Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Treasure Island - Story 2


As I've mentioned before, I lived on Treasure Island, aka the "Island" from here on out. I absolutely loved living there - we had some insane times there. I know I've reminisced before, usually because of something that happened in the news that spurred memories.

Now there's this, an article about how Mayor Newsom is going to buy the Island from the Navy to build his dream "green" community there. Look at all that stuff!

Break it down now...
--A town center (we had the goose-poop-filled great lawn!)


--"Commerical" - [When we moved there in March of 2000, we had...um...Pak N Save in Emeryville! In 2002 or so, we had....um....the Job Corps store that did not sell alcohol or much of anything! Now they have a store up at the front where you can buy sushi (not sure why you would but you could)!]


--Three hotels! (Our apartment was basically a hotel. We threw a lot of parties. I remember one where I woke up the next morning and there were people sleeping on every inch of the floor. It was awesome.)


--A ferry terminal! (This is what I always dreamed of when we lived there. I mean, you come out and you can see the ferry building RIGHT there yet you had to go up the hill then risk your life by gunning it to try to get onto the bridge without getting killed because you had 10 feet to get up to speed. A ferry terminal. What a novel idea.)


--Hundreds of acres of parks! (Which means they'll need to raze all of the old buildings. Bowling alley - gone. Commissary - gone. Creepy day care - I think that's now a functioning day care. Brig - gone. Gym - gone. I need to get out there and take photos before it's all gone!)


--6000 homes! (Hope they're better than what we had. Been out there lately? The place is pretttty shabby.)


--The Navy is almost done cleaning up! [We were not allowed to plant in the ground because the ground was toxic (in our lease.) Also, many of the streets that were open when we lived there are now closed because of radiation. If I can't have babies, I'm suing. So much for a green community, huh?]

One additional comment: If there is a major earthquake, the Island will melt into the Bay. Yeah, that's right, it is highly susceptible to liquefaction. That was also in our lease. It's LANDFILL. Of course it is! Hello, 1906 all over again. If you don't believe me, check out this lovely map from the USGS. Yerba Buena = Rock. The Island = Built up sludge. How exactly are they going to deal with that slight issue?

All in all, I could have written up this plan 10 years ago and we'd be halfway done.

What a great place. I miss it.

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

hahah, great post! i sure get nostalgic for the place - and all the 'amenities' we had living there 10 yrs ago (10 years?! where did THAT go?!) if you go take photos, will you share online??

Wine Chick said...

I do too :) I actually do miss it very much. I had such a great time and it's so awesome to be a part of SF history :) I will definitely share the photos!

Gabe said...

oh TI, how i love thee!