Mayor Gavin Newsom Comments on Wi-Fi Delay May 24, 2007
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedSan Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has denounced the delay in the adoption of San Francisco’s Wi-Fi city network, saying: “It’s frustrating. It’s been a two-year process, a two-year odyssey. We came up with what we think is the best proposal of its kind in the United States. Not only is it the best economic proposal for the taxpayers, no cost out of our pocket, a system that will be operated and managed by EarthLink, and supported by Google… but also provides not just a tiered paid service, but this free basic service that Google is going to provide. No other large city has offered that kind of service.”
On the prospect that the Wi-Fi plan might get delayed further or not pass at all, Newsom comments, “I think if this doesn’t pass, inevitably we’ll be one of the last cities in the United States to have Wi-Fi.”
On the possibility that Earthlink may pull out of the deal, Newsom adds: “There’s no backup plan. We’ve spent two years to put this plan together and we think it’s as good as it gets. EarthLink feels good about it. They’re not completely pleased by all the aspects because we went further than others. I like the idea that they’re contracting their focus because that means they’ll be more intently focused on fewer cities and not as many cities. That gives me solace.”
“That being said, Google’s still holding on. I don’t think they get much from this except a lot of publicity. But this is hardly a company that’s wanting for publicity. I think they did it because of the proximity to their headquarters. They want to showcase this effort in San Francisco, a world-class city. But I think there’s some frustration and I understand that and I hope they can hold out until we at least get a vote up or down, one way or another, at the Board of Supervisors.”
UN Launches Climate Initiative in San Francisco March 1, 2007
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , add a commentTo combat global warming, the United Nations has launched a unique partnership today with the City of San Francisco, the Bay Area Council plus a wide array of regional firms, including Gap, Gensler, Google and Shaklee.
The initiative, dubbed the “Principles on Climate Leadership,” provides a framework to address climate change as well as a forum to share best practices to reduce greenhouse gasses through, for example, setting company-wide emission reduction goals or providing transportation alternatives for employees.
Given that “An Inconvenient Truth” has just won an Oscar and, as such, has landed on our “Atlas of Cool” list, the global warming sustainability momentum is gathering steam worldwide, pardon the pun.
Part of the UN’s Global Compact – an initiative begun in 1999 to advance good corporate citizenship and responsible globalization – this program is a model for actions that businesses and cities around the world can take to combat global warming.
More than 20 Bay Area companies officially endorsed the Principles and also announced the “Business Council on Climate Change” at a special event in San Francisco, quite appropriate for a city that gave birth to the UN with the signing of its Charter in 1945.
San Francisco Board Turns Free Wi-Fi into Free-for-all February 26, 2007
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , add a commentInstead of propelling San Francisco to the top of the Wi-Fi trendsetter heap, the City continues to be held back by a lack of vision. This time, it’s the Board of Supervisors that has become a stumbling block in the City’s quest to lead more than 300 communities worldwide that are planning or operating a municipal Wi-Fi service.
More than two years after his October 2004 State of the City address, in which Mayor Gavin Newsom pledged to “not stop until every San Franciscan has access to free, wireless Internet service,” the Board of Supervisors recently declined to even consider the deal.
The Los Angeles Times notes that “in a city where suspicion of corporate interests hangs as thick as the fog, the plan has met resistance at every turn.” According to the Times, techies consider the free service too slow and are pushing for alternatives; while privacy advocates fret that the Internet companies could track users’ every move.
Instead, the board decided to investigate turning the project into a city-owned public utility. “We never thought it would be so hard to spend money in a city — or such a hard sell to give something away,” EarthLink Vice President Cole Reinwand was quoted as saying.
Most of Wi-Fi cities have escaped the political battles that are plaguing San Francisco. In April, the City chose Atlanta-based EarthLink to create a wireless network and charge customers $22 a month.
Google planned to rent space on the network and offer a slower, ad-supported version for free. Google is considering targeting ads by location, so, for example, someone in Union Square searching the Web for a shoe store might see offers for nearby shops first.
But the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other advocates raised concerns about EarthLink’s privacy policy. They also noted that Google’s ability to track the whereabouts of users could prove irresistible to law enforcement. Google countered that people worried about such things should sign up using a false name.
Apparently, some citizens of this high-tech mecca aren’t willing to settle for just any wireless access, even if it’s free. EarthLink’s paid service is about three times faster than Google’s free one. The speed of the free service “is so 1997,” software developer Ralf Muehlen is quoted saying.
