The America's Cup is killing us!

03.06.13 - 1:04 pm | Steven T. Jones |

(55)

First Larry Ellison and his rich cronies try to perpetrate an audacious real estate scam on San Francisco, after pitting us against other cities to host his America's Cup race. Even though we were able to scale back that swindle, they still evicted Teatro ZinZanni from Pier 27 so they could profit from overpriced waterfront concerts at the spot they supposedly need for their boat race -- lying, cheating and corrupting the system along the way.

Then we learned that Ellison, the world's fifth richest man, and the other 1-percenters on the America's Cup Organizing Committee, may stick San Francisco taxpayers with a $20 million bill for their race because they're all too greedy and selfish to honor their private fundraising commitment – which they could cover by simply writing checks for amounts they would barely notice, and which they'd probably find a way to write off of their taxes anyway.

And now, on top of all those outrageous indignities … they're killing people!

Well, maybe Ellison and his crew aren't actually committing murder. But during last weekend's venerable Escape from Alcatraz triathlon – which was moved up from the warm-ish summer months to the frigid winter because the yachts are apparently unable to share the bay for a few hours one morning – one man died of a heart attack and 150 participants had to be rescued (three times the normal number) because the water was so dangerously cold.

Just one more example of how overentitled rich people, with the active complicity of the Mayor's Office, are having their way with San Francisco, heedless of the consequences.

Comments

Yeah, why would SF want a world-class event held here?

Can you imagine how terrible it will be with all those rich people spending thousands a day here, creating jobs and prosperity? Plus the kudos of having a premier international event here?

No, instead SF should focus on it's real core competencies i.e. having poor people, homeless, under-achievers, misfits who refuse to grow up and failures of all kind. Oh, and the world capital of bad art and perverted sexuality.

SF - a world class city for losers. That's your vision, isn't it?

Posted by Guest on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 1:16 pm

Bikes

Don't forget the bikes! And Noise Pop, which judging by the daily articles, is a year-round event!

Posted by Chromefields on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 2:13 pm

.....like listening to a

.....like listening to a broken record.

Posted by Guest on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 2:17 pm

He has a point though. SF celebrates failure and

feels that it does not deserve success. We have no ambition.

Posted by anon on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 4:20 pm

What's "world class" about it?

Ellison is a world-class thief. He is the third-wealthiest American citizen, and the eighth-richest person in the world, with an estimated worth of $41 billion. Yet, he robs from those who are less well off -- like financially struggling SF -- to enrich himself. There's nothing classy about it. He should be heaped with shame.

So, this 'Robin Hood in reverse' wants to stick SF with $20 million tab ($40.2 million in all) -- the fee he promised to raise from private entities as part of the deal. And what does he stand to gain in return? A windfall. 35 acres of prime real estate and the public's property. As h. Brown commented, "any competent Realtor could get 50 times the value at which the Mayor is valuing the property they're proposing to give away... Means, Ellison is getting over 5 billion in property and we're losing, what, 80 pier businesses and how many jobs?"

No more welfare for the rich. Send this billionaire playboy-loser packing!

Posted by Guest on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 3:07 pm

Envy is an ugly thing, at best

And a fatal thing, at worst.

Posted by anon on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 4:20 pm

What mormon, incestual, white

What mormon, incestual, white trash community did you crawl out of?

Posted by Guest on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 1:30 pm

Only mormons like sailing?

Not too much ocean in Utah.

Posted by Guest on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 1:34 pm

Escape from Alcatraz participants knew the risks

when they entered. Hard to blame Ellison for the death of a random person he probably never knew.

Posted by Lucretia Snapples on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 2:15 pm

It's called Steven logic.

If an event changes it's date and then someone dies, it was the fault of the event.

Of course, two people might have died had the race been held on the original date.

Posted by anon on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 4:21 pm

So how many people have died

So how many people have died at Burning Man?

Posted by Demented, Yet Terribly, Terribly, Persistent on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 6:07 pm

"they're killing people!"

Really, oh no not quite "Well, maybe Ellison and his crew aren't actually committing murder."

But they are rich so fuck it, print some bullshit and lets try to get some reaction. Sadly you're a troll on your own site.

SF Guardian not doing so well recently?

