WAY BACK IN 1994, when Rep. Nancy Pelosi was moving to turn over the Presidio, one of the most valuable pieces of urban real estate on Earth, to private interests, a few hardy San Francisco activists warned that a tragic sellout was in the works. Although Pelosi spoke of her vision of creating a new national park "committed to education, environmental, and global issues," the reality was very different: her legislation gave complete control of the park to an unaccountable, quasi-private agency that had real estate development, not environmental sustainability, as its primary mission.

On one level, though, Pelosi was telling the truth: LucasFilm, the major tenant that wound up getting development rights in the park (in a low-cost, sweetheart deal), appears to be using the place as a model for the global issue of outsourcing. The San Francisco Examiner reported Aug. 20 that George Lucas's movie company, which was going to house 2,500 employees at a massive Digital Arts Center in the Presidio, has cut the number of expected workers by 1,000 and will now lease out a significant portion of the space. The company also recently announced it's opening a large animation studio in Singapore.

The bottom line: a big private corporation stands to make a bundle of cash by renting high-end office space in a national park – and because it's on federal property, LucasFilm will pay almost no state or local taxes.

This was exactly what foes of Pelosi's bill warned about. As we noted in a Feb. 12, 1994, editorial, the deal was "shaping up as a tragedy that could rival the great land grabs of the 19th century." And, as we pointed out two years later, when the bill had passed and the theft of the Presidio was well under way, it happened precisely because self-proclaimed liberals (including Willie Brown and John Burton), as well as environmental groups like the Sierra Club, either led the charge or ducked for cover (see "Who Lost the Presidio," 5/8/96).

Back then, the first hint of the disaster to come was a move by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to seize control of what had been a publicly operated power grid at the onetime Army base. Once PG&E got involved, the big developers quickly followed.

And now, we may see that pattern repeated at Treasure Island. Mayor Gavin Newsom, in a cynical political ploy that reeks of Willie Brown-ism, plucked Tony Hall – a PG&E ally – off the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and put him in charge of the Treasure Island Development Authority, which is in the midst of determining who will own and operate the electric utility on the island (see "Pirates of San Francisco Bay," 8/18/04).

That move came right after Newsom put Susan Leal, former supervisor and treasurer (and another PG&E ally) in charge of the city's Public Utilities Commission, which currently runs the power system on Treasure Island.

And while all of this was going on, the state Public Utilities Commission approved plans to run a new high-voltage power line up the peninsula and into San Francisco – infuriating peninsula residents – and the city's PUC was moving forward with plans to put three new "peaker" plants at the foot of Potrero Hill, in an area already plagued by dangerously high air pollution. Both projects are supposed to make it easier to shut down PG&E's filthy Hunters Point plant – but neither the city nor the state would give residents any guarantee that the plant would actually close.

So San Francisco, which ought to be leading the nation in progressive policy making, is poised to allow another round of privatization, big-business theft of public property, and environmental destruction. The lesson of the Presidio is simple: if the city's progressive leaders don't fight back, then everyone loses. That can't be allowed to happen again.