Mediaboss Marketing

The big construction fire in Mission Bay brought to mind how hard the downtown real estate interests and the town's "progressives" fought to keep that once-empty rail yard from becoming a vital part of the city.

Mission Bay was one of the longest-running development fights ever. The downtown office-building owners like Walter Shorenstein didn't want competition from new buildings South of Market, and the progressives up on Potrero Hill didn't want high-rises spoiling their views.

For years the project languished in the political and planning morass of ballot fights, environmental objections and traffic studies, all over whether it was just too big and would change the face of the city.

Sound familiar?

The break in the logjam came when we got UCSF, which was looking to build a new campus in either Alameda or Brisbane, to join the project. We gave them 43 acres. Then we got then-Gov. Gray Davis to agree that one of the science buildings UC was planning to build around the state would go in as well.

Then we pumped up the fact that the biggest shareholder in Catellus, the project's developer, was the state workers retirement fund. Suddenly, what had been attacked as a sweetheart development deal became a do-good public project.

You didn't need a budget analyst's report to confirm that after 10 years, San Francisco's $165 million-a-year homeless program hasn't changed things much.

One walk around Union Square at night, or along Mission Street between First and Main, will show you the problem is as bad as ever.

Some of those folks have been sleeping in the same spot for so long, they're registered to vote there.

But as bad as they look, the downtown sleepers are some of the most peaceful and polite people you will find in the city.

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Mission Bay fire brings long development fight to mind