Meanwhile, we’re just squandering time. In Anaheim, where EarthLink began offering a paid wireless service last summer, the service now covers 40% of the city, with the rest expected to be operating this fall.
Old Armory Converted into Adult Movie Studio February 19, 2007
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , add a commentSan Francisco gave us Carol Doda and the Mitchell Brothers. So, it’s no surprise that the City would embrace a developer of adult films to occupy one of the City’s most historic landmarks, the National Guard’s former State Armory and Arsenal building, built in 1914 and vacated in 1975.
In December, Peter Acworth, CEO of the Internet adult entertainment company Kink.com, bought the big, Moorish-castle-like building for $15 million and turned the 200,000-square-foot Mission Armory, into a adult fim studio.
Earlier this month, Kink began shooting bondage flicks in the building’s dungeon-like boiler room, shadowy rifle range and basement that features a stream, once meant to provide a water supply for soldiers trapped in the building, running through it.
Mr. Acworth is himself a perfect study in reinvention. According to The Wall Street Journal, the 36-year-old Englishman was studying for a graduate degree in finance in 1997 when he decided to drop out and move to San Francisco to start filming risqué videos in his apartment.
In 1999, he launched CyberNet Entertainment, which later became Kink. By 2006, the company had $20 million in annual revenue, Mr. Acworth claims, with nearly 70 employees.
Clearly, there’s still “gold in them thar hills” of San Francisco.
Nokia Joins WiFiAnywhere Initiative January 31, 2007
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , add a commentNokia will provide wireless Internet tablets and Nokia N series multimedia computers to more than 40 San Francisco high-school students, giving them a new creative video medium to explore, and a hands-on introduction to the wireless Internet.
The WiFiAnywhere initiative was officially launched today, at a John O’Connell High School press conference featuring Mayor Gavin Newsom, Gerard Wiener of Nokia and students from the two participating schools: Balboa and John O’Connell.
San Francisco State University and the Bay Area Video Coalition, who are co-producing a site for this program, http://www.wifiany.org, will also participate in the program. This site will be the central repository for student-created video, blogs and other content.
Nokia, for its part, gets to seed its latest-generation wireless Internet devices to The City’s best and brightest high-school students, a not to be underestimated benefit in this tech-heavy region.
San Francisco’s WiFiAnywhere initiative is a “collaboration between public, private- sector and non-profit organizations that will give communities the opportunity to experiment with leading-edge mobile technologies.”
“The divide between those San Franciscans with access to the internet and those without has deep and significant implications,” says Mayor Newsom. “It’s through programs and collaborations like this, where we can make sure that students at our public schools have access to the Internet regardless of where they live or their income level — and the tools to make it relevant — that we will finally bridge that divide.”
Free Universal Wireless Access Legislation Submitted January 23, 2007
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , add a commentMayor Gavin Newsom has submitted legislation that “would codify the agreement the City has reached with a Earthlink/Google partnership that would make San Francisco the first major city in the country to offer free universal wireless Internet access.”
The universal free wireless initiative, is part of Mayor Newsom’s TechConnect initiative that focuses on “Digital Inclusion” by creating access and providing hardware, content and training for residents without the benefit of real time, consistent access to technology.
Welcome to ReinventingSF.com! December 22, 2006
Posted by Michael Tchong in : Announcements , 2commentsI love San Francisco. That’s why I’ve created this site, which, I hope, will act as a repository for information and innovative strategies that can help The City regain its former luster as a global trendsetter.
Since 1994, I’ve been advancing an idea I believe could become a catalyst for the renaissance of San Francisco. While perusing materials I collected and created in the pursuit of this grandiose vision, which was dubbed “Starpark,” I saw a remarkable parallel between the early 90s and now.
In 1994, The City was in “jobless recovery” mode following the 1990-91 recession. Today, we’re still recovering from the dotcom hangover of 2000-01 and, judging from the current atmosphere, it’s clear San Francisco still has a long way to go to merely duplicate its stellar growth of 1996, an early Internet boom year.
While I’m in no way advocating a return to the frothy days of 1999, ReinventingSF.com hopes to become the spark that will reignite The City.
Since this is but the first volley in what is sure to become an engaging and fruitful debate, please provide us with your feedback and insights.
Thanks for reading.
P.S. I’ve added historical entries, which precede this post to give you some perspective on what San Francisco has accomplished and any interactions I may have had with related parties.
