The destruction of a landmark will continue

From SFcurbed.com (http://sf.curbed.com/), a real estate blog:

55 Laguna is OK! Wednesday, March 11, 2009, by Andy J. Wang
A reader forwarded us an email from Openhouse, which is partnering with developer AF Evans Co. to build an 85-unit affordable housing complex for LGBT seniors at 55 Laguna. The group sent out an email today regarding the fate of the project. AF Evans' recent Chapter 11 filing, the executive director says, "will have minimal impact on the 55 Laguna Street project...CEO Art Evans...re-affirmed the commitment of AF Evans to 55 Laguna and told me that their filing will not affect their efforts on the project. AF Evans is not going out of business and does not plan any layoffs. It is strategically addressing the reality of this unprecedented economic climate." Phew!

Oh yes, what a relief. AF Evans and Openhouse can continue with their plans to trash a state and national landmark to build a massive housing project for UC on property that's been zoned for "public use" for 150 years---property that UC has had tax-free from the city for 50 years because of its education "mission." Its mission on that property is no longer offering university classes to working people but real estate development at the expense of the people of San Francisco. Unmentioned by Wang is the fact that the LGBT units are only part of this huge project of 450 housing units that will contribute significantly to the constant traffic jams on Octavia Blvd. and other neighborhood streets by bringing in 1,000 new residents to an already densely populated part of the city. The LGBT units only give the destructive project a PC patina that enables spineless progressives like Supervisor Mirkarimi political cover to carry water for a predatory UC.

For some history of this project and the role played by city progressives, click on "UC Extension" below.