The racing syndicate’s self imposed deadline to announce the site of the 2013 America’s Cup expires today, with San Francisco trying to hold off a spinnaker flying (or perhaps luffing) Rhode Island. Or perhaps another host will emerge from the fog.
And the winner is…San Francisco!
UPDATE: While the Mayor’s Office hasn’t made an official announcement, unnamed sources are claiming that race organizers have hit San Francisco’s revised bid to host the America’s Cup in 2013.
UPDATE: It’s official, San Francisco has been selected to host the America’s Cup in 2013. Let the lawsuits waterfront rebuilding begin!
RI has indicated that they will not meet the deadline for submitting a plan so SF seems the eminent winner (by default).
Sources say San Francisco has America’s Cup
now, does it matter?
So we should have offered them use of a taco truck for a week instead of what we offered and we would have won anyway.
Polip: I think it matters in that if there were really no other serious contenders that we don’t have to give away the waterfront for competitive reasons.
Of course it matters! The City needs to move far away from 20-30 years of anti-growth and anti-business. Every great city, in order to thrive must grow and change.
This is one of many venues that will enhance our city and our waterfront.
Pier 30-32 is in desperate need of development. One can argue that SF could have tried to secure the race for less, but thank goodness something will be done about those piers.
Today Pier 30-32 is nothing more than an ugly sporadic parking lot and area for loons to do donuts with cars and wheelies with motorcycles.
I’m in favor of something more constructive being done with the space.
Agree with noearch — SF has dragged its feet for too long on new growth and development.
I thought noearch would be up in arms over the loss of so many parking spaces.
Since my income does not depend on development, I can point out that the nothing that is currently there at pier30-32 does have value–long views from the embarcadero and brannan st over the water, to the bay bridge and treasure island, and to the cranes of the port of oakland. When some generic office complex is built there that stretch of embarcadero will change to be just another street (with palm trees!). But I’m sure someone will praise the nice clean lines of the office complex.
My and other local residents’ selfish interests would be better served by just demoing pier30-32 and letting us continue to enjoy visual contact with the bay from street level.
BTW, if AC34 is going to select SF as the host city they’re doing themselves no favors with this last-minute brinksmanship. You can smell the goodwill evaporating.
…and I see that SF will be the host city. Wonder what was given away at the last minute?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/31/BAQ11H1QRE.DTL&tsp=1
I have been here for 20 years and I have seen entire neighborhoods spring up in areas that used to be parking lots, trailer parks and vacant warehouses, so I think the claim that San Francisco has been anti-growth the entire time is too strong.
In some neighborhoods, it can very hard to change anything though, this much is true. Noe Valley is one of them.
This is a great win for us though, let’ s hope it brings the benefits we hope for.
Delancey wrote: “I can point out that the nothing that is currently there at pier30-32 does have value–long views from the embarcadero and brannan st over the water, to the bay bridge and treasure island, and to the cranes of the port of oakland.”
Good point. I suppose this could take a turn for the worse if the view is blocked or something hideous goes up. Ideally the pier gets some green space and development of an appropriate building for the location.
It’s sort of funny to think that a yacht race on the Bay could lessen the underwaterness (if that’s a word) of our nearby loft. Maybe Larry needs a convenient pad? Wonder what he’d pay for rent? Do you suppose he scours Craigslist?
Well, the news is in and we have been selected!! Congrats to The City! This is a great thing and will bring many jobs and LOTS of money to SF, not to mention the revitalization of more piers and other infrastructure.
As for “name” you can do away with your stupid and inane comments about you think I think: cause ya don’t have a clue, girl. Besides, I know who you are, and you’re one big crybaby from Noe Valley.
Happy New Year!
OT but Happy New Year one and all!
man i cannot believe how the years are flying by. this year before too much longer it will be 5 years that i have been reading this site.
in the blink of an eye another 5 will have passed. estimates of more downside or another 3-5 years of flattish prices do not seem unreasonable to me or inordinately prolonged. has the grass even started to grow in the painting? 😉
best wishes to all for 2011.
Yeah! This is great news for San Francisco! Anything to revitalize unused and underused areas, as well as bringing more international attention to a great city. There’s so much competition in the world, that if SF doesn’t keep up its international image, then other cities will move up the ranks and gain prominence.
Now Gavin has something to talk about tonight.
it should be pretty cool – see the vid ->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xivNKFulYhU&feature=player_embedded
Does anyone know what will happen to Red’s java House and the HiDive? It would be sad to see them go…
Red’s is a historic landmark and not going anywhere. The owner of Red’s is hugely in favor of the Cup due to increased business from construction and then race workers and spectators. I just hope they don’t end up tripling their prices.
As for Hi Dive, it is not on a pier (30-32 or 28) so I am 99.99% sure will stay too.
^^^^
Schlub, the race venue was moved from when the SS rendering was done. It is now North of the Bay Bridge and not near Red’s or HiDive. Pier 27 or 29 somewhere over there.
Sparky-b, the race takes place on someting like 10 different parcels.
The public headquarters of the race was originally proposed to be at piers 30-32. With the Northern plan, the team bases will be located there instead. So the piers that Red’s is on will indeed be used for the cup, as well as the parking lot across the street (Seawall lot 330).
Okay, thanks. But still not developed like in this rendering right?
Sparky, yes you are correct, it will look nothing like the rendering. I’ve read through the current plan and there aren’t any new drawings that I could find, just text.