

SF Port Authority Shuts Down Tech-Hub Pier 38 - petercooper
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/06/pier-38-shut-down/

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guelo
This has been brewing for many years, the city has tried to kick out the
landlord for about 10 years and he's been in bankruptcy proceedings for a
while. It's amazing he's hung on so long. There's a detailed 9 year old
profile about this crazy situation here
[http://www.sfweekly.com/2002-11-20/news/griftin-on-the-
dock-...](http://www.sfweekly.com/2002-11-20/news/griftin-on-the-dock-of-the-
bay/)

I can attest from personal experience that the man is a paranoid hot head, and
from this article he seems to be spiraling out of control:
[http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-05-29/bay-
area/29596184_1_po...](http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-05-29/bay-
area/29596184_1_port-director-eviction-port-headquarters)

The question will be what the city wants to do with that space after they
finally get rid of Carl. With the ball park next door I doubt they will want
to keep it as an office building.

~~~
rdl
Wow, I didn't realize Carl was _that_ crazy.

This whole thing has convinced me to never do business with the City of San
Francisco. Mountain View is _vastly_ more pro-business, low-politics, and
sane.

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noonespecial
In my experience, if you look far enough down the tracks of any forced
eviction, you'll find someone's cousin who's a developer who'd love to build a
trendy new hotel.

Looking at the place on google maps, I'd be willing to bet a substantial
amount that we'll be hearing about a hot new night spot and a swanky new hotel
right on the water. (plus a lot of gushing about what a good thing this will
be for the local economy.) That or a nice bunch of million dollar condos the
size of my closet.

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rdl
The pier (owned by the city) was always leased at below-market to a landlord
with a connection to the maritime industry. All use had to have some
connection to the maritime industry; I think there was a yacht club, lots of
storage of boats, etc., in addition to the new tech offices (which were
somehow maritime as well). After I went back to Afghanistan, there was some
change where the former master leaseholder lost the lease and it got
reassigned to someone else.

(I worked for Social Media back when we did the initial conversion, then
started renting it out to other companies)

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SeoxyS
I'm very sad to see it go, because I'm currently working at a startup in pier
38. It's a great space, even though it could use some renovating. The location
is perfect, and being able to see the water directly when looking out the
window makes for a great work environment.

I have a hard time seeing it remodeled as a hotel, or anything else—even
though I've always thought vacant piers would make great spots for bars,
nightclubs, restaurant and many other things. Most of the piers between the
ferry building and pier 38 are vacant for the most part blight and urban
decay. Pier 38 has the advantage of somewhat closer proximity to AT&T Park and
the trendy King St, but that's about it. I have a hard time seeing how pier 38
will be different.

~~~
kordless
I have fond memories of working at True's office back at the start of Loggly.
Not so fond memories of the restroom, however.

~~~
dmor
Yes, and walking in the garage at night was like being in a Stephen King
novel. One motion sensor light turning on at a time

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taylorbuley
"It's just amazing that the city of San Francisco isn't able to care about
something that has generated so many jobs," writes someone in the comments of
TC.

I enjoyed my Muni-view of the the neon "socialmedia.com" sign in the second
story window just as much as the next guy, but it blows my mind to think that
people believe it's the fiduciary duty of a municipality to keep a place like
this open. My various points in short (1) These jobs inevitably move down
Penninsula; (2) Tech is better off without government playing VC; (3) if
you've ever seen this place, it does look like it's about to fall into the
Bay.

The company makes the place, the place doesn't make the company. I hope
companies like Automattic are able to pack up and make some other -- hopefully
more structurally stable -- place famous.

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dotBen
Can someone placed to comment (ie a resident of the building) tell us what
aspects were considered unsafe - and ultimately whether this is justified or
whether this is a new landlord who wants everyone out to redevelop the
property?

~~~
pitdesi
I am not a resident, but have been there several times and have friends there.
My understanding is that the issue has nothing to do with it actually being
unsafe and more to do with zoning. Basically what was there previously was a
restaurant and they converted it to office space without getting the proper
permits from San Francisco. You can see something to that effect in Scoble's
picture:
[https://plus.google.com/u/0/111091089527727420853/posts/PefH...](https://plus.google.com/u/0/111091089527727420853/posts/PefH5XR1PFd)

Edit: great details posted by guelo suggests the story is not quite what I'd
heard, the owner seems like a ridiculous person - it seems the city didn't
care to certify his construction work at all at first but now wants to -
[http://www.sfweekly.com/2002-11-20/news/griftin-on-the-
dock-...](http://www.sfweekly.com/2002-11-20/news/griftin-on-the-dock-of-the-
bay/)

[http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-05-29/bay-
area/29596184_1_po...](http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-05-29/bay-
area/29596184_1_port-director-eviction-port-headquarters)

~~~
mikeryan
Zoning and unsafe tend to go hand in hand. From Scoble's pic they converted
the space illegally to office space with no plumbing, electrical, fire etc.
inspections done. Essentially the whole thing could be a fire trap with bare
electrical cables running over gas lines. Or it could be bullshit, point being
it seems that no one can prove that anything in there is up to code. Someone
fucked up the conversion pretty hard.

~~~
pitdesi
Re zoning and unsafe going hand in hand- that may be true in general, but
typically a property like this that looks on the up and up is probably
structurally sound.

I have done a few significant conversions / redevelopments, and zoning issues
I've faced had absolutely nothing to do with actual problems with the
property. They are more often a way for city employees and the city to make
some money, and often the city architects/building inspectors are in on the
game. It is the only form of outright bribery I've seen firsthand in this
country, but for my contractor friends it is a part of everyday life.
Typically you pay some fee for the city to look at drawings before you do
anything and then if you want the building inspector to actually show up and
rate it well you might be asked to grease the wheels to speed up the process.
It's pretty unfortunate and I didn't think these types of things happened but
they definitely do.

My properties are in Chicago and Pittsburgh and that is certainly the case in
those cities (much worse in Chicago), not sure if it's the case in SF, but I
would be willing to guess that it is.

~~~
juiceandjuice
Not to say this isn't the case, but San Francisco, in some cases, actually has
a history of hostility towards developers. For example: Live/work conversions
are banned in the city and have been banned since 1999. There seems to be a
lot of bad blood dating back to the bubble burst and half-assed redevelopment
of SOMA.

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jackfoxy
I went to a meet-up hosted at Dogpatch labs once. Great venue. Pier 38 is not
quite in the Dogpatch neighborhood. I grew up in the Bay Area, but never heard
of a _Dogpatch_ neighborhood in S.F. until after the internet came along. The
wikipedia article is no help
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpatch,_San_Francisco,_Califo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpatch,_San_Francisco,_California).
When did _Dogpatch_ first get called _Dogpatch_? Perhaps it has something to
do with the Hell' Angels clubhouse? Naturally the name comes from Al Capp.

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geoffmcqueen
Interesting - the StartupHouse guys are offering to house the Pier38 refugees
free through 2011 at their new place at 880 Harrison St.

More at www.startuphouse.com/pier38-refugees.html

~~~
elias
Yeah, so the problem Pier 38 is that it has zoning for M2 which is "heavy
industrial use". 880 Harrison St is on RSD which is live/work.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/liako/6122632880/in/photostream>