Posted by Chris Pratt on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 3:12 pm

Lighten up, Francis

C'mon, CP, the exclamation points weren't enough of a tell that I was going for deliberate hyperbole. Lighten up, Francis. The Guardian is doing fine and I'm just having a little fun at the expense of these poor rich people, who in all seriousness, really are treating San Francisco like the hired help.

Posted by steven on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 4:57 pm

If the SFBG is "doing fine" then why writers fired last year?

And why is the paper about 1/5 the size of a few years ago?

If it is "doing well" at all, it is only because of an opportunistic lawsuit and not because it has a viable business model. Then again, you hate business so probably like that.

Posted by anon on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 5:42 pm

Steven, you are the reason I don't visit SF often.

By us - that means you are including yourself. What was your time in the race?

The only reason I went to SF last year (first time in 30 years) was to see the AC 45's racing. I couldn't find a cab to take me to the marina but no problem - I can walk there.

Steven, maybe you are the reason why I couldn't find a decent restaurant open in downtown SF on a work day (ie Mortons and the such). You don't want me to spend any money in your town. Or maybe they give away happy meal toys and that irratates you. It probably excites you to keep my ilk out of town.

Oracle even had 100,000 in town and the best venues were closed. Oh wait, that's evil Larry too.

For the rest of you decent SF'ites - you are doing a good job on the venue so far (I chartered a boat for some of it and the bay was beautiful also). I can't wait to see the 72's mixing it up.

Could you pass a Steven ordinance (your city council loves stupid ordinances) to keep him away from us visitors.

Posted by John in PDX on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 7:53 am

Just doing my part

If you couldn't find a restaurant in downtown San Francisco, your problems run deeper than anything I can address. But based on that and your snide, overentitled attitude, I'm just honored that I could discourage your visits here. I'll try to keep up the good work, on behalf of people who actually like San Francisco.

Posted by steven on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 11:15 am

Steven, a lot of SF restaurants close at 9pm which is very

early for a supposedly world-class city. Also many close between lunchtime and evening, which makes a "cafe-style" lifestyle a little harder to pull off.

The chain restaurants do a better job of being open 11-11 but then you probably don't like those anyway.

SF is really quite small and provincial in it's own way and a visitor from Portland probably notices the difference between PDX with 2 million people and SF with 800,000.

That said, I thought the other dude was kinda rude.

Posted by Guest on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 11:32 am

Idiot. Portland has 587,865

Idiot. Portland has 587,865 people estimated in 2012 and 2,260,000 in the metro. San Francisco has 805,235 and 4,335,391 in the metro. What is your problem, all that meth east of SE 82d?

Posted by marcos on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 11:50 am

LOL, Marcos, so the metro area counts when it is PDX?

But does not when it's the Bay Area?

So why don't we see more from you about Los Altos, Orinda and Tiberon? All part of your city, right?

Posted by Guest on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 12:27 pm

Mortons, seriously?

You came to visit San Francisco and wanted to eat at Mortons?

Posted by The Commish on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 3:52 pm

I prefer Andersons for steak myself but

Mortons ain't bad. He coulda said Ruth's Chris, ya know?

Posted by Guest on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 4:05 pm

I agree it's not bad. But

I agree it's not bad. But San Francisco is town chalk-full of great restaurants, so if I visited from out of town, I wouldn't be hitting a chain restaurant.

Posted by The Commish on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 7:09 pm

We did 5a5 for my husband's

We did 5a5 for my husband's birthday and it was very good. The decor was combination Asian upscale hipster (ginormous flatscreen TV behind the bar broadcasting fireplace flames) and JFK TWA terminal waiting room (circular space age recessed lighting and plexiglas accents) circa 1968.

Posted by marcos on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 10:38 am

Not hyperbole, just disgusting

Glad that you could have some fun because a man died, Steven. To you it's just a chance to make fun of rich people. Did you send a link to his family?

If anyone paid attention to you there would be a call for Vogt to fire you. But nobody hears you so you are safe.

Many people don't just have more money than you, Steven, but they are genuinely 'richer' than a lowly hack pushed by nothing but rabid, class driven hatred.

Posted by Troll on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 12:29 pm

Love not hate

No, not me, I'm motivated by love, not hate. I love the vast majority of people in the world, and I just hate to see them exploited by a teeny tiny minority of powerful people who think they can do and have anything they want just because they're rich. As for the guy who died in this race, I was genuinely sorry to hear it, which is why I chose to highlight his death and the factors that contributed to it rather than ignoring it. Would that really have been better? Or are you just feigning sanctimonious concern for him to make some kind of point?

