How San Diego’s vision for a world-class waterfront vanished
When Teddy Roosevelt passed through San Diego in 1915, admiring its landscape and potential, he issued a warning to its people: “Keep your waterfront and develop it so that it may add to the beauty of your city. Do not let a number of private citizens usurp it and make it hideous with buildings your children will have to pay an exorbitant sum to tear down.” 1
A century later, the waterfront along downtown San Diego’s North Harbor Drive constitutes some of the most valuable property in Southern California, and nearly all of it belongs to the public — held in trust by the Port of San Diego. 2
What happened?

Shops in the 900 block of Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter circa 1970's. Photo: City of San Diego
Liberty Town

In the 1970s, San Diego “was a true liberty town,” said former San Diego Port Commissioner Peter Q. Davis. “You would not take anybody down there that you wanted to see again.” 3
In the early 1990s, he joined a wave of new port commissioners — young, business-savvy and politically active. McDade had both the political connections and the developer’s know-how needed to execute an idea that had been “percolating” in his mind for months: breathing new life into the waterfront. 4
The idea, as McDade recalls, was to build the waterfront as a gift to citizens, instead of developing it for profit. In his inaugural address as port chairman in January 1997, he gave a speech calling for “the rebirth of San Diego's front porch.” Then, using a network he had established over two decades in the political, legal and development arenas, he helped unify the decision-makers among the five vested government agencies that could make it happen. 5
Within two years, the team — named the North Embarcadero Alliance — published its 190-page plan. It was loaded with schematics, zoning plans, funding projections, and a set of 12 goals and 29 policies designed to reconnect “the city with its bay” after conducting what McDade called “the biggest outreach to the public that you can imagine.”
"The Port District, as trustee for the people of the State of California, will administer the tidelands so as to provide the greatest economic, social, and aesthetic benefits
to present and future generations."
—Port Master Plan
Along the western edge of downtown San Diego, the plan called for an oval park approximately two city blocks large at the foot of Broadway Pier, which itself would be turned into a public park. It planned for the Midway to be moored at Navy Pier and that pier to be turned into a park, as well. One of two proposed alternatives kept part of B Street Pier public. The Grape Street Piers would be consolidated, upgraded and made public. 6
In 2000, the port formally adopted the major elements of his vision into its Port Master Plan, which is the law of the waterfront.7
“They have to follow it,” Lilly said. “It’s not just guidance — it’s the law.”
Outrage and pushback
Flannery gathered documents through the state’s public records act, questioned policy makers, wrote hundreds of posts for his Blog of San Diego (with links to documents well before the practice became popular), and was an all-around thorn in the side of the political establishment at port and city public meetings. The changes to the waterfront plan infuriated him.
“We didn’t even get the basics of that darn thing,” he said. “The damn sausage wasn’t even served.”
Over the next decade, Briggs brought lawsuits against California cities, counties, the state, developers, Walmart and others on behalf of environmental nonprofits — many part of a network of corporations closely tied to Briggs, his family and close associates.

High-profile attorney Cory Briggs has represented the nonprofit Navy Broadway Complex Coalition since its inception in lawsuits over the Navy Broadway Complex, the loss of the oval park, the repurposing of the Broadway Pier and cruise ship security. (Megan Wood/inewsource).
Briggs became a major player on San Diego’s political scene: sparring with the City Attorney’s Office in court and through the media, leading a drive to get Bob Filner removed from the Mayor’s Office and most recently, pushing an initiative to boost the city’s hotel room tax and dissolve the Tourism Marketing District.
He has become so enmeshed in the city’s affairs that he was featured in the San Diego County Taxpayers Association’s promotional video for its award ceremony last year — he’s seen flailing about in the ocean, arms waving, as he yells to the mayor, City Council members and staff that he’ll let them “have the Convention Center” — a frequent subject of his litigation.

The Navy Broadway Complex has attracted the ire of activists and environmentalists concerned with a further “walling off” of San Diego bay — which happened along the South Embarcadero with the convention center, Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton hotels. Photo courtesy KPBS.
There are no public records of what went on in those meetings: no notes, no calendar events, no log of phone calls, no draft plans and no emails between the parties involved. 8
What resulted from those discussions was a pivotal legal document, signed by Briggs, that enabled Cushman and the port to persuade the state to approve a North Embarcadero project that violated its master plan, its own law.