Hong Kong’s Cyberport Wins Building Award June 11, 2004
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , add a commentIn New York, Cyberport – a $2 billion landmark project managed by Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited and wholly owned by the Government of the Hong Kong – wins an Intelligent Building of the Year Award 2004, which is given to commercial buildings that have used broadband and information systems technology to add demonstrable value in the form of advanced services and merits to its tenants.
Cyberport is being developed on a 24-hectare site at Telegraph Bay in the southern district of Hong Kong Island. It comprises four office buildings, a five-star hotel, a retail entertainment complex and a deluxe residential development, aiming at creating an interactive environment that will be home to a strategic cluster of about 100 IT companies and 10,000 IT professionals.
Cyberport is an ideal prototype of what San Francisco ought to build at Pier 70.
New Economic Development Strategy Launched March 22, 2004
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , add a commentMayor Gavin Newsom launched a new economic development strategy in a press release that said the Office of Economic and Job Development would “continue to focus on traditional economic development activities, such as business attraction and building public-private development activities.”
The mayor named Jesse Blount as Director of this newly constituted department.
Newsom Thanks Me for My Support January 11, 2003
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedI received a letter from Gavin Newsom’s campaign thanking me for my support. Of course, no reaction to my 10-point proposal despite repeated calls and e-mails to Newsom’s right-hand man Michael Farrah.
View Gavin Newsom’s thank-you letter (PDF; 48KB)
Proposing a Plan to Gavin Newsom January 4, 2003
Posted by Michael Tchong in : Starpark , comments closedIt takes a long time to get things done here. But San Francisco is no different from any other city. However, now that Gavin Newsom was headed to City Hall, and he had spoken at one of my events, I thought it might be an opportune time to get the Gavin thinking about innovative new ways to get San Francisco rolling again. So, I sent him a proposal outlining a few basic ideas that could revive The City:
Background
San Francisco continues to be mired in a deep funk. The City has lost approximately 65,000-75,000 jobs in this downturn, nearly twice as many as were lost in the 1991-93 recession.
Chief culprit of the current malaise is the technology industry, which is mired in a slump, dogged by questions of efficacy.
To address this situation, The City of San Francisco, needs to act as a catalyst to help local businesses rebound, by inspiring confidence and demonstrating innovative leadership. The following 10-point plan will cement The City’s role as a harbinger of things to come:
- Think Tank — San Francisco should establish an advisory board of futurists that can help guide and inspire The City’s thinking and stimulate its business community in the process.
- Conference — Members of the Think Tank would be invited to speak at a City-hosted event that would provide a public forum for the further development of some of the agenda items, outlined below.
- Award — San Francisco should leverage its trendsetting push into innovation by establishing an annual award presented to the most innovative company or individual in the world. This contest would further cement the City’s vigorous role in the advancement of creativity and innovation.
- Virtual Vortex — San Francisco urgently needs to re-establish the South of Market area (SOMA) as the center of the next industrial revolution by rechristening the neighborhood. A suitable name should be selected from a branding contest held among leading San Francisco branding firms, such as Landor and The Name Lab, to replace its aging designation as “Multimedia Gulch.” The new name ought to communicate the district’s central role in leading America to a more productive future.
- Campus Complex — To plant more seeds for industrial creativity, San Francisco needs to promote the Pier 70 area as futuristic complex designed to house research-and-development laboratories, creative development firms and allied industries, including the important, local art community. This campus complex would become known as the development hub of the next generation of interactive media and other leading edge technology trends, such as biotech, e-wear, nano-technology, digital television, Wi-Fi, etc. The City should issue a worldwide call for the submission of architectural ideas to create an environmentally sound complex featuring many state-of-the-art facilities (outlined below) that will act as a magnet for creative product development efforts. To provide additional development funds, anchor tenants targeted for this complex would include the leading creative development powers, including Apple Computer, Disney, Genentech, IBM, Nokia, Oracle, Samsung, Sony, Sun, TAL Corp. (a manufacturer of “smart fabrics”), and other companies renowned for their groundbreaking pursuit of innovation and development. A concerted effort would be made to court real-estate interests like Peter Li’s Cyberport complex in Hong Kong to gauge their interest in participating in San Francisco.
- Digital Library — Both Berkeley and Palo Alto have created vibrant, local industries by planting seeds of higher education. To that end, San Francisco ought to establish the world’s first technology research library, one that meshes a large variety of content, both in printed and audio-visual form, and makes it available on a real-time basis in new-age surroundings. This digital multimedia library would be connected to the Internet and act a central reference point for the world’s most advanced research projects. The library would be part of the above-proposed campus complex and will give added dimension to San Francisco’s central role in industrial progress.