Posted by steven on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 3:13 pm

No, steven, you were having 'fun', not being a journalist.

Um, no. You already said that you were just having fun. Don't embarrass yourself (and your paper) further by saying that you "chose to highlight his death and the factors that contributed to it"

The water was 51 degrees instead of it's usual 54-60. The organizer of the race said that cold was not a factor and the man probably had an undiagnosed condition.

The guy was from Texas. Had he been examined pre-race? Had he trained in 50-60 degree water? What is the likeliness that 51 degree water could trigger a heart attack in an otherwise healthy 46 year old? What advice and warnings did the organizers give the racers?

THOSE are the factors in his death that a journalist would be asking. A hack who just says "Great...this is a good chance to have fun with the America's cup should NOT be confused with a journalist.

I guess Vogt has a high threshold for humiliation.

Posted by Troll on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 7:26 pm

If you had your facts

If you had your facts straight instead of writing tabloid garbage, you might be doing your remaining readers a service instead of a disservice.

The difference in water temperature from spring to summer is negligible, maybe 2 or 3 degrees, neither of which is "warmish".

The likely cause of death was an undiagnosed heart condition or some other heath factor, not the water temperature.

Check the race schedule and you'll find the summer races don't start until 2:00 in the afternoon, and nothing is scheduled on July 1,2 3 or 6.

The greedy ones are Avalos and Peshkin, whose negotiating tactics don't include the fundamental ability to listen, which caused LE to walk from the table after telling them more than once they had his best offer, which was to spend ~ $75M in rebuilding a city front with red-tagged piers based on years of neglect.

It's estimated to cost $15M + to tear them down at this point, money the city doesn't have.

Peshkin is an idiot and takes full responsibility.

Between you, Peshkin and Avalos we have the three stooges of SF.

Posted by Guest on Mar. 24, 2013 @ 6:58 pm

"If you had your facts right" -- said Bold Lying Guest.

Bay water temperature goes through about a 10 degree swing between summer and winter. It is warmer where it is shallow and where warm summer flow from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers merge into the bay.

It's important to remember that BL Guest is *adept* at this sort of bold-faced lie.

http://geosci.sfsu.edu/courses/geol103/labs/estuaries/partVIIC.html

Posted by lillipublicans on Mar. 24, 2013 @ 7:16 pm

Bottom line, Steven

No one cares if 150 people had to be rescued and one died. This guy wasn't rich, he wasn't creating any jobs, so no one gives a damn if some loser died. Those people shouldn't have been swimming anyway. They should've bought yachts. If they can't afford yachts, they have no business being in the water.

Posted by anon on Mar. 24, 2013 @ 7:20 pm

You're Peggy Gravel, aren't

You're Peggy Gravel, aren't you?

Posted by marcos on Mar. 24, 2013 @ 8:05 pm

Nope, you kind of suck at

Nope, you kind of suck at parody.

Poe's Law is a thing.

Posted by Guest on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 7:18 pm

If you push someone towards the deep end of the pool and they

drown, that's a crime.

Ellison has pushed this way and that way to get what he wants. Steven need not equivocate.

Posted by lillipublicans on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 2:05 am

Uh...wasn't that fun at the expense of a dead man.

Pretty tacky in my book.

Posted by Guest on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 5:31 pm

Let's hope the guy's family doesn't read Steven's "article" as

they may not see the "fun" that he claims is there.

Posted by anon on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 5:55 pm

Oh, please

How exactly did this post come at the expense of the guy who died? Were he or his family harmed or insulted by anything that I wrote? Or might they actually appreciate having a journalist note his passing and the circumstances surrounding it?

Posted by steven on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 3:16 pm

No, the family would not feel better after reading this

I can't believe that Steven actually called him self a 'journalist'.

Talk about delusional.

Posted by Troll on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 7:27 pm

Isn't accusing Steven of

Isn't accusing Steven of killing that swimmer a bit much, even for a troll?

