Stimulus dollars to be spent irrigating a golf course that will be closed.

It looks like the Obama stimulus package that does not stimulate finally found a local "shovel ready" project to stimulate:

Pacifica golf course, parks to use recycled water
By Julia Scott
San Mateo County Times

"PACIFICA — A local water treatment plant will soon be piping 50 million gallons of treated, recycled water to the Sharp Park Golf Course and other sites in Pacifica thanks to a $2.2 million grant from the federal government. The North Coast County Water District, which serves potable water to Pacifica and part of San Bruno, got word last week that a shovel-ready project 10 years in the making had been greenlit by the grant, paid for by the federal stimulus package... The SFPUC will use 78 percent of the water to irrigate Sharp Park (the golf course is in Pacifica but owned by San Francisco) and therefore owes a larger part of the debt."

Just one little glitch - the city of San Francisco is hell bent on closing the course:

Snakes to inherit Sharp Park golf course
Bruce Balshone
San Mateo Public Policy Examiner

"Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi introduced legislation (see item 090329) aimed at turning the Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica into a biological reserve, much to the dismay of golfers and Pacifica city leaders. The venerable course, which opened in 1931 was designed by famed architect Alister Mackenzie and landscaped by John McLaren, is actually owned by the City and County of San Francisco despite sitting squarely within the City of Pacifica."

As an enthusiastic patron of the local public golf courses, I have been following the San Francisco Golf Wars with a rooting interest. Generally I would not post a local story on this blog, but with stimulus dollars now literally being showered on the golf course, the story does take on a national flavor. This is not a done deal. We are awaiting the results of a study designed to impartially validate and rationalize the pre-determined conclusion of the board of supervisors. To whit - demolishing a historic landmark to protect endangered species that have been quite happy living under the stewardship of the self-same golf course for the last 75+ years.

I sure hope those endangered frog and garter snakes are real thirsty, because they are about to get a lot of very expensive water. One wonders if the stimulus bill watchdog - Joe Biden, knows that taxpayer dollars are being spent to irrigate a golf course that may soon not exist? I wonder if Mayor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Supervisors will be in as much of a hurry to close this course if local stimulus dollars and jobs hang in the balance? Stay tuned...

Divided and Balanced.™
Now that is fair.
Technorati tags: Sharp Park , Barack Obama, San Francisco Values, Insanity, Stimulus, golf, Pork.

Olympic torch protest postscript: Good call Mr. Mayor

Some think the coverage of the Olympic Torch relay in San Francisco yesterday did not merit the media frenzy it received. They would be correct.



If Wolf Blitzer thinks this was the biggest story of the day, who am I, a mere blogger, to disagree? So I was forced to declare a "Yossarian" on the story. Paraphrasing the Yossarian Principle from Joseph Heller's Catch 22 - "What if everyone was covering about the San Francisco protest of the Olympic Torch relay?" I can only respond as did Bomber Pilot John Yossarian: "Then I'd be a damn fool not to".

Since the biggest story in the world Tuesday was taking place in my backyard, I had no choice but to venture out from behind my keyboard into that space I like to call "outside". Armed only with a TREO 700P, I attended and live blogged a portion of the torch route on a supplemental team blog we set up for the purpose. I walked the "route not taken" from Justin Herman Plaza to the planned start at the ball park and back again when it became clear the torch was heading another way.

"It was an Olympic-sized fake-out, and by the end of the day, instead of the violent clashes that some had feared, the Beijing Olympic torch run left only thousands of frustrated protesters on one end of San Francisco and mostly relieved runners and officials on the other. The finger-pointing is bound to go on for days about whether changing the route at the last minute was right. But on Wednesday, Mayor Gavin Newsom and other officials said that once they got a good look mid-morning at the chanting, surging, flag-waving crowds along the torch's advertised route, they felt they had no choice."

Alan Steward Carl blogging at Donklephant characterized the decision to secretly divert the Olympic Torch relay route as "cowardice". I disagree.

I expected a carnival atmosphere, the kind of protest "circus" that only San Francisco can stage, and I was not disappointed. The biggest surprise for me was the split within the San Francisco Chinese-American community. There was a lot of emotion on display including heated arguments in the streets and we even witnessed a fist fight. I guess I assumed this was a one sided argument (Pro-Tibet), and had no idea about the depth of the division that exists in the community. It was almost as bad as between Obamites and Clintonistas. There were big crowds along the route lined with activists intent on stopping the run and there was a real potential for people to get hurt - including the torch bearers.

Net net - Mayor Gavin Newsom pulled this off brilliantly. The torch run in Paris was a wake-up call. In San Francisco, they got the message. No one was hurt, there were minimal arrests, the Chinese got a completed face saving ceremony and photo op, while much of the city was turned over to protesters. They, in turn, were permitted to vent their collective and variegated spleens with the media attention they craved for their respective causes. Entertainment was provided by the City and Olympic committee. Fun was had by all.

The oppression of Tibet by China is a deadly serious issue.

The San Francisco Olympic Torch Relay protest was not.

I am glad it stayed that way.

Well played Mr. Mayor.

x-posted at Donklephant.
UPDATED: 11-April-08 - Added Video and links.

Divided and Balanced.™ Now that is fair.

Technorati tags: Gavin Newsom, Olympic Torch, San Francisco, protest, live blog, Tibet, China