Cothran

Aaron Peskin helped fight City College for more than a year to save the historic Colombo building from demolition. He may use "ciao" and "ta-ta" in everyday conversation, but he is serious as can be when it comes to preserving the character of North Beach. He and his fellow activists will watchdog every project. They will keep reminding city planners of the intellectual dishonesty of their position on the Bloomfield study. And who knows, Bloomfield's condition might improve, and she might ram an updated North Beach survey down the mayor's gob.

And -- who knows -- this kind of thing might be catching.
I hear some folks in the Sunset are already thinking of hiring their own historian and doing their own survey with some of the state money the city doesn't seem interested in. Imagine how hard it will be for the mayor's friends to make the maximum amount of money possible if every neighborhood follows the North Beach example. Heavens, those development-minded friends might actually, every now and then, be forced to respect the character and integrity of the city, as they get rich.

I guess the mayor's planning lackeys are correct. The North Beach preservation activists are dangerous radicals.

George Cothran (gcothran@sfweekly.com) can be reached at SF Weekly, 185 Berry, Suite 3800, San Francisco,