Posted by marcos on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 8:32 pm

I believe you have tarred

I believe you have tarred Ellison with a brush that should have been reserved for City Hall; the Mayor and the Supervisors. First of all Newsom was the one who agreed to the first rushed-through, drop dead, deal which gave away about 1/2 of all the Port properties. That was followed by the Board of Supes "adjustment" at the 11:59th hour of 2011 which was not quite as devastating but still a HUGE, loophole riddled giveaway of Port property. Meantime the Supervisor's own budget analyst was yelling "stop the music!!!!" but no one wanted to listen to his fiscal warnings and got trampled by the Supes/Mayor in the rush to breath the same air as one of the richest men in the world. Fundamental lesson #1; the City does not have the wherewithal to negotiate with someone with Ellison's biz acumen (or the Warriors, either!!!). Hint: They did not get to be uber uber rich by being Mr. Nice Guy-loser in the contract writing department. Fundamental lesson #2: Hire the meanest, most successful SOB attorney(s) in the western world to help us write good business contracts. Please...
As for Ellison and/or America's Cup folk killing people??? Even the SFBG has outdone itself on that hyperbole.

Posted by Guest observer on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 10:47 pm

The point of corrupt politics

The point of corrupt politics is for elected officials to give away public resources to those capable of helping the elected officials make it to the next rung up the political ladder.

Why would these people even contemplate negotiating for keeps when that is not the goal at all?

Posted by marcos on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 7:27 am

The Billionaire Ellison cannot fund his own toy-boat race?

So The Billionaire with his toy boat cannot fork over $20 million so that the city does not have to dip into the General Fund to cover part of this fiasco?

Good points, Steve. The city should not have to fork over a dime for this. A cabal of Pac Heights residents pledged to raise enough money to fund their toy-boat folly.

Posted by Guest on Mar. 06, 2013 @ 10:53 pm

America's Cup

What is lost in all of this folly is the total disregard for the original idea and deed of the Cup. It was meant to be a SAILING EVENT of team against team. Not these ludicruous objects imitating sailing craft and being called boats because they are on the water. This is the whole travesty of "America's Cup"
Ted K

Posted by Guest on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 7:16 am

Jeez. This is really bad taste.

Nothing funny about a man dying. He had a wife and kids who are certainly suffering while you jest about their loss. Show a little respect. Not everything revolves around city politics and social justice. And if you think it does, maybe you need some time off to clear your head and gain some perspective.

Totally uncool.

Posted by BeckyBayside on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 9:39 am

I think Steven knows he has erred, and made things worse

when he said it was all just "fun".

But will be acknowledge and apologize?

Posted by Guest on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 11:09 am

The problem is that nobody reads what Steven writes.

If he doesn't we should just repost it on Facebook or whatever and get him fired.

"Local writer uses a man's death to make a 'fun' point."

Posted by Troll on Mar. 07, 2013 @ 12:46 pm

Why not apologize for obvious bad taste?

...instead of resorting to deleting comments.

Posted by CJ Roses on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 8:47 am

OMG, Steven censored posts that criticize his making fun of

someone who died?

And the same day SFBG whined publicly about the city not being "open" with it's information.

OMG. What a sad day.

Posted by Guest on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 10:18 am

Untrue

I did not delete any comments from this post and I have no idea what you're talking about. We generally let even the nastiest troll comments stand, as the comments to this post attest to.

Posted by steven on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 3:22 pm

The SFASC encourages steven

to look at the almost indescribable last page of comments after the CCSF board article. In addition to using colorful language that to some readers might be entertaining, the commenter names and personally attacks a CCSF staff person.

Down with stupidity!!!

Power to the thoughtful!!!

Posted by San Francisco Anti-Stupidity Campaign on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 3:38 pm

Steven, you said earlier that you were "having some fun" with

this. Can you see why some might find it inappropriate to cite someone's death as "fun"?

Posted by Guest on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 3:39 pm

Reads like the work of Lucretia.

No doubt one of the same trolls on SFGate who constantly and greasily seeks to cause censorship against anybody promoting a more elightened view.

On that forum, calling someone a liar is a violation of the term-and-conditions, but lyingly making the claim that someone has confessed to doing or saying something reprehensible is perfectly okay.

It is a basic facet of low-brow trollery and directly equivalent and analogous to ad hominem attack.

Basically, if such attacks seems dubious -- and especially when the troll has not even bothered to fake a "direct quote" -- then they *are* false.

Posted by lillipubicans on Mar. 08, 2013 @ 3:48 pm