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The sound of silence - a view from the stage just before the venue was fenced off.
Well, as expected, the beautiful and beloved bandshell in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Panhandle has been scheduled for destruction this weekend. Anybody hoping for a dramatic Vegas-style implosion ala the Geneva Towers will be disappointed as the thing will be carefully dismantled in hopes of future use.
Where can it be placed in the future? What can you do to help, maybe this weekend, you busy? Who killed off this little project that received national attention? What did the cops think about it - did they object? See you after the jump.
Many of the shell's neighbors have come by to pay their last respects.
First off, head on over to the website and check it out. Do you have a good idea for a new place it could go next spring? Email them at info {at} panhandlebandshell {dot} com.
Can you help take the thing down? That's scheduled for the weekend, September 15th and 16th, 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM. If you're interested in helping out, email them at volunteer {at} panhandlebandshell {dot} com, or just drop by the site.
Dusting the body for fingerprints didn't prove useful. Is there another way to find "the real killer"?
The basic reason why it's coming down is outlined here. That was the original deal and the powers that be decided to stick with that deal. The record indicates that at least ten people didn't like the idea based upon their fears of all the problems it might create.
In their own words:
1. Ernestine Weiss stated that people had suggested Sharon Meadow as a better location for this project so it wouldn’t disturb neighbors on the rim of the proposed site. She asked that the Commission rethink this location.
2. Mary Helen Briscoe representing the Panhandle Residents Organization Stanyan/Fulton stated that they care deeply about the park. Since the project started in February and without any input from the organization, she felt that it had been imposed upon them. As of today there were still many people who had not been notified. She stated that the organization supported art but not performance art.
3. Dr. Wayne Lanier stated that he lives less than 300 feet from the proposed site. He noted that there had been complaints about drumming and gas powered amplifiers in the exact area where the bandshell was being proposed. He did not believe that the sponsors had addressed the issue of night drummers and illegal bands.
4. Christine Elbel, who lives one and half blocks north of the Panhandle, spoke against the project in the Panhandle. She believed that the proposal was misguided and potentially harmful to the neighborhood. The sponsors did not convene neighborhood meetings, did not distribute information flyers to all neighbors within a two to three block radius and only sought neighborhood association endorsement from a group whose boundaries don’t include the proposed site.
5. Howard Chabner stated that he and has wife have lived on Fell Street for over 18 years. They were very concerned that this would become a magnet for homeless encampments and drug use at night, and increased traffic, garbage, parking problems, noise and graffiti. He also stated that there was no wheelchair accessible path of travel to the proposed site from Clayton Street on the north side of the Panhandle.
6. Doerte Murray opposed the project due to noise. She reminded the Commission that the Department promised them about two years ago that there would be no more entertainment in the Panhandle because of its close proximity to residential neighborhoods.
7. Kathleen Fung property owner and resident on Fell Street stated that she agreed with Mr. Chabner and many other people in the neighborhood who had voiced their opposition to this project. Her main concern was that there were so many neighbors who were against this site. She was also concerned about graffiti and the removal of graffiti.
8. Angele Rice, a resident of Fell near Clayton, also spoke in opposition to this item. She reiterated what others had said in that neighbors who would be directly effected by this were not notified or part of the planning. She felt that building it was not bad, but that the location wasn’t good.
9. Karen Crommie resident of the Haight, stated that she belonged to four groups in the Haight Ashbury and not one had this brought to their meeting. She strongly urged the Commission not to pass this.
10. Linda Banovac a resident on Fell Street directly across from the proposed site, noted that the testimony today was on art, but this is performance art which was entirely different. She also stated her concerns about homelessness and drug use.
Public Notice to Neighbors
At a May meeting of the Recreation and Park Commission
which discussed the installation of a temporary bandshell
to be built of recycled materials in the Panhandle of Golden
Gate Park, commissioners voted unanimously to approve.
Those testifying against the project live directly adjacent to
the project or in close proximity and were concerned with
noise and after-hours misuse. More serious, however, were
their concerns about lack of notification or consultation
with residents who will be closely affected by the project.
What was notably and shamefully missing in the commissioners’
evaluation was any consideration of the fact that
proper notice of this project was not given to the community
most affected. Their very quick and unanimous decision
even suggested that they had made their decision before the
hearing.
It is the responsibility of City agencies to make sure that all
projects planned for residential areas involve residents in
planning stages and include proper notification.
The following resolution brougnt by the Panhandle Residents
Organization Stanyan Fulton holds City agencies
responsible for seeing that City projects are not imposed on
residents impacted by projects without timely notice and
opportunity for citizen involvement.
...Mary Helen Briscoe (PROSF)
Was there a lot of drumming, amplified music, noise and graffiti in real life? Nope. Did homeless people hang out around it when it wasn't being used? Yep. Would they be around anyway? That's the question.
What did the cops think? Did they object? Not that we can see.
"The Panhandle Band Shell was opened Saturday 6/23/07 at noon. A great turnout welcomed this resource to the community".
What about neighborhood groups? At least one objected. Hard to find its website. What about the others, did they support this band shell in the Panhandle?
North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association Yep.
The Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Yep.
The Haight Ashbury Improvement Association Yep.
The Neighborhood Parks Council Yep.
The Arts Commission, Mayor Gavin Newsom? Yep and yep.
It seems a shame that we're losing the little project, the one that all the tourists loved. The one that that most of neighbors loved or liked or didn't care about, anyway. Thanks go out to the Finch Mob, REBAR art collective, Christopher Guillard of CMG Landscape Architecture, ScrapEden SF Program, the SF Department of the Environment, and the Black Rock Arts Foundation.
