they arrived by bus and were headed to a cocktail party. Hmmm? Then a Cal law school class gave its comments. Very interesting and pointed criticism. The public was well prepared and thoughtful in opposing the "preferred alternative" of an art museum, hotel and movie house located near San Francisco's birthplace.

The knockout punch was delivered April 17 by the National Park Service in a formal report to the federal government's top historical preservation council. This report stated five times in no uncertain terms that the Trust proposals "threaten" the Presidio's national landmark status, which is the highest form of protection an historic site can have. The Trust is bound by law to protect that status. There is very little wiggle room in this report that requires the art museum to be moved to the edge of Crissy Field if it is to be located on Main Post. Stay tuned: will the Trust ignore the report at its peril, try to wiggle around it with halfway changes, or use the considerable political muscle of its board members and Don Fisher to put on the fix in Washington?

The Park Service Report is called a "section 213" report. To see it , go to presidioassociation.org and click on "Issues".

Play Ball! Entering the Eight Inning of the Presidio Game

Today, April Fool's Day, the Trust begins another round of hearings and written comments. Are you tired of the Presidio Trust wasting your time and millions of public dollars on an illegal intrusion into a national park and historic landmark? SAY SO!

It will be a battle royal at the Palace of FIne Arts Theater commencing at 6:30 P.M, TUESDAY, APRIL 7. Come early and sign up to express your mind. Specific comments with examples are the most powerful. Point out specific propaganda that has insulted you or procedures that have confused the public. Say what you value in the national park and why what the Trust proposes is damaging to the values of the park. Wonder aloud why the Trust supported the CAMP proposal with great fanfare and paraded out the Mayor and art museum directors to do so, and only later it said that it had not made up its mind, and that is why we are enduring this tedious environmental review. Do some homework. Look at the Save the Presidio. org and presidioassociation.org websites for more information.

YOUR VOICE ON APRIL 7 COUNTS! BE THERE!