Treasure Island? NOT!

San francisco:

Big sit-down the other night at the 5A5 Steak Lounge on Jackson Street to try to seal the mega-development deal that Mayor Ed Lee hopes to sign on his upcoming trip to China.

A vision, and that is it... Will never look like that, think massive housing and over-crowding

At issue: finalizing a $1.7 billion deal with China Development Corp., the Chinese national railway and Lennar Corp. to construct 12,500 homes on the Hunters Point Shipyard and a string of high-rises on Treasure Island.

In addition to Lee, attendees included Lennar VP Kofi Bonner, former Mayor Willie Brown - who besides his gig as a Chronicle columnist is working to bring in Chinese citizens whose investments here will earn them green cards - and Chinese Chamber of Commerce powerhouse Rose Pak. She's setting up the mayor's trip to Beijing at the end of March. ( I smell lots of corruption when Willie and Pak are mentioned, why green cards???)

Also in attendance was a representative from the Chinese end of the deal. From what we hear, the talks hit a big snag a while back over terms of the Chinese outfits' investment. The snag was one of the key reasons the mayor put off a trip scheduled for last year.

It is really just a dream that Treasure Island will be the wonderland envisioned. It is a small wind-swept landfill island with one one small entrance and exit from a crowded bridge. In the summer months the wind is 20 to 30 knots and the temperature is in the 50's at best with a wind chill down to the 40's. The thought that they would build a mixed development with all the open space is a joke. What is proposed never comes true, the developer can pay a small fine and by-pass all the regulations and fill that nice green space with more houses to increase profits.

If (when) there is an earthquake, that island will solidify and melt into the bay. It is fill land made to be temporary and was never meant to be used in this manor. They should turn it into farm land, run some cattle and grow some crops there for the cities restaurants, make it just a big open space. But the city sees it as cash so they will be happy to sell it off and make a few quick bucks, the developers will make billions and that will be it. Oh except for more bridge traffic, more waste, more loss of open space and furthering the corruption of the city.