Initiative would transform Alcatraz from prison to peace center

[WhiteTara]

Source: mercurynews.com

SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco voters were weighing in on the future of the Rock with a proposal that the city take control of Alcatraz, raze its notorious prison and erect a global peace center of mystical proportions.

Proposition C, going before city voters Tuesday, was not legally binding and did not identify where the money would come from for the city to take over the island, now in federal hands.



Alcatraz gets about 1.4 million visitors a year, most of them drawn by the old federal penitentiary. It also is the site of a civil war fortress, a military prison and is known for a 19-month American Indian occupation in 1969-71 that is considered a key moment in American Indian activism.

Mill Valley resident Da Vid, the man behind the measure, said a museum could commemorate the island's history. A peace center would be a better and more uplifting attraction than a grim, crumbling prison, he said.

By converting the island, "a place of pain and suffering," into a "JEWEL OF LIGHT," said a Web site promoting the center, "We will activate Powerful Forces for Cooperation, Reconciliation & Healing."

Read more: http://origin.mercurynews.com/news/ci_8176301?nclick_check=1

[TomInTib]

1. Good. The Alcatraz Tourists drive me nuts.

They walk into my Gallery with those dumbass sweatshirts on, I don't even acknowledge them.

What a perfect proposal.

The Feds have let Alcatraz pretty much rust and erode away, anyway.

[Book Lover]

3. Not even when they try to hand you money for a purchase?

I think this is one of the dumber proposals on the ballot. The proposer doesn't live in the county, SF doesn't control the island, and the jail empties tourists' wallets. If he wants to set up a peace center so badly, why not try to get Marin County to wrest land from the fed's hands? They certainly have a wealthier tax base anyway.

[TomInTib]

4. They never buy a thing.

But their grubby kids get ice cream on 300 year-old carvings, Tibetan Prayer Books and the like.

You're right, we ought to put it on Angel Island. But the Chinese have taken control of Angel Island.

[Deny and Shred]

5. Hate to tell you Tom, but..

the Peace Center tourists will probably drive you nuts, too. In fact, recasting it as a peace center may well bring back many of the same tourists.

[fed-up]

2. I remember getting bleach bottles from neighbors to bring water to occupiers in 1970

Only one neighbor declined. I was about 10 years old at the time.

I remember our last trip there and after getting off my dad's friend's boat we went to the small office near the dock. The floor was spattered with blood. There was no one around. We finally found a few people to talk to but I don't recall what the problem was, something about somebody being shot. I do know it was our last trip. On a few of the trips we brought some of the occupiers back to SF so they could get other supplies.

I have vivid memories of the red painted signs and the makeshift homes inside the outdoor cells.

http://siouxme.com/lodge/alcatraz_np.html

http://www.pbs.org/itvs/alcatrazisnotanisland/occupation.html

http://www.ipoaa.com/images/alcatraz/alcatraz_photo_gallery1.htm

[krkaufman]

6. Hey, if it's high enough above sea level ...

... how about making it a combination peace and climate change center? The two are going to be inextricably intertwined as climate change wreaks havoc on food supplies and low elevation population centers.

[roody]

7. k

[slackmaster]

8. Another empty symbolic gesture from the City by the Bay

Alcatraz belongs to the people of the USA. ALL of us.

[XemaSab]

10. Exactly

You just can't take over park service land and reappropriate it for some other use. :shrug:

[RexDart]

9. Well, so much for that...

Proposition C
580/580 100.00%
Vote Count Percent
NO 139,156 72.01%
YES 54,099 27.99%
Total 193,255 100.00%

I wish I lived in San Francisco, so I could have voted against this. I also wish that I lived in San Francisco so my wife would stop about how much she wished she lived in San Francisco...

[Book Lover]

11. Eskimo Spy?

Am I thinking of the wrong Rex Dart?

[knight_of_the_star]

12. I did vote against it

Waste of the city's money and the money of the people of the city.