AsianWeek » Chinatown Campus Overcomes Three Hurdles: Legal and finance obstacles loom ahead

Chinatown Campus Overcomes Three Hurdles: Legal and finance obstacles loom ahead

By: Samson Wong, Oct 28, 2007

Tags: Bay Area |

SAN FRANCISCO — A proposed Chinatown community college campus won a major victory as College Board members supported two two-building plans after a seven-hour, standing room only marathon meeting that lasted until 1:30 a.m. last Friday.
By a 6-to-1 vote, trustees supported two plans: 14-story and 4-story buildings, and 13-story and 5-story structures. The latter plan could depend on City College of San Francisco successfully renegotiating a legal settlement , with preservationists supporting the adjacent Columbo Building at Columbus and Washington streets. The settlement prohibits the shorter building from exceeding 85 feet. The taller building would stand at Kearny and Washington streets.
The two-building plans are compromises aimed to suit critics of the original proposal for a 16-story building.
Asian American trustees Lawrence Wong and Rodel Rodis, along with Natalie Berg, Anita Grier, Milton Marks and Julio Ramos, supported the amended resolution. John Rizzo, trying to broker a compromise, opposed the measure and argued that the district did not answer his questions about the environmental impact report and designs.
Two prior crucial votes cleared the path for the two plans – approval of the draft environmental impact report and exemption of the state-sponsored development from local planning codes. The exemption passed 7-0, while environmental impact report approval won 6-1, with trustee Milton Marks opposing. Marks complained it was “pretty offensive” that he was presented with the three resolutions three nights earlier, without room for trustee input or changes.
What looms ahead are legal challenges and $15 to 16 million more than the $122 million budgeted for a campus serving more than 6,000 mostly immigrant students, which is expected to open in 2010.

THE CHINATOWN CAMPUS DEBATE

“Thank the Hilton Hotel … to really put a fire under the hearts and minds of my community. … The icons of the Chinese American, Filipino American community – they are all in this room. … In the history of the Chinese American community, this is a revolution.”
— Lawrence Wong, college trustee

“I hope that when you go through the implementation phase, that by going a floor lower you save $3 or $4 million. … The Hilton was not the cause of this 30-year delay. … We didn’t buy a lot that had … contaminants on it. We didn’t put out a plan in 2003 that went nowhere. … This and other reasons are why there are cost overruns.”
— Michael Yaki, attorney representing the Hilton Hotel

“I support the decision of the elected college trustees. … I am committed to securing state funds to ensure the campus is built on time and on budget.”
— Assemblywoman Fiona Ma

“Look at this [Filbert Street campus]. Is this worth $500,000 per year? That’s how much we’re paying the Unified School District [for a building] that’s crumbling all over the place, that’s substandard.”
— Rodel Rodis, trustee

“There are real concerns … about expansion of downtown into communities [like Chinatown], with primarily low to mid-rise communities. … The EIR is lacking in recognition of serious land-use impacts.”
— Milton Marks III, trustee

“Several people have kept coming up here complaining about the meeting location and [that it is] small … uncomfortable. If these people cannot tolerate this building, what do you think our students feel like every day of the week?”
— Natalie Berg, trustee

“We’re probably going to litigate this issue. [But] I believe the district will win [in the public interest].”
— Julio Ramos, trustee

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LEADER OF CHINESE ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY
AND TOP LIEUTENANT CONVICTED OF
TWO NARCOTICS-RELATED MURDERS

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that SUI MIN MA, a/k/a “Frank Ma,” the leader of a Chinese organized crime group, and BING YI CHEN, a/k/a “Ah Ngai,” were both convicted in Manhattan federal court of murdering two individuals in Toronto, Canada on July 20, 1994 in connection with their heroin trafficking activities. MA pleaded guilty to the charges on September 20, 2007, four days before the trial was set to begin. Today, CHEN was found guilty by a jury of two counts of murder. According to the Indictment, the evidence at trial, and statements made during MA’s guilty plea:

MA was the “dai lo,” or leader, of a criminal enterprise — alleged as the “Frank Ma Organization” — that was engaged throughout most of the 1990s in heroin trafficking, the export of stolen vehicles to China, the robbery of computer chip manufacturers, illegal gambling, and alien smuggling. The Frank Ma Organization committed five murders and one attempted murder in furtherance of its criminal activities. Although the Frank Ma Organization had connections in Hong Kong and China, it operated principally in New York and California.

From 1991 through 1996, MA, CHEN, and their associates were engaged in the importation of large, wholesale quantities of heroin worth millions of dollars from Asia into the United States for distribution in New York City and other locations. Around the summer of 1994, MA’s principal heroin supplier in Hong Kong called MA and asked him to kill his drug partner in Toronto, Canada. MA agreed to arrange the murder as a favor for the supplier and to strengthen their lucrative criminal partnership. As a result, MA summoned several of his followers from Southern California to New York City, briefed them on their mission, provided them with a photograph of and addresses for the intended victim, and then dispatched the hit team to Toronto to carry out the killing.

MA gave CHEN the task of preparing the hit team for the murders. CHEN, a lieutenant in the criminal organization and one of MA’s longest-serving followers, traveled to Canada with the leader of the hit team to scout out where the intended victim lived and worked; went with the leader of the hit team to obtain guns for the murder; attempted to smuggle those guns across the Canadian border; and picked up members of the hit team from the airport, giving each of them $2000 for their trip.

On July 20, 1994, two members of MA’s hit team shot their way into a business office where the intended victim was supposed to be, and killed KWAN KIN MING and YIP PAK YIN, two office workers. Neither MING nor YIN were the intended victim or were involved in narcotics trafficking.

MA and CHEN both face a maximum term of imprisonment of life and a mandatory minimum of 20 years’ imprisonment on each of the two murder charges. Sentencing is presently scheduled for January 2008.

The convictions of MA and CHEN were the result of ten years of investigative work into the MA organization, which has, to date, resulted in 13 convictions.

Mr. GARCIA praised the efforts of the FBI’s Asian Organized Crime Task Force, comprised of Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Detectives of the New York City Police Department, for their work on the investigation. Mr. GARCIA also praised the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a Toronto-based Asian Organized Crime Task Force, and the Toronto Police Service, for the vital and ongoing assistance they have provided in the investigation.

Assistant United States Attorneys W.S. WILSON LEUNG, JONATHAN B. NEW, and MICHAEL M. ROSENSAFT are in charge of the prosecution

–Sara Oates on Oct 30, 2007

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