4329 & 4331 Kirkham Street -- 2003 Activities

Kirkham Shacks Main Page -- 2005 -- 2004 -- 2003 -- 2002

2003

December 31, 2003: Supervisor Fiona Ma, Peter Summerville from Treasure Island, and Reed Walker all check in on shack progress. Supervisor Ma pledges to help push the permit along, and Mr. Summerville offers to appear at any Planning Commission meetings. We wait to have the shacks put on the Planning Commission calendar.

December 30, 2003: Paperwork for an Environmental Exemption permit to move the shacks is submitted to the San Francisco Planning Department.

December 20, 2003: Christopher VerPlanck from Page & Turnbull and WNP board member Richard Brandi revisit the shacks to assess for a historical resource report. This report will act as the guide for renovation.

October 31, 2003: With an agreement from Treasure Island on the way, we find we likely still have to have a "demolition" permit from the Planning Department, and to get a date scheduled for the Planning Commission to review our proposal to move the shacks. The process to get a permit is restarted.

October 2003: Reed Walker from Mayta & Jensen begins lining up help to deconstruct and move the shacks, with the first step being abating the site (removing asbestos shingles).

September 27, 2003: Mayoral hopeful Angela Alioto tells Woody LaBounty at the Sunset Community Festival that she's all in favor of saving the shacks and will look into how she can help.

September 19, 2003: The owners' representative Ridge Greene, Reed Walker from Mayta & Jensen, Frances Hsieh from Supervisor Ma's office, and Woody LaBounty from WNP, meet with Peter Summerville of the Treasure Island Authority. A site is chosen, details for an agreement are ironed out, and it looks as if something might happen to have the shacks moved! We're cautiously optimistic and awaiting an agreement from Treasure Island to sign.

September 3, 2003: The Bay Guardian features an article on the Kirkham Street shacks.

September 2, 2003: Ridge Greene owner's representative reports more squatter problems at the Kirkham shacks. No word from Treasure Island yet.

August 12, 2003: WNP meets with Peter Summerville at Treasure Island and tours likely spots to house shacks temporarily. Peter reports that Annemarie Conroy is out of town at a conference and they'll talk when she returns.

August 4, 2003: Thanks to Supervisor Ma, WNP talks with Peter Summerville from Treasure Island about a meeting to find a place for the shacks. Summerville says he'll call back with a good time and is very encouraging.

August 4, 2003: Supervisor Ma talks to Annemarie Conroy, executive director of the Treasure Island Development Authority about taking the shacks even temporarily to get them off the lot and out of danger. Tyrone Jue from the Mayor's office also starts looking for a new location, perhaps at a pier.

August 2, 2003: Letter from the Presidio arrives. Middleton writes that the two shacks the Presidio has are "adequate to interpret San Francisco's earthquake history for this location." (Except they are never open, the paint is peeling, and the signs are confusing.) Thanks to the Presidio's lack of interest, WNP is left with the job of creating a competing exhibit in the city rather than helping the Presidio enhance and accurately interpret what they have.

August 1, 2003: Middleton does "make it to the office", as he calls LaBounty on a speaker phone with Dana Polk. He says the call is just a "heads-up" that they are sending a new letter that they are refusing the shack proposal. Middleton says the Presidio's mandate doesn't cover "taking care of bits of San Francisco history," and cites other suggestions to the Presidio, including statues and taking an old cable car. LaBounty points out the shacks obviously aren't in that sort of category and asks what the National Park Service said on this proposal. Middleton says he hadn't talked to the NPS since before the May meeting (when he promised to talk to them). It's obvious that the Presidio never truly considered the idea of taking shacks despite it costing no money, having the support of senators, supervisors, historians and the general public.

July 30, 2003: Molly Matul from the Presidio Trust calls Woody LaBounty to set up an August 1st meeting with Craig Middleton. When Tyrone Jue from the Mayor's Office and Supervisor Ma ask to attend the meeting, she calls to change the meeting to a phone call because Middleton "may not be in the office then."

July 28, 29, 30, 2003: Jane Cryan calls everyday leaving messages, attempting to get Middleton to call back with an answer on the shacks.

July 28, 2003: Ridge Greene, the shacks' owners' representative, emails WNP: "After our last meeting at the shacks the buildings were broken into and several squatters removed by the police department (I have a copy of the police report if you are interested). The squatters threatened to come back again and again and also threatened (on video) to burn down or damage the shacks if we didn't let them stay there. Anyways this whole situation with the squatters has understandably pushed the owners to the point where the liability situation is untenable for them."

July 9, 2003: Tim Kelley, President of the San Francisco Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board, writes a letter to the Presidio Trust supporting the shack relocation proposal.

July 1, 2003: Representatives from the Planning Department and the Landmarks Advisory Board visit the shacks. KRON and KPIX both run stories on the evening news about the shack situation.

June 30, July 1, 2003: Woody LaBounty calls and leaves message for Craig Middleton at the Presidio Trust.

June 17, 2003: Tyrone Jue from the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services calls for an update and offers to help in anyway to relocate shacks.

June 16, 2003: Dana Polk from the Presidio Trust calls to report that Mr. Middleton has been very busy and it would be a couple of more weeks before he could report anything on the shacks proposal.

May 20, 23, 27 and June 2, 6, 10, 2003: Woody LaBounty calls and leaves message for Craig Middleton with no response.

May 14, 2003: Senator Feinstein's office writes to Supervisor Ma about the shacks: "I wanted to let you know that I have been assured by Craig Middleton, Executive Director of the Presidio Trust that he plans to try to find a place to re-locate the shacks at the Presidio." Also that "Sen. Feinstein was very pleased to hear that you are pursuing the preservation of these historic shacks and wants to help in any way she can."

