Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Just finished: "City For Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco" by Chester Hartman.
It's a history of the redevelopment agency, and it's fobiles, from the 50s to today (2002). It goes blow by blow through every protest and bad decision made by this big government agency... and Hartman really has certain people and organizations that he wants to show in certain light.
The book does a good job of showing where the lies and stupidity were with the redevelopment agency, the Planning Commission/department, the mayor(s)' office, and the board of Supervisors over time. He likes some folks, and not others.
Thing is, I think he isn't willing to look at things in a modern light. My thoughts are that he's sort of stuck in the 70s view of 'development bad, anything connected to government bad' and 'protesters good' ... he doesn't take into account for instance, that SPUR is a very different organization now than it was when it was started. Or that perhaps simply locking SF into the same exact configuration it was in back in 1959 isn't the only solution to a better city.
Anyway, let me know if you'd like to talk more about the book.
It's a history of the redevelopment agency, and it's fobiles, from the 50s to today (2002). It goes blow by blow through every protest and bad decision made by this big government agency... and Hartman really has certain people and organizations that he wants to show in certain light.
The book does a good job of showing where the lies and stupidity were with the redevelopment agency, the Planning Commission/department, the mayor(s)' office, and the board of Supervisors over time. He likes some folks, and not others.
Thing is, I think he isn't willing to look at things in a modern light. My thoughts are that he's sort of stuck in the 70s view of 'development bad, anything connected to government bad' and 'protesters good' ... he doesn't take into account for instance, that SPUR is a very different organization now than it was when it was started. Or that perhaps simply locking SF into the same exact configuration it was in back in 1959 isn't the only solution to a better city.
Anyway, let me know if you'd like to talk more about the book.