The Lane Field hotels were an integral element of the changes along the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan. With support from attorney Cory Briggs and the Navy Broadway Complex Coalition, the port was able to substitute a small setback park in front of the hotels in place of the visionary plan’s large oval park along the water — and gain Coastal Commission approval for the project. (Brad Racino/inewsource).
He told a reporter at The San Diego Union-Tribune in January 2015 that he and Cushman “once wrote down the outlines of a deal involving the embarcadero on the back of a cocktail napkin. They traded it back and forth for months, showing other people.”
—Pat Flannery
Cushman also insists nothing about the waterfront agreement was done in secret.
An insider's perspective
“What was envisioned ... did not happen,” Black said. “No, no, no.” 9
“There are others,” she continued, who believe “the port was there to create buildings, hotels that create revenue — ‘We need to bring in more money money money’ — without thinking about sometimes less is more.”
Cushman embodied the latter mind-set, Black said, and although today she counts him as a close friend, during her time on the port board she regarded the commissioner as a bully — a difficult man with a singular, revenue-driven plan for the port’s future.
Murtaza Baxamusa, who sits on the board of Civic San Diego — a successor agency to the Centre City Development Corp. — told inewsource he felt good about the early stages of the visionary plan.
But as for the visionary plan’s future?
“Maybe I’m wrong, I’m willing to be wrong here.”
Mr. San Diego
“You could probably give me a lot of the dark side of what we did in all of these things, and how tough it was, and how we got beat up. I don’t remember those times.
I just remember the victories.”
— Steve Cushman
That changed as the years rolled on.
Chain reaction
The port needed money and hoped the cruise industry could help.
A feasibility study projected close to a million yearly cruise ship passengers in San Diego by 2017, which meant passenger fees and similar charges on visiting ships. The study recommended aggressive redevelopment of the B Street Pier but only maintenance of Broadway Pier, which the analysis said was “sufficient to meet the needs of … ships which do not require a terminal.”
Max Schmidt, a former city planner, foresaw an inherent problem with aspiring for both a vibrant cruise industry and a pedestrian-friendly waterfront in a 1999 University of California Television series about San Diego's downtown development.
Carnival warned the port against relying on a booming cruise industry anytime in the near future, citing economic changes both at home and abroad. In a 2007 letter, Carnival wrote that the cruise line couldn’t “get close to the passenger figures” the port needed to justify massive spending. Carnival executives even met with then-Mayor Jerry Sanders to voice their disapproval of the project. Port commissioners plowed ahead anyway. 10
The $28 million Broadway Pavilion opened for business in December 2010. Since then, it has brought in slightly more than $1 million through events. Between September 2013 and December 2015, it saw a total of 12 ships and a corollary $415,000 in passenger fees. The port does not have accurate totals for the years prior. Briggs, in his brief interview with inewsource, called the pavilion a “roughly $30 million money pit.” 11
When asked why he kept pushing the plan, Cushman replied, “you just have to know Steve Cushman.”
“I’m an eternal optimist,” he said.
“…approximately two city blocks in size, considerably larger than any of the parks in downtown. Because of its one-sided configuration, with buildings only to the east, the scale of the bay gives the space an expansive feeling larger than its actual size, much as in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor or the harbor in Barcelona.” —Oval park description, NEVP
Cushman thought the idea of an oval park was “ludicrous,” not just financially but bureaucratically.
Briggs and the coalition
- He sued over the Broadway terminal and the loss of the oval park. The court ruled in favor of the port.
- He sued the port and U.S. Coast Guard claiming federal regulations required a “security zone” around any cruise ship entering and berthing in the San Diego port, then agreed to dismiss the case a few months later.
- He sued the port a third time over the Broadway Pier and lost again.
A variety of people supported these lawsuits and donated money to the cause. They met in living rooms and restaurants — environmentalists, activists, philanthropists, attorneys — and wrote checks in the name of making San Diego’s waterfront a place for its people, just like Chicago had done. 12
Failing to account for revenues and expenses is not unusual for nonprofits associated with Briggs:
Briggs and his law firm have sued on behalf of at least 36 charitable nonprofits since 2006, almost all of which he and his family helped create. State and federal agencies have suspended more than half of the groups for failing to file legally required documents showing finances, mission statements and board structures. One nonprofit, which did file paperwork, showed an unexplained loss of nearly a quarter million dollars.