- Digital Art Gallery — This venue would combine leading-edge information and entertainment technologies, to create a unique experience. The Digital Art Gallery areas will feature multimedia kiosks which will dispense information, or even allow customers to buy products.
- VRoom — This virtual-reality entertainment center consists of a main area, surrounded by a 360-degree video-projection system, and flanked by “caves” — rooms that feature immersive digital experiences including motion-simulator rides and other 3D interactive adventures. Each cave would feature reprogrammable content, including the ability to change “content” to match changing consumer tastes and demographics. All caves would be corporately sponsored.
- VirtualVortex.com — All of the above projects and programs would be promoted in a very attractive, superbly designed site that would publish and maintain event dialogs, issue worldwide calls for architectural design entries, provide application forms for award entries and supply an easy way for interested individuals to remain au courant on The City’s activities via a free e-mail update.
Innovation Forum — Central to the Think Thank and all the call-to-action activities planned around San Francisco’s various innovation undertakings, would be an online debate forum, which would let netizens from around the globe discuss key issues germane to San Francisco’s well-being and future progress.
This 10-point plan represents an innovative, concerted effort to reestablish San Francisco as a conduit for the post-modern era. It would readily demonstrate that San Francisco’s City leadership is capable and determined to set the agenda for the next industrial revolution.
What else would you expect from a City that was the birthplace of the Frisbee?
Port Ponders Plans for Pier 70 July 23, 2001
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedAMB Property Corp., an industrial-development giant, and a coalition of 10 San Francisco arts groups seeking affordable space are vying to build retail shops, warehouses, offices, art studios and a public park at Pier 70.
Both proposals would invest at least $50 million in a gritty tract of industrial real estate on the city’s central waterfront. In decades past, Pier 70 bustled with Bethlehem Steel and Union Iron works laborers. San Francisco Drydock Inc. still operates on the pier and is the Port of San Francisco’s largest maritime tenant and the second-largest dry dock on the West Coast.
But the port considers the port underutilized and wants to draw more visitors and investment that could include offices, industry, museums, retail, recreational facilities, warehouses and maritime businesses.
Willie Brown Invites Me to a Party May 16, 2000
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedOh yea, His Williness desires your attention pretty please at a party for “CEOs of San Francisco’s most prestigious dotcom companies.” Glad I belong to that eclectic group!
View Mayor Willie Brown’s invitation (PDF; 126KB)
Reworking the Waterfront May 26, 1998
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedThat June 1997 Waterfront plan has finally made it to City Hall, and, according to the Chronicle, here’s how it’s being replayed:
“San Francisco’s central waterfront is a weather-beaten neighborhood haunted by ghosts of its industrial past, but a new plan under review at City Hall would transform it into a busy center of housing, shopping and 21st century commerce.
The plan call for a redevelopment project of historic proportions: a new town within the city, home to 25,000 people, in the neighborhood between Potrero Hill and the bay.
On a swath of land half the size of Golden Gate Park, developers would build as many as 12,000 new homes, plus schools, parks and shops. The industrial zones would also be revitalized.
The plan offered by the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, better known as SPUR, still faces years of review. But already it has generated crucial support – and significant opposition.”
The City’s Last Greenbelt April 19, 1998
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedThe San Francisco Sunday Examiner Magazine runs this piece on Mission Bay: “The current plan is a young one, assembled only since last spring when two major deals were sealed: the construction of the new Giants’ ballpark stadium and UCSF’s 43-acre baiomedical research campus, which will be built over the next 25 years.”
“Catellus (the real estate offshoot of Southern Pacific Realty) and the city have been working with several professional design firms, include Simon Martin Vegue Winklestein Morris, Johnson Fain and landscape architect Laurie Olin, to determine land uses and guidelines for the ex-railyard’s impending development.”
“Hopes are high that the multimillion-dollar campus will attract similar research-based companies to the area and create a tony Biotech Triangle of sorts. The classical, gridded campus master plan by Boston-based Machado + Silvetti with local firm Gordon Chong & Assoc. was the winner in a limited competition sponsored by the Bay Area Life Sciences Alliances, or BALSA, an entity created expressly to organize this competition and funded largely by local biotech giant, Chiron.”
