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The big construction fire in Mission Bay brought to mind how hard the downtown real estate interests and the town's "progressives" fought to keep that once-empty rail yard from becoming a vital part of the city.

Mission Bay was one of the longest-running development fights ever. The downtown office-building owners like Walter Shorenstein didn't want competition from new buildings South of Market, and the progressives up on Potrero Hill didn't want high-rises spoiling their views.

For years the project languished in the political and planning morass of ballot fights, environmental objections and traffic studies, all over whether it was just too big and would change the face of the city.

Sound familiar?

The break in the logjam came when we got UCSF, which was looking to build a new campus in either Alameda or Brisbane, to join the project. We gave them 43 acres. Then we got then-Gov. Gray Davis to agree that one of the science buildings UC was planning to build around the state would go in as well.

Then we pumped up the fact that the biggest shareholder in Catellus, the project's developer, was the state workers retirement fund. Suddenly, what had been attacked as a sweetheart development deal became a do-good public project.

You didn't need a budget analyst's report to confirm that after 10 years, San Francisco's $165 million-a-year homeless program hasn't changed things much.

One walk around Union Square at night, or along Mission Street between First and Main, will show you the problem is as bad as ever.

Some of those folks have been sleeping in the same spot for so long, they're registered to vote there.

But as bad as they look, the downtown sleepers are some of the most peaceful and polite people you will find in the city.

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Mission Bay fire brings long development fight to mind

The All Progressives Congress recently held its inaugural national summit and unveiled a draft code of ethics/manifesto, which may serve as a new beginning for opposition politics in the country, writes JOHN ALECHENU

The opposition All Progressives Congress recently stirred up a controversy when it announced the findings of an opinion poll, conducted on its behalf by KA Research Limited, a privately owned international campaign strategist/research company, based in Brussels, Belgium, as well as Istanbul, Turkey.

Its revelation that the poll scored the President Goodluck Jonathan-administration low on key indices of governance led to a war of words between the opposition and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. Apart from knocks on the Jonathan administration, the poll revealed areas of APCs strengths and weaknesses. The document also exposed the party to what members of the public think about its activities. The polls results also highlight what Nigerians desire most from the government on a scale of preference.

APCs Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who presented the key findings of the opinion polls to the media, described the report as an eyeopener.

He said, The APC candidate held a 10-point lead over the President. By a margin of 44 per cent to 34 per cent (with 22 per cent undecided), the APC candidate was the clear national choice. When asked, In general, do you think things in Nigeria are going in a good direction or bad direction, Nigerians responded that the country was going in a bad direction by more than two-to-one margin (50%-24%).

When asked, What issue would you like the President and National Assembly to focus on most, an overwhelming majority (60%) identified job creation as the dominant issue that the government should address.

When the respondents were asked if Goodluck Jonathan has done nothing to create jobs, and far too many people are still unemployed, decisively, 58 per cent of Nigerians found the position about Jonathan convincing.

The poll revealed that 59 per cent of Nigerians believed Jonathan was doing a bad job in the fight against corruption.

The ruling PDP has since dismissed the contents of the report, describing the outcome of the polls as a prejudiced piece of document, prepared to massage the egos of opposition leaders.

However, what appeared lost in the maze of the debate was the real reason why the APC engaged consultants for this assignment. The party tried to explain that it engaged (foreign) consultants, to improve its electoral fortunes. To achieve this objective, it realised that the old way of doing things would no longer suffice, hence the resort to seeking expert advice.

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APC and road map for a new Nigeria

Interim National Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has expressed worries over what it called avoidable deficiencies in the handling of the ongoing voter registration in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

It described the exercise as shoddy, noting that it was a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise the people of the state from participating in the June 21 governorship election.

The party, in a release signed by the Director of Publicity and Media of the party in the state, Segun Dipe, noted that the shortcomings observed in the handling of the registration exercise in most of the designated centres showed lack of adequate preparation by INEC.

The APC noted that it was a deliberate attempt to short-change the people, stressing that the outcry was based on the facts on the ground.

The APC also blamed INEC for the use of obsolete equipment and inadequacy of staff and materials, noting that the current happenings ran contrary to INECs promise to get it right with the Ekiti governorship election.

The statement reads in part, This is not about one party; it is about a people who want INEC to conduct a credible election for them to have a democratically elected governor in the saddle. It is about a people who do not want to relive their past experience. And it is about a people who do not want to be short-changed by anyone. They deserve to be duly registered without hiccups. They should be encouraged, not discouraged.