May 9, 2003: Jane Cryan and Woody LaBounty meet with Craig Middleton at the Presidio. They explain the whole proposal again and he offers to look into it, asking for two weeks.

May 7, 2003: Shacks' plight is mentioned in Hank Donat's "Heart of the City" column in The Independent

May 1, 2003: Craig Middleton calls WNP, admits some of his facts were off and offers to meet.

April 21, 2003: Woody LaBounty responds to the Presidio letter with clarifications and a renewed request to move shacks to Presidio.

April 10, 2003: Eight days before the 97th Anniversary of the Great Earthquake and Fire, the Presidio Trust formally responds to WNP's proposal. In declining the shacks, Executive Director Craig Middleton writes that "It is not a question of space, but one of historical accuracy." Unfortunately Mr. Middleton seems to believe the two shacks the Presidio already have possess origins tracing "directly back to the Presidio's relief efforts following the earthquake and fire." Of course, the Goldie shacks were moved to the Presidio in the 1980s and certainly already create a false sense of historical development.

April 2003: Plight of Kirkham shacks featured in "This Old House" magazine.

March 23, 2003: Jane Cryan and Woody LaBounty view two "rediscovered" Type A shacks kept in terrific shape at 30 Niantic Street. The owner has additional room on property and says he's open to the possibility of moving Kirkham shacks next door.

March 21, 2003: Craig Middleton, Director of the Presidio Trust, leaves a message for Woody LaBounty. LaBounty calls back a number of times over two weeks, leaving messages. Middleton never responds.

March 17, 2003: Ridge Greene, Woody LaBounty, and the owners meet with Fiona Ma, Supervisor for District 4 at the Kirkham shacks. The entire situation is explained and the owners ask Supervisor Ma to help get permit-to-demolish paperwork proceeding. Woody LaBounty asks that she help with getting the Presidio to respond. (Moving the shacks would actually take less time than the permit to demolish, which could take up to a year and a half.) Ma promises to help with the paperwork, and asks to see the "Goldie" shacks in the Presidio. After viewing them, she tells LaBounty she'll see what she can do to enlist help from Senator Feinstein.

March 12, 2003: With the Presidio situation bogged down, Woody LaBounty of WNP recontacts all people who expressed interest in taking shacks. Most consist of moving the shacks to remote private properties in California.

February 7, 2003: Rich Weideman calls, and is by far the most knowledgeable person we've talked to about our proposal. He explains that the two "Goldie" shacks the Presidio have are planned to be moved into a courtyard behind the rehabilitated Visitor's Center (Building 102); that the NPS technically has ownership of the Goldie shacks and that there really isn't any appropriate space for additional shacks in NPS-run space ("Area A") in the Presidio. He cites further obstacles, such as the Presidio being a National Historic site and the difficulty in adding structures. (Note: Most people don't know that the shacks aren't designated as "structures", but as "artifacts", so this problem could be worked around.) He acknowledges that if the Presidio Trust alloted space for new shacks in "Area B", something could conceivably be worked out to have the Goldie shacks join the Kirkham shacks.

Right now there isn't a dime allocated to moving the Goldie shacks to behind the Visitor's Center, and it's just the plan. Rich wonders how the Goldie shacks bucked the bureaucracy to be located in the Presidio back when the military had jurisdiction, and finds the answer himself: "I guess what the general wants, the general gets."

This is our new battle cry, and our mission is now to get enough generals to concur that the shacks would be terrific in the Presidio.

February 5, 2003: Steve Haller from the NPS calls back, expresses his hope something can be done to save the shacks, but refers me to Rich Weideman to get any "official opinion" the Park Service has on moving the shacks to the Presidio.

February 4, 2003: Jane Cryan suggests contacting Amy Meyer (on the Presidio Trust's Board of Directors) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (who as mayor designated Jane's former shack domicile a city landmark). Ms. Meyer is very sympathetic to the shacks' plight and says she'll see what she can do. WNP faxes her the situation to date.

February 2, 2003: Woody LaBounty checks in to see how the proposal is moving along at the Presidio. Tia Lombardi replies that the Park Service "is reluctant to undertake this project on a permanent basis. As I understand it, their main concern is that the Presidio is not the most appropriate place for these shacks, and that with shrinking resources (for both the NPS and the Trust) they have to question whether this project is the best one to undertake. I suggest that you contact Stephen Haller for further clarification."

Suddenly less optimistic, we leave messages for Steve Haller, the Museum of San Francisco, and talk to the Oakland Museum. Coincidentally, Carl Nolte from the Chronicle calls to check in. We give him an update.

It seems that political influence (or a lot of money) is needed to aid our Presidio proposal.

January 23, 2003: Woody LaBounty talks to Steve Haller of the National Park Service and ask if they've been included in discussion of our proposal. He knows about it, rehashes the basic concerns about money, priorities, and whether the Presidio is the best place. Woody reiterates commitment to do all the work, pay all the money, and provide the resources for proper interpretation with Park Service guidance.

January 22, 2003: Elena Anaya of the Presidio Trust leasing department shows us a warehouse, says we can use the space to store the shacks on a 6-month lease for $300 a month (later, we find she misquoted and the fee is really closer to $500). The doorway to the warehouse may be too narrow and right now it's full of other stuff, but we're hoping it will work.

Kirkham Shacks Main Page -- 2005 -- 2004 -- 2003 -- 2002

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