San Francisco 'Too Cool' for Its Own Good

Is San Francisco too cool for it’s own good? That’s the question even the San Francisco Chronicle is asking, after the “Golden Gate City” has lost out on a few highly-lucrative bids and business dealings as of late, which could be the result of a “too-cool-for-school attitude.” 

“Most big cities are not going to look a gift horse in the mouth like San Francisco,” said Democratic strategist Nathan Ballard, who spoke to the Chronicle about the city’s attitude and approach to certain recent missed business opportunities. “There’s a powerful undercurrent of Nimby-ism in San Francisco,” he continued. “There’s a resistance to change that’s almost pathological.”

San Francisco last week lost their bid for the highly-anticipated George Lucas museum to Chicago (which means they lost hundreds of millions of dollars). “I’m sure [Chicago] Mayor Rahm Emanuel was giggling when he learned we rejected the museum the first time around,” Ballard said. 

Ballard was referring to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s proposal to Hollywood film tycoon George Lucas that he purchase or lease the prime, bayfront real estate site of SeaWall Lot 300 at market value (a 2012 report by sfgov.org reveals that the property is valued at approximately $33 million). Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel “offered its much larger lakefront site for $1 a year,” notes the Chronicle. 

Lucas spokesman David Perry said the Stars Wars director remained neutral in the battle between the two regions and was simply waiting to see which city would provide the best offer. 

Last month, organizers of America’s Cup–deemed the world’s leading offshore sailing race–decided to bypass San Francisco as their final destination and are instead considering San Diego, Chicago and Bermuda as potential places to drop anchor, notes the Chronicle.

To add insult to injury, the San Francisco 49ers will be playing their first game this summer in Santa Clara — not San Francisco — the new location of their team’s stadium as of last year, when San Francisco lost its franchise of the team which had been in their home city since 1946. 

With every loss there is a gain. The Golden State Warriors will reportedly be making San Francisco’s Mission District their new venue, and talks have been spurred about a possible name change, back to the original San Francisco Warriors moniker.  

The Chronicle notes that San Francisco tends to “take our sweet time…even when we profess to want something – like the Lucas museum,” which political consultant Alex Tourk cites as a “rigorous analysis that leads to paralysis.”

But “To be fair,” the Chronicle writes, “San Francisco is hosting the 2016 Super Bowl. Well, Santa Clara is hosting the football game and San Francisco is hosting a bunch of parties.” But “at least the tech geeks still love us, so there’s that,” the Chronicle notes.