The use of faulty or obsolete systems was noticed right from the first day of the exercise in some of the designated centres, where data collected could not be stored in the systems and thus got wiped off immediately. It is, therefore, possible that those whose registration have been concluded and issued the temporary cards may still have their names missing from INECs list. This is likened to the Anambra experience, where the names of those that began with alphabets O-Z could not be found.

Another show of shame is the noticeable skill deficiency displayed by the so called INEC officials. We observed that they most times fidget with the equipment, without readily knowing what to press or how to manipulate them. They even vent their frustration on the innocent citizens. Most times, they would ask impending registrants to wait for hours before they could be registered, if at all. The result of such endless wait is impatience and agitation.

Meanwhile, some politicians in Ikole-Ekiti on Thursday embarked on house-to-house sensitisation of residents, as the continuous voter registration entered its second day.

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Ekiti: APC knocks INEC for poor voter registration

The Progressive Party was a factor in the presidential campaigns of three men Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follette, and Henry Wallace. There were a few Progressive Party organizations spanning this period of time but after the 1952 elections, they disappeared entirely.

Its first incarnation came in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt led progressive elements out of the Republican Party. Roosevelt had made no secret of his low opinion of President William H. Taft and felt he could not support the ticket. Taft had particularly angered Roosevelt, an ardent conservationist, by removing Gifford Pinchot as chief forester.

Roosevelt struck out on his own and formed the first Progressive Party, saying he was as fit as a bull moose, from which came the colloquial name "Bull Moose Party." His platform called for tariff reform, stricter regulation of industrial combinations, womens suffrage, prohibition of child labor, and other reforms.

The new party nominated Roosevelt for president and Hiram Johnson for vice president. Although the Progressives finished well ahead of Republicans in the election, they lost to the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson. When Roosevelt returned to the Republican fold in 1916, the Progressive Party vanished for a time.

In 1924, liberals were so frustrated with conservative control of both major political parties that they formed the League of Progressive Political Action, better known as the Progressive Party. Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, a Republican, decided to run for president as an independent, but later accepted the nomination from the Progressive Party. Senator Burton K. Wheeler, a Democrat from Montana, was nominated for vice-president.

The party advocated government ownership of public utilities and such labor reforms as collective bargaining. It also supported farm-relief measures, lower taxes for persons with moderate incomes, and other such laws. Although La Follette received 17 percent of the popular vote, he only carried Wisconsins electoral vote.

In 1934, La Follettes sons organized a progressive party in Wisconsin. Robert La Follette, Jr. was elected to the Senate but was beaten in 1946 by Joseph McCarthy.

Yet another progressive party was formed in 1948. Former New Deal Democrats had become dissatisfied with the policies of Harry Truman and wanted their own party. They nominated Henry A. Wallace for president and Glen H. Taylor for vice president. They advocated liberal policies that included rights for minorities, curbs on monopolies, and the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act.

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Progressive Party - U.S. History

The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project is a university-chartered research center associated with the Department of History of The George Washington University

Progressivism is the term applied to a variety of responses to the economic and social problems rapid industrialization introduced to America. Progressivism began as a social movement and grew into a political movement. The early progressives rejected Social Darwinism. In other words, they were people who believed that the problems society faced (poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare) could best be addressed by providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace. Progressives lived mainly in the cities, were college educated, and believed that government could be a tool for change. Social reformers, like Jane Addams, and journalists, like Jacob Riis and Ida Tarbel, were powerful voices for progressivism. They concentrated on exposing the evils of corporate greed, combating fear of immigrants, and urging Americans to think hard about what democracy meant. Other local leaders encouraged Americans to register to vote, fight political corruption, and let the voting public decide how issues should best be addressed (the initiative, the referendum, and the recall). On a national level, progressivism gained a strong voice in the White House when Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901. TR believed that strong corporations were good for America, but he also believed that corporate behavior must be watched to ensure that corporate greed did not get out of hand (trust-busting and federal regulation of business). Progressivism ended with World War I when the horrors of war exposed people's cruelty and many Americans associated President Woodrow Wilson's use of progressive language ("the war to make the world safe for democracy") with the war.

For more information on progressivism see the following web sites:

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The Progressive Era (1890 - 1920) - The George Washington ...