Museum Quality

In cities such as Vancouver, with firm, unpoliticized guidelines, developers spend a lot less money on politics and lobbying, and a lot more money complying with design requirements and providing public amenities required by city rules.

There's an argument to be made that an outsider might best reform this dysfunctional local culture. I called Allan Jacobs, who in 1966 resigned his associate professorship in planning at the University of Pennsylvania to become planning director of San Francisco. His years on the job -- 1967 to 1975 -- are recalled by some as halcyon days of San Francisco urbanization; Jacobs developed a new, comprehensive plan for the city, emphasizing public access to the waterfront, design guidelines for downtown development, and revitalization of neighborhood design citywide. I figured he'd know all the difficulties of planning in politics-heavy S.F.

"They should be looking at a guy or a woman who knows urban design, and who is a top professional, and who knows how to communicate what professional stuff is, not political stuff. I'm not sure that's been the case. One gets a damned strong sense that for the last eight years, we've done what the mayor wants. That's a crazy-assed way to go. It's as if you're a doctor, and the mayor comes to you with cancer, and you're supposed to say, 'The mayor doesn't have cancer,'" Jacobs said. "There is such a thing as what is a good city planner. Beasley has an incredible track record. Sure, he's an outsider. But when they brought me here, I was from the outside. I didn't know diddly shit about San Francisco."

Beasley would have a steep learning curve. If he were to accomplish anything, he would have to gain a commitment from Newsom that the Mayor's Office would back a move from politicized planning decisions to firm, policy-based standards aimed at helping make San Francisco a beautiful, walkable, amenity-rich city.

"It seems to me that the last few years, given the nature of development, San Francisco has been rapidly on its way to being a second-class city," groused Jacobs.

I wouldn't go that far. But as the fabulous de Young Museum and the fundamentally flawed garage slated to accompany it in Golden Gate Park illustrate, the best of San Francisco could be better.