Fight the power
Cow Hollow residents try to stop a Presidio project from tearing up their neighborhood

By Matthew Hirsch

Residents of conservative Cow Hollow lined Filbert Street early on the morning of Dec. 11 to block construction of industrial power lines meant to serve new development in the Presidio National Park. The power will primarily flow to filmmaker George Lucas's Letterman Digital Arts Center, a $300 million, 23-acre special-effects production studio set to open in early 2005.

The protest was a last-ditch attempt to stop a project Cow Hollow neighbors learned about only weeks ago, and one they fear puts the public at risk of exposure to harmful electromagnetic fields while violating city planning and environmental laws.

Cow Hollow residents who formed Concerned Neighbors on Fillmore, Filbert, and Lyon Streets have sent hundreds of letters and made phone calls to LucasFilm and the Presidio Trust, which controls the federal park and approved the Lucas project. They have also appealed to the California Public Utilities Commission, which authorized Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to install the 24-megawatt power lines, enough electricity to power 24,000 homes; and the San Francisco Department of Public Works, which signed off on PG&E's excavation permit.

Opponents of the 1994 federal law that privatized the Presidio have long warned that the trust's business model circumvents local oversight of development, and this project seems to represent a case in point.

With PG&E set to begin excavation Dec. 10, Cow Hollow neighbors managed to temporarily halt construction when several members of Concerned Neighbors stood in the way of PG&E contractors at the construction site before work could get underway.

But the following day, over considerable neighborhood objections, contractors plunged a jackhammer into the ground. Chris McDaniels of the Department of Public Works ordered the work to proceed, and Matt Faliano, the only San Francisco police officer at the scene, told the neighbors he had no authority to stop the project and was only there to make sure nobody got hurt.

"I haven't seen anything like this in 20 years," Mike Rego, PG&E's underground construction inspector, told the Bay Guardian when asked about the protest.

The neighborhood group says it will continue to pressure city officials to stop the project even though it is beyond city jurisdiction. After unsuccessful meetings with representatives for mayor-elect Gavin Newsom, who represents Cow Hollow on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors until he moves to the Mayor's Office Jan. 8, the group was hoping Newsom would at least push through a city resolution urging PG&E and LucasFilm to work with the community on alternatives to the power lines.

Newsom introduced the resolution, and it went to the Board of Supervisors Dec. 16, after Bay Guardian press time.

As contractors broke ground on the project less than two days after Newsom was elected mayor, Lynn Fuller, who lives in Cow Hollow, told us she was still in shock that PG&E would strong-arm the neighborhood, because the neighborhood represents part of a slim majority that defeated a public power initiative last year.

The Filbert Street power lines will energize the neighbors to fight PG&E in the future, she said. "The next time public power comes on the ballot, and I'm sure it will," Fuller said, "I'll be walking this whole neighborhood reminding people of what happened here."

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