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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| SF gives the Iowa heave-ho |
| 2006-03-10 |
| Surprise, surprise, surprise... In the two years since the USS Midway found a permanent dock in San Diego Harbor, it has become a major tourist attraction. Nearly 900,000 people boarded the aircraft carrier in its first year of operation, rejuvenating shops and restaurants on the waterfront. The ship is booked years in advance for functions at up to $30,000 a pop. Now the Navy has another ship it wants to bestow on a West Coast port: the big World War II battleship USS Iowa. But the ship has run into rough sailing and a harsh political headwind in the city the Navy thought would be an ideal home: San Francisco. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to spurn the ship. Supervisors who oppose the offer say they don’t want a ship from a military in which openly gay men and women cannot serve. They also say they don’t want it because they oppose the Iraq war, which city voters condemned in a 2004 ballot question. What is we painted it pink and made it a homeless shelter? Nah, nevermind... “I don’t think the climate has improved for tying a 10-story warship, or gun, to the waterfront,” Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval says. Ooooooooooh...icky guns! Veterans in the former Navy town are saying enough is enough. “It’s outrageous, even for San Francisco,” Ingrid Sarembe, a Vietnam War-era vet and commander of an American Legion post in the city, says of the opposition to the Iowa. “And we have some pretty outrageous things going on here.” So we've heard... U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former mayor of San Francisco, had pushed for her city to welcome the ship and to create a museum that would attract and educate tourists — but a challenger has emerged. Stockton, a farm hub in California’s Central Valley, is putting together a bid to place the Iowa at its freshwater port up the San Joaquin River from San Francisco Bay. Richard Aschieris, director of the Port of Stockton, says the port has put together a donation of facilities worth more than $33 million, including a 1,000-foot-long berth, a building for a museum and 15 acres of parking on a site where the Navy once had supply and communication centers for the Pacific Fleet. Hey, someplace normal will take it and the money it brings in... |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #20 Thought just occurred about whether or not SF will be willing to accept help from the "homophobic" military after their next big quake. The rest of California would just like to see all of SF sink into the bay. Especially if Feinstein and Boxer went down with the rest of the human flotsam. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-03-10 22:41 |
| #19 Wonder if the Village People could plead the case? |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-03-10 22:38 |
| #18 maybe if the Supervisors saw that they were breech-loaded? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-03-10 21:55 |
| #17 I'm sorry but I'm still holding out for a return visit by the BB's to Korea. Tomahawks and 16 inch shells. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-03-10 21:16 |
| #16 shouldnt SF want to honor the fact that many gay actually have served in the USN, openly or not? Ah yes, I can see it now; the title of the documentary: I took one for the team... |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-03-10 21:16 |
| #15 Be fun to watch the Navy float Iowa into SF Bay and aim the big guns on city hall.... |
| Posted by: john 2006-03-10 20:33 |
| #14 The Iowa ahould not be humiliated and forced to go to SF. It is a great ship with great history and the gay, anti war, PC idiots would only use it as an example of how mean and bad DOD is. The ship and the men who served on it deserve more respect. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2006-03-10 20:25 |
| #13 Thanks AP - the Midway keeps getting better with more areas opened up for touring and more planes on the deck for exhibit. Pretty impressive that Stockton wants it - let them have it and send fleet week away from SF - gay PC pussies triumph over history and gratitude |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-03-10 19:54 |
| #12 fuck you SF and pink tank ya rode in on. |
| Posted by: RD 2006-03-10 19:29 |
| #11 Send the Iowa home to Davenport. Time to improve the inland waterway system. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-03-10 19:26 |
| #10 Hell, I don't see why New York couldn't have accepted! :D |
| Posted by: Whumble Whater5278 2006-03-10 19:15 |
| #9 Is there any way to relocate ships currently in San Franscisco area to more accomodating areas? I'm sure we could take all the Bay Area tourist ships to somewhere more welcoming! |
| Posted by: Charles 2006-03-10 18:45 |
| #8 San FUcisco, home of the druggies, trannies, queers, and whinos does not want the Iowa to dock there. Say, is SF closer to Kimmie nukes than most cities in US? Just asking |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-03-10 17:41 |
| #7 Oakland or Alameda (both across the bay) may have been contenders; Alameda already has the Hornet. They don't do much to promote it though. A pity. SF has the dock space, and they have no use for it. |
| Posted by: buwaya 2006-03-10 16:57 |
| #6 I wonder if they'll feel the same way about the big bad evil military when the BIG earthquake finally hits and the military's the only organization in a position to do something about it? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-03-10 16:54 |
| #5 shouldnt SF want to honor the fact that many gay actually have served in the USN, openly or not? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2006-03-10 16:35 |
| #4 Stockton, a farm hub in CaliforniaÂ’s Central Valley, is putting together a bid to place the Iowa at its freshwater port up the San Joaquin River from San Francisco Bay. Yes, and when LuciferÂ’s Hammer strikes, Stockton will have their ark ready. |
| Posted by: Elmasing Speting4453 2006-03-10 15:54 |
| #3 I'm shocked. I would have thought the San Francisco Supers would have been all tingly to have 9 of the world's biggest phallic symbols on public display. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-03-10 15:50 |
| #2 Put the Iowa in San Diego, next to the Midway. Frank G gave me the tip about the Midway when I was down there. Great ship to tour through. San Fran Freako used to be a great navy town, with a great history and tradition. Not any more. The USS Iowa ought to fire a few farewell 16" salvos on the way out of the Golden Gate. Blanks or live rounds their option. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK 2006-03-10 15:32 |
| #1 Hum -- wonder if the Navy is considering cancelling a tourist, money making event in October? Fleet Week. Would be more dollars they will lose. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2006-03-10 15:27 |