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Development

Do we need more luxury condos?

The math's not right -- 85 Howard will create jobs, housing, and yet more inequality in San Francisco

01.08.13 - 6:41 pm | Tim Redmond |
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There's no shortage of high-end housing in San Francisco. If you can afford to pay $6,000 a month for your rent or mortgage, you're going to find a nice place to live. And there's no study anywhere in any corner of the City Planning Department suggesting that current San Francisco residents really want new luxury condos downtown.Read more »

War of the waterfront

Too many projects and too little planning on San Francisco's most valuable strip of land

01.08.13 - 6:38 pm | Tim Redmond |
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tredmond@sfbg.com

There's a blocky, unattractive building near the corner of Howard and Steuart streets, right off the Embarcadero, that's used for the unappealing activity of parking cars. Nobody's paid much attention to it for years, although weekend shoppers at the Ferry Building Farmers Market appreciate the fact that they can park their cars for just $6 on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

But now a developer has big plans for the 75 Howard Street site — and it's about to become a critical front in a huge battle over the future of San Francisco's waterfront.Read more »

Manhattanization forgotten, Transbay Tower moves without the trains

12.28.12 - 4:27 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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Times in San Francisco have changed since the battles in the ‘80s against increased high-rise development and the “Manhattanization of San Francisco,” which peaked in 1986 with the passage of Prop. Read more »

San Francisco, Third World country

12.12.12 - 11:34 am | Tim Redmond |
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The model is pretty well established, and has proven exceptionally lucrative  for big US corporations like Bechtel and big US banks -- and has been an utter disaster for dozens of developing countries: US banks loan money to countries that need infrastructure development -- and that money comes right back to US corporations that charge phenomenal prices to build roads, dams, mining operations, whatever, with a nice cut off the top to whatever powerful people need to be bribed (all tax-deductable, of course). Read more »

Who's counting the money?

Grow a backbone and actually negotiate with those who'd develop a new arena for the Warriors

11.20.12 - 6:12 pm | Tim Redmond |
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tredmond@sfbg.com

EDITOR'S NOTES A few months before the San Francisco Giants went to the ballot to ask the voters to approve a new stadium on the edge of Mission Bay, Peter Magowan, who was the managing partner, and Larry Baer, his chief aide who runs the show now, came by our office to talk about the plan. Magowan was no fool, and he asked me a simple question: What would it take for the Guardian to support a downtown stadium?Read more »

Critics urge caution on fast-moving Warriors arena deal

11.13.12 - 1:27 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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UPDATED The proposal to let the Golden State Warriors build a new sports arena complex at Piers 30-32 is moving forward quickly, with the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee considering approving its fiscal feasibility tomorrow (Wed/14), the Land Use Committee hearing its design and transportation aspects on Monday, and the full board scheduled to move it forward on Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving. Read more »

The two defining votes of 2012

04.27.12 - 3:28 pm | Tim Redmond |
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The Board of Supervisors will be facing two votes in the next couple of months that will define this board, establish the extent of the mayor's political clout -- and potentially play a decisive role in the political futures of several board members.

Oh: They'll also have a lasting impact on the future of this city.Read more »

The case against 8 Washington

Why an enclave for the rich is a bad move for San Francisco's waterfront

03.06.12 - 6:19 pm | Tim Redmond |
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tredmond@sfbg.com

In city planning terms, it's a fairly modest project: 134 condos, no buildings more than 12 stories tall, on a 27,000-square-foot site. It's projected to meet the highest environmental building standards and offers new open space and pedestrian walkways. It's near Muni, BART, and ferry lines. And the city will collect millions of dollars in new taxes from it.Read more »

Ellison wins, SF loses

We're not going to lose the America's Cup, but we might lose if we keep it

02.07.12 - 5:04 pm | Guardian Editorial |
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EDITORIAL San Francisco's not going to lose the America's Cup. Oracle CEO and yachting billionaire Larry Ellison is too excited about the prospect of bringing the sport (and his company's logo on the sail of his boat) to a mass audience for the first time in history that he's not about to abandon San Francisco Bay. The process is too far along; that much is a done deal.Read more »

The one percent on the waterfront

The 8 Washington plan would build apartments for the $450,000 salary set

11.22.11 - 3:51 pm | Guardian Editorial |
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EDITORIAL While Mayor Ed Lee struggles with the OccupySF encampment, another, very different group has its eyes on the city's waterfront. On the edges of the ground where protesters are talking about the one percent of Americans that control the vast majority of the nation's wealth, two major development projects aimed entirely at that very wealthy sliver are starting to move forward.Read more »