Port of Oakland looks to prevent another shutdown
There's a big reason why the Port of Oakland is worried about the potential business losses from another Occupied shutdown - they're on the hook for $1.2 billion, San Francisco Chronicle reports.
That's how much the port spent on all of those new big white cranes and other improvements that were part of an ambitious Vision 2000 program instituted by the port a few years back.
Next year, annual payments on the loan will be at $115 million.
And that's one of the reasons port First Vice President Gilda Gonzales tells us they plan to have "very frank and clear" discussions with Mayor Jean Quan about what "federal, state and local" options are available to keep the port's gates open.
"Businesses are not happy about what has happened," Gonzales said. "They are asking what is our plan? And I think that is a legitimate question."
Gonzales' comments came on the heels of Quan telling Chronicle editors that the city could not guarantee keeping the port open.
Gonzales said she had spoken to the mayor about the comment and that Quan said she had been misquoted.
FYI, Quan's comments were taped.
New gold: Nothing seems to be slowing the real estate rush along San Francisco's swank Gold Coast.
This past year, Shaklee Corp. Chairman Roger Barnett and his wife, Sloan, dropped $33 million for the 22-room upper Broadway mansion of the late socialites John and Dodie Rosekrans. The Barnetts sold their nine-bedroom home on the same block for $23.47 million.
A block up Broadway, the six-bedroom mansion that once belonged to San Francisco's King of Torts, Melvin Belli, was snapped up by the German-born New Age rocker and record label mogul Peter Baumann for $29.5 million.
On the 3000 block of Pacific Avenue, venture capitalist Richard Spalding and his wife, Helen, just sold their home for $20 million - $2 million over asking - to young Silicon Valley newlyweds.
And financial giant Charles Schwab's daughter Katie and her husband, Matt Paige, paid $15.5 million for an estate on the 2600 block of Pacific that belonged to the late philanthropist Nina Ireland.
According to TRI-Caldwell Banker assistant manager Dona Crowder, a member of San Francisco's Assessment Appeals Board, the market appears to be a mix of high-end buyers hoping to trade up and a new set of mega-millionaires looking to invest.
"It's location, location, location," Crowder said.
End of the line: After 31 years in government - including stints as chief of staff to both state Sen. Bill Lockyer and Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson, 13 years as an Alameda County supervisor and two years as AC Transit's interim general manager - Mary King is pulling up stakes.
Board sources tell us two candidates have already turned down the $200,000-plus-a-year post to replace her. The sticking point appears to be AC Transit's pension plan, which directors would like to scale back in their next round of labor negotiations.
King, who spent the past seven years at the agency, will retire with about $62,000 a year.
"I don't want people to think I'm going out fat, dumb and happy, because I'm still going to have to hustle," King tells us.
In other AC news, the board just named public law attorney Vincent Ewing as its new general counsel.
No go: Former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has decided not to run for the Board of Supervisors in Contra Costa County after all.
An area business group that had been encouraging "the Don" to run commissioned an EMC Research poll to test the waters.
The poll showed Perata well ahead in any likely matchup and with pretty favorable reviews overall.
On the downside, the poll also found that Perata - who moved to Orinda after losing the Oakland mayor's race - is vulnerable on the carpetbagging issue and on the lengthy but ultimately empty FBI investigation alleging influence peddling while he served in the state Senate.
Perata, who works as a political consultant, said, "I couldn't figure out how to make it work with my business. I had enough problems doing that once before, and I don't want to do it again."
And with two other candidates - Contra Costa Community College District Trustee Tomi Van de Brooke and Danville Mayor Candace Anderson - jumping into the District Two race, Perata undoubtedly would feel some heat.
That's how much the port spent on all of those new big white cranes and other improvements that were part of an ambitious Vision 2000 program instituted by the port a few years back.
Next year, annual payments on the loan will be at $115 million.
And that's one of the reasons port First Vice President Gilda Gonzales tells us they plan to have "very frank and clear" discussions with Mayor Jean Quan about what "federal, state and local" options are available to keep the port's gates open.
"Businesses are not happy about what has happened," Gonzales said. "They are asking what is our plan? And I think that is a legitimate question."
Gonzales' comments came on the heels of Quan telling Chronicle editors that the city could not guarantee keeping the port open.
Gonzales said she had spoken to the mayor about the comment and that Quan said she had been misquoted.
FYI, Quan's comments were taped.
New gold: Nothing seems to be slowing the real estate rush along San Francisco's swank Gold Coast.
This past year, Shaklee Corp. Chairman Roger Barnett and his wife, Sloan, dropped $33 million for the 22-room upper Broadway mansion of the late socialites John and Dodie Rosekrans. The Barnetts sold their nine-bedroom home on the same block for $23.47 million.
A block up Broadway, the six-bedroom mansion that once belonged to San Francisco's King of Torts, Melvin Belli, was snapped up by the German-born New Age rocker and record label mogul Peter Baumann for $29.5 million.
On the 3000 block of Pacific Avenue, venture capitalist Richard Spalding and his wife, Helen, just sold their home for $20 million - $2 million over asking - to young Silicon Valley newlyweds.
And financial giant Charles Schwab's daughter Katie and her husband, Matt Paige, paid $15.5 million for an estate on the 2600 block of Pacific that belonged to the late philanthropist Nina Ireland.
According to TRI-Caldwell Banker assistant manager Dona Crowder, a member of San Francisco's Assessment Appeals Board, the market appears to be a mix of high-end buyers hoping to trade up and a new set of mega-millionaires looking to invest.
"It's location, location, location," Crowder said.
End of the line: After 31 years in government - including stints as chief of staff to both state Sen. Bill Lockyer and Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson, 13 years as an Alameda County supervisor and two years as AC Transit's interim general manager - Mary King is pulling up stakes.
Board sources tell us two candidates have already turned down the $200,000-plus-a-year post to replace her. The sticking point appears to be AC Transit's pension plan, which directors would like to scale back in their next round of labor negotiations.
King, who spent the past seven years at the agency, will retire with about $62,000 a year.
"I don't want people to think I'm going out fat, dumb and happy, because I'm still going to have to hustle," King tells us.
In other AC news, the board just named public law attorney Vincent Ewing as its new general counsel.
No go: Former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has decided not to run for the Board of Supervisors in Contra Costa County after all.
An area business group that had been encouraging "the Don" to run commissioned an EMC Research poll to test the waters.
The poll showed Perata well ahead in any likely matchup and with pretty favorable reviews overall.
On the downside, the poll also found that Perata - who moved to Orinda after losing the Oakland mayor's race - is vulnerable on the carpetbagging issue and on the lengthy but ultimately empty FBI investigation alleging influence peddling while he served in the state Senate.
Perata, who works as a political consultant, said, "I couldn't figure out how to make it work with my business. I had enough problems doing that once before, and I don't want to do it again."
And with two other candidates - Contra Costa Community College District Trustee Tomi Van de Brooke and Danville Mayor Candace Anderson - jumping into the District Two race, Perata undoubtedly would feel some heat.