Godspeed little bandshell. Hope you find a home.
Were these urban campers somehow attracted to the bandshell (despite the fact that it's fenced off now)? Will they all disappear when the shell is gone? That's what some people seem to think.
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This is the tyranny of the minority and it happens way too much in not just San Francisco -- but the entire country. We've taken the american natural distrust for others and blown it up into something so completely ridiculous that gridlock is the only option from here on out. It's so depressing.
The good news is that they are going to reuse it. Maybe some less provincial town will actually welcome it.
I fail to see how sticking to the terms of the original permit constitutes the project being "killed off". It's pretty clear that the extension of the permit was "killed off" - not the bandshell itself. It's too bad that you have to focus on this negative aftershow instead of celebrating the shell in itself - you could have run a post on how it was built, how many volvos gave their hoods up for art, and where it might go up next summer, but instead we're getting this recounting of neighborhood complaints and conspiracy theories.
When the giant purple head leaves GG Park in November, replace it with the bandshell.
"urban campers"
Is that what we're calling those ass holes now?
Sounds like typical san francisco politics...if a small (10 out of how many live in the area?) number of folks object to something, the plug is pulled. It doesn't seem to matter that
If it still needs a home in the year 2014, maybe we can make space for it at the City Park on top of the new Transbay Transit Center (assuming the Pelli design recommendation is chosen by the TJPA Board next Thursday and the building progresses as planned). I'd love to have that bandshell in my neighborhood.
You can kill anything in this town. It's trivially simple. Getting anything built, even something nice, well, forget it.
Ernestine Weiss doesn't live anywhere near the panhandle. She's an activist from district 3.
I thought all the Black Rock Arts whatever group projects were intended to be temporary (#4 mentioned the purple head above). I'm a neighbor and was initially skeptical (the bandshell pointed directly at my bedroom window) but decided to wait and see, and it was great having it there.
It was nice having mostly small groups gathered on the grass each weekend with the weather so nice, and the sounds that wafted into my apartment were mostly nice, unamplified music. The only amplified sound was from microphones I think from spoken word performances on opening weekend; that was annoying, but it never happened again.
As far as use by the homeless, there was a guy who slept under a shopping cart the whole summer next to a tree 100 yards from the bandshell. He didn't use it and he would have been there regardless. The major, constant disruptions come from the street kids who have 40oz happy hour every afternoon on the benches with their dogs barking. Thankfully, they usually skulk off around sundown.
It's too bad the bandshell is coming down. Hopefully it'll be back next summer.
Tell us more about this Weiss character
I actually sympathize with the neighbors who objected to it. I can't personally vouch that any night drumming took place, but if it happens once, that's one too many times in what is a largely residential neighborhood. Folks who live around the park have enough of the city's problems to contend with without adding another attraction for drummers, junkies, and homeless people.
I live on the Panhandle, less than a block down from the bandshell and received several notices from neighborhood NIMBY's before and after they built this thing, calling for residents to oppose it because it would supposedly generate too much noise and attract too many gutter punks. It did neither of these things. I was barely able to hear any noise from the bandshell while standing outside my building when shows were going on and certainly couldn't hear anything from inside my flat. As far as the gutter punks are concerned - there's a finite number of these kids wandering about and they already congregated in the Panhandle long before the bandhsell was put up. I didn't perceive any increase in their numbers with the bandshell. On the contrary, it provided a much welcomed bit of culture in a neighborhood sorely lacking in it. If neighborhood NIMBY's are so concerned with gutter punks converging on the Panhandle/Upper Haight, maybe they should focus more attention on gentrifying Haight Street and stamping out the last vestiges of their 1960's Summer of Love crap as represented by the overabundance of headshops and hippie freelove T-shirt shops up and down the street. Those kids, not to mention the tourists, are drawn to this neighborhood because of its history and reputation, not because someone deigns to construct something new and interesting in the Panhandle.
Actually, this could be sort of a roving landmark. Why not set it up in a different neighborhood each summer? Then you could test some of these hypotheses about who it attracts, for better or worse.
Someone called it tyranny of the minority - it's beginning to feel more like tyranny of the lameass burners. Or tyranny of the news starved local bloggers?
You say at least 10 people didn't like it, obscuring the fact that one of those people represents the local residents organization.
I heard the whole project was an effort by soma live/work trust fund losers to colonize the panhandle.
Guest[15] -- You are assuming that the "neighborhood" associations represent the entire neighborhood. I have a friend who was told her opinion didn't count for much because she was a renter. I live in this area and the neighborhood associations who approved of the project are the only ones I've heard of. We really need to think hard about the suburbanization of our city.
For a small neighborhood there are a surprising number of neighborhood associations. I think they can be brought into existence pretty quickly when someone wants to object to something.
Guest 16 is correct. There are a lot of neighborhood associations. The one in question, PROSF, is mainly famous for opposing anything that moves, and sending out vast quantities of emails (mainly Kimo Crossman's enormous public records requests).
NOPNA, another association in the same area, is far more reasonable. They of course supported the bandshell.
Moving it to one of the housing projects and set it up for public executions.
I live North of the Panhandle and was excited about the bandshell. We went to the opening and our kids had a good time watching some performers and the "Bubble Man". As far as I can tell that is when the magic ended. We regularly checked the schedule of performers and twice packed up our family for a picnic in front of the bandshell. Both times--nada. No one showed. It was a cool shell. It wasn't a band shell.
To correct your facts, the Neighborhood Parks Council was one of the largest proponents of the Bandshell and if you look at the public record from the above cited Rec and Park Commission hearing TWO Neighborhood Parks Council Staff spoke in favor of the Bandshell.