Taking Sides on City College
September 17, 2007
Political splits over Chinatown campus
Where do the Asian Pacific American education needs of new immigrants, tenants and the poor, fit in San Francisco’s progressive political priorities? That answer will come on September 27 when seven City College trustees vote to exempt plans for a Chinatown community college campus from local law limit of 65 feet, or about five stories high. … DO OR DIE: If five votes aren’t there, the project for 7,000 students is dead, said Friends of Educational Opportunities in Chinatown’s Vincent Pan. Pan wouldn’t speculate, but one scenario shows the five could be Rodel Rodis, Lawrence Wong, Anita Grier, Natalie Berg and, perhaps, Julio Ramos. However, as S.F. Tomorrow vice president Arthur Chang pointed out, Ramos, Milton Marks III and John Rizzo, could constitute the bloc to block. They constitute the so-called progressive “reform bloc” that has, for example, questioned Chancellor Phil Day’s management of the district. … LEFT AND LEFT OUT: Votes against exemption could put progressives Ramos and environmentalists Marks — a former director of Friends of the Urban Forest — and Rizzo of the Sierra Club at odds with progressive Friends’ supporters, like former state Deputy Superintendent Henry Der, emeritus U.C. professor Ling-Chi Wang, Chinese for Affirmative Action’s Vincent Pan, school board member Eric Mar and the Chinese Progressive Association. …
UPHILL BATTLE: If five votes aren’t there for exemption, then the project could be dead given a major battle at the seven-member powerful Planning Commission, which includes Chinese Historical Society of America’s director Sue Lee, S.F. airport tourism director Bill Lee, and Carey and Co. architect/Executive Hisashi Sugaya. Sue and Hisashi work blocks from the proposed campus, while Bill lives in the district. Even if a college campus could negotiate the minefield at the commission, it faces an uphill appeal to the progressive-liberal leaning San Francisco board of supervisors, where President Aaron Peskin, who represents North Beach/Chinatown, once crossed swords with City College over historic preservation of the neighboring Columbo Building. …
2008 REPERCUSSIONS: The campus debate has stimulated deep anger — with venom targeted at APA elected officials who opposed the 16-story option like state Senator Leland Yee. With Peskin terming out, that venom could be directed at the District 3 (North Beach/Chinatown) supervisor seat, which will be open next year for Planning Commissioner Bill Lee, but also for former Organization of Chinese Americans national director Claudine Cheng and CAA board member David Chiu. Chiu sided with Education Coalition for Responsible Development, which includes Yee and the Hilton Hotel, and is at odds with the Friends coalition, which is headquartered at CAA. …
RICHMOND FALLOUT: Outside of Chinatown, the vote could become also a litmus in the 2008 elections. Marks — scion of late state Sen. Milton Marks — is a prospective supervisor candidate in Nov. ’08 in the largely APA Richmond District 1, with incumbent and slow-growth advocate Jake McGoldrick termed out. That race could draw 16-story campus supporter/school board member Mar and Chinatown campus ESL teacher/California Democratic Party Vice Chair Alicia Wang, who is neutral on the campus (however, her husband Andrew Sun has been working for the Hilton Hotel). And don’t forget Planning Commissioner Sue Lee, whose name has been bandied about. …
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