Many untruths have been uttered about the historic 78-year-old Cow Palace from people who know better — people the public should be able to trust. These untruths are reflected in Senate Bill 281 by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco — a land grab to destroy the Cow Palace Arena and Event Center disguised as an anti-gun bill. Wiener insults the unpaid board of directors and the Cow Palace management as being deaf to “decades of community concerns.” Such falsehoods emanate from elected officials who have never toured the Cow Palace or met with its CEO or directors. Wiener and cohort are ignorant of what they disparage.
The Cow Palace is a highly profitable regional community event center with money for repairs and improvements, no debt and a balance sheet containing over $4 million in cash. It hasn’t received state funding since 2008. If Wiener is able to sabotage the Cow Palace, one of his favorite nonprofits, the SF AIDS Foundation, will lack a San Francisco home at a venue singularly well-suited for staging to its huge AIDS/LifeCycle event involving thousands of vehicles, bicycles and riders.
SB 281 conveys the property to a new “Cow Palace Authority” comprised of one appointed by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, three by the Daly City Council, and three by San Francisco supervisors to address unspecified “long-standing community concerns” — words parroted by some local politicians and media lackeys but never discussed with the Cow Palace Board of Directors or management. Now those unsupportable allegations are serving their purpose: destroy the Cow Palace.
With constant media and political howling about lack of vacant land and sufficient housing, politicians look covetously at the Cow Palace’s 68 acres. Will these politicians try to grab other state and country fairgrounds? Small farms? You can bet on it.
Another Wiener fabrication is that the Cow Palace board has “ignored the local community’s requests” for mixed-use redevelopment. The truth: for years, the Board tried with Daly City and the adjoining land owner to effectuate residential and retail development on 25 acres. The economic collapse killed that partnership, but in today’s economy, negotiations have resumed and are promising.
Wiener’s lies target gun shows, which have occurred at the Cow Palace for 30-plus years with no adverse incidents. Wiener and some media claim local communities and lawmakers are “outraged” and have “pressured the Cow Palace Board for decades” to stop gun shows. This is a whopper. Where were all these outraged people for “decades” as the board met and gun shows were held? Not one written communication was ever received except in the past year from the peaceful Brady group. The board has explained it was bound legally by contract with the gun show promoter. As a state agency, the Cow Palace does not breach contracts. On April 9, the board voted not to renew the contract after it expires this December. If an entity displeases special interests, confiscation of the property is unjustified! Like most venues, the Cow Palace coordinates event bookings with market conditions and public interest. Family-oriented events are frequent. A recent reptile show was a hit. Salesforce’s crowd of 30,000, the National Football League’s “Taste of NFL,” Facebook’s major events, America’s best cheerleaders, champion Japanese wrestlers, hundreds of dog shows, flower shows, the annual Great Dickens Faire, and cannabis shows are large events attracting thousands of people from miles around. The annual Grand National Rodeo has been a namesake event since the 1940s.
In a major emergency, the Bay Area has no other property so well suited for emergency rescue and shelter. The Cow Palace contains vast paved acreage for helicopters and can shelter thousands of people in its arena and great exhibit halls. It possesses food service facilities, bathrooms, quarters for first responder and emergency personnel command centers, Internet throughout, and on-site cell towers. Pets, including horses, can be sheltered.
As amended, the bill requires Daly City, San Mateo County and San Francisco to pay state taxpayers market value for those 68 acres, probably more than $70 million from local property taxes. That may cause local taxpayers to tell Wiener to take his gun show abolition and run.
Quentin L. Kopp is a retired San Mateo County Superior Court judge and state senator who represented San Mateo and San Francisco from 1986 until 1998. His wife Mara Kopp is the board president of the Cow Palace and has served on the board for 15 years under three governors.
(10) comments
From my understanding the bill is going to be dropped. Too bad, the Governor needs to reappoint the board members who know what they're doing. SB281 directly attacked CP management pointing out the ineptness. Quentin Kopp's wife is the president of the board so I guess henpecking pays off. None of the people involved have a spine to do what is necessary to either make the place viable or bury it.
More evidence of the democrat party's obsessive compulsive disorder. They'd sacrifice a great and profitable California landmark in order to put a small dent in the founders' 2nd Amendment. Not only is this move a bad deal, gun control is a lopsided loser.
What you think is a landmark is a crumbling building. The gun shows will go somewhere that they're welcome. The lack of management and competent board members is what SB281 is really about. No responses for YEARS! Plus Quentin's wife is the president of the board. It's sounds like he doesn't want her at home.
Quentin, thanks for staying involved.
What baffles me about the proposed creation of the "Cow Palace Authority" is its makeup. Three representatives from SF, three from Daly City and one from San Mateo County. The last time I checked, the state-owned Cow Palace lies in the city limits of Daly City, which is located in San Mateo County. So why, under this bill, is SF being given three seats (votes) on the board? Obviously, to have a near majority influence in the decision-making regarding the fate of the Cow Palace. As a comparison, SFO is in San Mateo County and has impacted the north end of the County for decades, (i.e. noise, congestion, on-going construction) but the Airport Commission has no representatives from San Mateo County or the surrounding cities impacted by the airport. With that said, why should SF have three, or even one representative on the Cow Palace Authority?
Some of the The Cow Palace is in San Francisco County and my understanding San Francisco owns a small part of the land. I heard San Francisco will only have one seat. With the airport, don't forget all the sales taxes and building permits that goes into the county coffers. But San Mateo County should have some sort of representation at SFO, like with the Bay Area Water Supply & Conservation Agency.
In an article published in the SM Journal on April 15th, titled, "Cow Palace Legislation Scrutinized," the proposed Cow Palace Authority seven person board would reflect three representatives from Daly City, two from the County and two from SF. The article also points out, of the 68 acres at the Cow Palace, SF owns a mere 2 acres. Which, if my math is correct, is barely 3% of the total acreage. This entitles SF to two seats? Remember, the Cow Palace is not even in their county? Plus, the article mentions, Daly City is making noise about wanting more representation on the board. Which is reasonable, since SB 281 will impact their community. But, they suggest taking one of the seats from the county, not from SF ! What's wrong with that picture. (Are the Daly City officials more cozy with SF then with the county?) Bottom line, as Supervisor Horsley was quoted in the article, "I don’t believe that San Francisco supervisors should be making decisions in another county, in San Mateo County.” .... Darn right!
P.S. SFO is a cash cow for SF. They should be paying their fair share and more to the county's coffers.
Good post
Hey Quentin, I grew up next to the Cow Palace in the seventy's back when it was really used for its intended purpose. Today I still drive by on a weekly basis and it is a parking lot for new cars and all the so called family events you speak about are BS that place is falling apart and is only used by very small events and is a complete and total waste of land and it should be torn down and re purposed into something useful.
Absolutely! I worked there for 38 years and I watched current management drive it into the ground.
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