Economist.com Cities Guide: San Francisco Briefing - October 2005

News this month

Google's (seemingly) endless growth spurt

Google, the leading internet search engine, continues to expand in unexpected ways. In late September, the company signed a deal to build a technology-research complex on land owned by the NASA Ames Research Centre in Mountain View, California. Google’s executives hope the new $300m centre will attract leading scientists and technology experts, and foster collaborations on research ranging from supercomputing to biotechnology. Any discoveries could then be developed for commercial use.

Google, founded in 1998 by two graduates of Stanford University, has been growing at a dizzying pace. Since its initial public offering last year, it has earned $7 billion in cash and is hiring an average of ten new employees each business day. The new 1m-square-foot research centre is not the only big project on Google’s horizon: in early October the company offered to blanket all of San Francisco with free wireless internet access; made a deal with Sun Microsystems, a computer manufacturer, that may challenge Microsoft’s control of the desktop-computer market; and vied to acquire AOL, an internet portal, in an effort to become the world’s leading gateway to the web.

A lawyer's loss

Daniel Horowitz, a well-known lawyer and television pundit, has established himself as an authority on murder. But his experience with killers became tragically personal on October 15th, when he found his wife, Pamela Vitale, beaten to death in the entrance of their Bay Area home. The crime may have been committed by a skinny 16-year-old named Scott Dyleski who lived nearby; police arrested him four days after Ms Vitale’s death. (The boy's name became known after his arrest, though legal authorities did not identify him.) Investigators suspect the teenager was behind a marijuana-growing scheme, and went to Mr Horowitz’s house because he thought supplies for the drug had been delivered there by mistake. He then got into a fight with Ms Vitale, and apparently had scratches on his arms and legs as a result. The boy is too young for the death penalty. If he is convicted of murder as an adult, he would face up to life in prison; if convicted as a juvenile, he would be freed on his 25th birthday.

Before his wife’s death, Mr Horowitz had been arguing a high-profile murder case, defending Susan Polk, who is accused of killing her therapist husband in 2002. But the lawyer now says he will not try any cases during the investigation of his wife’s murder, and the judge in the Polk case has declared a mistrial.

Island intrigue

Political tensions surrounding Treasure Island, a former navy base in the San Francisco Bay, came to a boil this month. The city established the Treasure Island Development Authority in 1997, to oversee the transfer of the navy base—and its 400 acres of prime real estate—to the city in 2008. But on October 12th, the authority’s board of directors sacked Tony Hall, the head of the redevelopment plan. The decision was made behind closed doors, and the board has not announced its reasoning. But both the board and San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, had clashed with Mr Hall. Mr Newsom’s office had accused Mr Hall of cronyism and fiscal mismanagement, while Mr Hall had charged that the mayor and the board were bungling negotiations with developers.

Though hostility had grown in the weeks leading up to the board's decision, Mr Hall’s feud with Mr Newsom dates back to their days on the city’s board of supervisors. After becoming mayor in 2004, Mr Newsom strategically appointed Mr Hall to the Treasure Island project in order to free up Mr Hall’s supervisor’s seat, which he then filled with a political ally. The mayor is now considering a new director for the Treasure Island project. Mr Hall's request for his old supervisor’s job has fallen on deaf ears.

Under fire

With natural disasters suddenly in vogue, officials are re-examining San Francisco’s plans for dealing with an earthquake. Fire hydrants have come under particular scrutiny: if an earthquake ended up igniting raging fires (as happened in 1906), firefighters from neighbouring cities would be unable to help quench the flames, as their 2½-inch hoses would not fit the three-inch openings on San Francisco’s hydrants. This problem had devastating effects during an Oakland fire in 1991, when firefighters from nearby towns couldn’t attach their hoses to the city’s hydrants. The fire killed 25 people and destroyed almost 3,000 homes.

A new state law passed shortly thereafter required all California cities to standardise their hydrants, but San Francisco was exempt. City officials argued that it would be too costly to change the city’s water system, and replace the city's 8,000 hydrants. With the hydrants once again drawing criticism, Joanne Hayes-White, San Francisco’s fire chief, maintains that the cost is still too steep. She has proposed making hose adapters available to nearby fire departments. City officials are considering different plans to deal with the problem.

Run, Ron, run

As a former California governor and three-time presidential candidate, Jerry Brown, Oakland's mayor, is a national figure. When he steps down next year, his successor may have equal star power. Ron Dellums, a black ex-Congressman and one of the Bay Area’s best-known political figures, declared his candidacy for the job on October 7th. His announcement shakes up the mayor’s race, which would have been a contest between two city-council members, Ignacio De La Fuente and Nancy Nadel. With his marquee name, Mr Dellums is almost certain to become a front-runner.

First elected to Congress in 1970, Mr Dellums gained prominence as a peace advocate and anti-apartheid crusader during his 27 years in office. Now 69 years old, Mr Dellums has lofty plans to transform Oakland into a progressive centre. But other leaders who left federal jobs to become mayors have warned that Mr Dellums' goals will probably take a back seat to the daily realities of fixing a city’s streets, balancing its budget and reducing crime. Since leaving his post in 1998, Mr Dellums has worked in Washington, DC, as a lobbyist.

Grounded

San Jose officials will scale back a $4.5 billion plan to expand the city’s ageing airport. Dreams of a new central terminal and a double-deck roadway to ease terminal traffic have been cast off as unfeasible, due to a shaky economy and slow passenger growth.

When the plans for the airport’s expansion were drawn in 1997, San Jose was on its way to becoming a booming technology centre. Eight years later, San Jose is still reeling from the dotcom crash and the attacks on September 11th 2001. The airport serves about 11.1m passengers each year, 15% less than it did before September 11th, and far less than projections that 17.6m people would be using the airport by 2010. On top of this, struggling airlines are reluctant to pay higher fees to cover the cost of a major expansion. But officials have not abandoned plans altogether—they have agreed to study a more modest $1.5 billion scheme, which includes building a new North Concourse with a sail-shaped exterior. If plans proceed, the new concourse could open as soon as 2008.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, at the de Young Museum

October 15th 2005-February 5th 2006

More than 100 years after its founding, the de Young Museum reopened in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on October 15th. The museum’s renowned collection of American painting and art from the Americas, Pacific Islands and Africa has a new home, designed by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, two Pritzer Prize-winning architects. The inaugural exhibition features art and other treasures from the reigns of New Kingdom Rulers Tuthmosis I, Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III (1504-1425 BC).

The museum's old building was severely damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Rather than repair the existing structure, the museum’s trustees decided to build a larger, seismically safe building, raising more than $178m for the project. The new three-level, 293,000-square-foot structure aims to integrate art, architecture and the natural setting of Golden Gate Park.

The de Young Museum, 50 Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Tel: +1 (415) 863-3330. For more information, see the museum's website.

More from the San Francisco cultural calendar