06 May 2009 - 10:11, Stan Kaufman said
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Yesterday, the full Board of Supervisors wisely and unanimously approved the Sharp Park legislation that directs the Rec&Parks Department to investigate alternative uses for the Sharp Park golf course. Please take a moment to thank the supervisors and in particular to thank our own Supervisor Elsbernd for this decision.

An amendment was attached to the legislation to investigate the option of transferring Sharp Park to Pacifica/San Mateo county — in addition to the option of transferring it to the GGNRA. From the standpoint of San Francisco taxpayers, either destination would provide equivalent relief from the hemorrhage of our tax dollars out of our city limits — presuming that a transfer to Pacifica didn’t include some going-away present of Open Space Fund or General Fund monies to help Pacifica start to run the place on its own.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone in San Francisco government would permit much less support such a gift. But you can be sure that Pacifica is going to be requesting (or demanding, as has been their wont) it if they are to take over — since they have no resources actually to cover these expenses. And it’s even harder to imagine that any Big Golf developer will swoop in to Pacifica’s rescue since Pacifica doesn’t have a huge Open Space Fund for the developer to plunder — in contrast to what happened here at Harding Park.

So my bet is that if Sharp Park doesn’t go to the GGNRA on the first bounce via this legislation, it will end up there soon enough once Pacifica finally realizes how much it has benefited from its sugar daddy up north — or when it finds itself in court looking at astronomical penalties for illegal “take” of its resident endangered species. Leaving this distressed property to GGNRA’s care will start to look as good to Pacifica as it does to San Francisco — sooner or later.