Cozying Up to Multimedia February 27, 1998
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedOn the day of the Multimedia Summit, San Francisco is considering offering a package of perks for the multimedia industry, including setting up a $40 million loan fund and taxing developers to provide rent subsidy to tech firms. “Now is not the time to rest on our laurels,” says A.T. Kearney Vice President Matthew Le Merle of the San Francisco consultancy that authored the study.
Ad Agency Nursery February 5, 1998
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedAgencies from as far away as London, lured by San Francisco’s lifestyle and reputation for cutting-edge creativity are opening offices here. The result is at least 160 ad agencies in San Francisco, a 24% increase over the past five years, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
Bob Kerstetter, a partner with two-year-old Black Rocket, agues that any new ad shop can succeed if it has talented staff. “If you look at the fact that 95% of advertising really disgusts people, there’s clearly room for more good work,” he’s quoted as saying.
Study Finds S.F. Is New-Media Boom Town February 3, 1998
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedTom Abate reports the results of a survey released by MDG.org (Multimedia Developers Group) and Coopers Lybrand, which “has the goal of helping city planners understand the growing pains of an industry in which two thirds of all firms have sprouted up since 1994,” says MDG.org Executive Director Sue Worthman.
The study shows that employment in the city’s multimedia industry reached 35,000, up 69% since 1995. Revenues generated by these firms was $2.2 billion. Most of the firms were small. One third of them reported annual revenues of less than $300,000. Nearly half had 10 or fewer employees. Only 6% had more than 100 employees.
“We call our area Digitropolis,” Chad Nuss, spokesman for Silicon Reef, is quoted as saying.
Placating Tadpoles, Buttering Up Mayors November 3, 1997
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedFrom Forbes come these insights: “Nelson Rising hoists his 6-foot-2 frame from his blue Mercedes. ‘You have to walk this to get the feel of it,’ he shouts. He strides through a dirt parking lot flanked by noisy freeway ramps and industrial containers. He starts to rhapsodize ‘Imagine what this view would be like from the second and third stories. The hills are over that way, and you have bay views to the south.’”
“That does take a bit of imagining because right now Mission Bay is 300 acres of industrial wasteland adjacent to downtown San Francisco. It’s just part of the 817,000 acres of mostly vacant California land owned by Catellus Development Corp. Nelson Rising is chief executive and an owner of shares and options worth close to $15 million.”
“What’s the land worth? In its present form, not much. Developed, it could be worth billions. There’s the rub. With real estate, politics matters a lot, almost as much as location.”
“In California real estate, politics is the most important thing. Catellus can put up buildings on its land only if it appeases the gods of City Hall. Aside from sheer corruption, there are a number of ways to appease these little gods. Catellus knows the game well. It agreed to donate 29 acres of land to the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) for a biotech research campus.”
“That made Mayor Willie Brown look good – and he endorses Rising’s plan for a massive project on the dirt parking lot. It didn’t hurt that Catellus had Mayor Brown’s former law firm on retainer until 1994.”
Edit.: Well, you can’t blame Catellus for wanting to get things done. Too bad I didn’t have Catellus’ clout!
Reliance Shows Interest in “Virtual Bay” October 23, 1997
Posted by Michael Tchong in : Starpark , comments closedI met Michael Gray of Reliance Development Group purely by accident. We both lived in the same Oriental Warehouse loft complex. Once I told him of my idea, he immediately latched on to the innovativeness of the concept, which I had by then redubbed “Virtual Bay.”
I will soon make all my ideas and proposals available via PDF, but you can view the letter Gray sent me to gauge his reaction below.
View Reliance Development’s’ letter of interest (PDF; 142KB)
Five Design Proposals Unveiled for UCSF Campus October 21, 1997
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedFive sets of architects, three from San Francisco, one from New York and Kyoto, Japan each, are competing for the remarkable commission to build on 42 acres that used be Southern Pacific’s rail yards, reports the S.F. Chronicle today.
UCSF and Catellus Corp., developers of the entire 313-acre Mission Bay area, envision an academic village of 2.65 million square feet, featuring cutting-edge biomedical facilities, libraries, open spaces and parks.
The long-range goals, university and Catellus officials say, is for biomedical and high-tech companies to spring up around the new campus, with workers living close by in Mission Bay neighborhoods.
The job of building the new campus would be one of the great architectural commissions in San Francisco history. In this dense, highly compacted city, it’s rare to have a blank construction canvas of 43 bayside acres – and a client as prestigious as UCSF.
