I've resisted jumping into this off-topic banter about Chris Daly, but I want to make a few points, both on and off-topic:
- The design of Trinity Plaza, after years of delay, much of it facilitated by Daly (and even more by McGoldrick), is approved. It isn't going to change now unless the developer requests a change (which he'd be a fool to do since that would reopen all the negotiations) in his entitlements.
- Daly doesn't really support development per say anywhere, nor does he oppose it, much as Tony Soprano didn't support or oppose trash collection. He uses it as a source of funds for his own purposes, political and other. Any developer willing to pay his price can get his support, but the value of that support is dubious as Angelo Sangiacomo found out once he had paid it--Daly then stopped opposing Trinity Plaza, but when McGoldrick popped up with more objections, Daly didn't really fight for it either. Having got what he wanted, he let others try to get what they wanted. And the welfare of his district be d*mned.
- Daly has said he does not oppose height at the TransBay Terminal
per se but he will oppose whatever is proposed if his price--lots of affordable housing, plenty of lucre for his housing-whore allies--is not paid. He can't really make demands yet since there is no firm proposal yet, but we can be sure that he will if he's still on the Board or otherwise in a position to do so.
- The biggest reason I hate Daly is none of the above. I hate him because he has essentially blocked the redevelopment of Mid-Market Street by blocking it from becoming a Redevelopment Area. Citizens groups and others interested in the city's future have proposed all sorts of projects to turn the area into an arts and entertainment district, which, of course, Market St. once was, and to revive it, including building housing like Trinity Plaza but not limited to that:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&sn=002&sc=936 Daly has said, "No", not until his price is paid. As the Business Times quoted him, "the city's controversial Mid-Market plan continues to be stalled, and Supervisor Chris Daly, whose district includes Mid-Market, said it (the mid-Market Plan) is dead unless more affordable housing and other community benefits are added":
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...26/focus2.html And so this important area of the city deteriorates, looking, as I've pointed out elsewhere, worse and worse by the month.