S.F.’s Interactive Media Summit October 21, 1997
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedThe S.F. Chronicle today reports today that “Mayor Willie Brown’s long overdue summit meeting to promote San Francisco’s interactive media industry has been rescheduled for February 27, 1998.
Chronicle writer Tom Abate’s article continues, “Summit organizer Mara Brazer said that Vice President Al Gore has been asked to make the keynote speech.” Members of San Francisco’s Multimedia Task Force, an ad hoc planning group, said the summit was delayed in part because business leaders and city officials couldn’t agree on a theme.
“The people in the trenches didn’t want another dog-and-pony show,” Fred Davis, a Ziff-Davis technology editor and task force member, was quoted as saying.
A Waterfront Design Plan Emerges June 24, 1997
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedThe Port of San Francisco released a very important document, entitled “Waterfront Design & Access,” which contained one of the best proposals ever for developing San Francisco’s enormous but totally underutilized waterfront.
Authored by the Port of San Francisco and the San Francisco Planning Department, this report contained a concrete proposal on how to develop the industrial wasteland that abuts the famous Ramp.
Multimedia Gulch Is Born December 10, 1995
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedWhile many a multimedia firm had labored in the South of Market area creating interactive CDs, it wasn’t until December 10, 1995, that The New York Times for the first time referred to The City’s district as “Multimedia Gulch.” At the time, some 500 multimedia firms called Multimedia Gulch home, a figure that was to grow dramatically in the next few years.
Sony to Unveil “Cyberparks” Chain October 10, 1994
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedIf you’ve ever seen the movie Babel, you know all about the “Butterfly Effect.” Clearly, we were “stirring the force” because here was giant Sony getting in on the location-based entertainment business, and labeling its effort “cyberpark.”
A tiny item in Monday’s S.F. Chronicle noted that Sony planned a national chain of high-tech “cyberparks” in at least four U.S.cities, including San Francisco, L.A., Chicago and Washington. New York-based Sony Development would run the parks under the direction of Stanley Steinberg, a Disney Alumnus.
Now, you have to know that I had sent my businessplan to Sony in New York and had it returned with a note from their attorney stating that they had “never read the business plan” and returned it “sight unseen.” Perhaps they should have read it, because in it they would have found the right mix of entertainment venues to prevent what years later would become the “Sony Metreon disaster.”
Oh well, at least I knew I was barking up the right tree!
S.F. Visitors Bureau Endorses Starpark! August 5, 1994
Posted by Michael Tchong in : Starpark , comments closedOnce again, Tricia’s connections paid off and she got us in front of the head of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, John Marks, who wrote another Starpark endorsement letter, which stated that “the project would be more than adequately supported by the already 14 million visitors that come to our city each year.”
View John Marks’ testimonial letter (PDF; 142KB)
Vast Fun Center, S.F. Ballpark Eyed June 16, 1994
Posted by Michael Tchong in : News , comments closedThe San Francisco Examiner ran a front-page story subtitled “Ambitious plan for Mission Bay wows city officials.” Reports the writer, Eric Brazil, “An unexpected alliance involving the Giants with Catellus Development Corp. [plan to build] a complex that would include music and television studios, virtual reality exhibits, specialty theaters, shops and a range of other attractions.”
Like the saying goes, “great minds think alike,” so the game was afoot!
Frank Jordan Signs On June 3, 1994
Posted by Michael Tchong in : Starpark , comments closedThere was much interest in Starpark. Our first major success was getting Mayor Frank Jordan to write a letter of endorsement supporting the Starpark concept for San Francisco. You can download a PDF of Jordan’s letter below.
View Mayor Frank Jordan’s testimonial letter (PDF; 141KB)
The Starpark Genesis February 21, 1994
Posted by Michael Tchong in : Starpark , comments closedI met Tricia James, the Director of the South of Market Business Association (SOMBA), at South Park Café, where I persuaded her to help introduce me to San Francisco’s influentials and rally support for an idea I called “Starpark.”
What was Starpark? In essence, it was a “digital park” consisting of a multimedia development, incubation and educational center, plus an interactive entertainment complex, that consisted largely of motion-based rides and other “immersive entertainment.”
The latter were usually referred to as Location-based Entertainment, which was then a hot, new wave of escapes being developed by the likes of Disney, MGM Universal and even Apple, as can be seen from this interactive café design:
I will not go into great detail into the Starpark business plan. Suffice it to say that Starpark was to be a center for innovation, a technical tour de force that would cement San Francisco’s reputation as the global capital of innovation.