Ian Trowbridge was the Navy Broadway Complex Coalition's president before passing away in 2013. "Everybody welcomed the formation of the Navy Broadway Complex Coalition," said Pat Flannery. "And my very good friend Ian Trowbridge was probably the most conspicuous voice in it. I was very close to Ian, very good friends. And he kept me informed of what was going on in it." Photo: salk.edu
In an initial interview about the North Embarcadero, May was open and informative. After a follow-up email asking if she was aware she was listed as the coalition’s CFO, May asked that a reporter “not report any” of the previous interview and demanded that if it were published, inewsource should “include the full content of this e-mail message so that your readers have a complete picture of how you operate...” (Readers can see the entire exchange by clicking here).
Despite multiple requests, all three declined to comment for this story.
An agreement among foes
Peter Scheer, executive director of California’s First Amendment Coalition — a nonprofit dedicated to open government and public participation in civic affairs — found it “highly improbable” that the Briggs-Cushman negotiations left no paper trail.
- The Lane Field developers would reach labor peace with the local hotel and hospitality union, Unite Here Local 30, which is listed as a member of the Navy Broadway Complex Coalition on the agreement. One month prior, the union donated $5,000 to the coalition, according to union disclosure reports.
- The port and Lane Field developers agreed to build a 150-foot wide setback park and the port would try to acquire a portion of Navy property, called 1220 Pacific Highway, to add to that park.
- The port agreed to study the funding, feasibility and impact of another park — 205 feet long on Harbor Drive — in its forthcoming Port Master Plan Amendment.
As of today, neither the acquisition of the Navy property, the study nor the amendment has happened.
As a tradeoff, Briggs and the coalition agreed to “support and actively advocate for” the changes to the visionary plan. 13

Pat Flannery, an activist, former real estate agent and author of the “Blog of San Diego” speaks with inewsource reporter Brad Racino on Broadway Pier on Nov. 20, 2015. (Megan Wood/inewsource).
“Briggs is acting like a self-appointed arbiter,” Andrews said.
Today, Cushman regards the agreement as a pinnacle achievement.

John McNab, a longtime San Diego activist and former member of the Navy Broadway Complex Coalition's legal committee, told inewsource he's disenchanted with the nonprofit. "It has not operated as a public interest group," McNab said. "It doesn't put out press releases, it doesn't put out position papers, it doesn’t say 'This is why we did this.' It does nothing, absolutely nothing." (Megan Wood/inewsource)
“They would never question him or what he was doing,” Flannery said, “and they didn’t know much because he didn’t tell them much. Several times I was amazed to find that they didn’t know in advance something that Cory did or was going to do.” 14
A question of money
Despite protesting inewsource's coverage in print and in court, Briggs has refused to explain why he frequently used his law firm to enter into more than $4 million in liens, or mortgages, with people throughout several Southern California counties — transactions that a host of experts called questionable and possibly fraudulent; how one of the many nonprofits closely associated with him was missing $230,000 from one year to the next and what that tax-exempt organization actually does; or what role Sarichia Cacciatore, his wife who worked for a San Diego-based environmental consulting company, played in his environmental lawsuits.
inewsource asked Cushman if he had ever paid Briggs directly for any reason.
Had he ever facilitated a payment to Briggs for any reason?
What comes next
“We’re really happy with how things turned out,” Manaois said.
The Port of San Diego celebrated its completion of phase one of the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan on Nov. 15, 2014. Improvements highlighted in the video: public art incorporated into new pavilions and a public restroom, environmentally friendly landscaping and jacaranda trees. Speaking at the event, Mayor Kevin Faulconer remarked, 'Today San Diego gets the waterfront that it deserves.'
Owen Lang, a renowned architect and designer of the visionary plan, echoed Castaneda’s statement.

A jogger along the North Embarcadero on Feb. 23, 2016. (Brad Racino/inewsource)
Two months later, he sent a follow-up email:
“There are people who don’t like it?” he asked.
Photos, Steve Cushman and Pat Flannery video: Megan Wood, inewsource
Interactive map: Susana Tsutsumi, KPBS
Mike McDade video: Nic McVicker, KPBS
Footnotes:
1 Theodore Roosevelt visited San Diego's Exposition on July 29, 1915.
"Roosevelt, much impressed with San Diego, as well as its exposition, made the comment:
“I hope that you of San Diego, whose city is just entering on its great period of development, will recognize what so many old communities have failed to recognize. That beauty is not only well worthwhile for its own sake, but that it is valuable commercially. Keep your waterfront and develop it so that it may add to the beauty of your city. Do not let a number of private citizens usurp it and make it hideous with buildings your children will have to pay an exorbitant sum to tear down.”
—”William Kettner: San Diego's Dynamic Congressman,” The Journal of San Diego History, Summer 1979, Volume 25, Number 3. Return to story
2 “What is the Port of San Diego?"
The San Diego Unified Port District was established in 1962 to protect, preserve and enhance the tidelands. The word “tidelands” means the land around San Diego Bay and the Imperial Beach oceanfront, a total of 3,415 acres of land and almost the same amount of water. The Port doesn’t technically own that land, but holds it “in trust” for the people of California.
The district is composed of five member cities: San Diego, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, National City and Coronado. The agency’s seven member board of directors are appointed positions — each member city appoints one person to the board except San Diego, which appoints three. The board is responsible for setting policies.
A staff of more than 500 handles the day-to-day operations among various departments including engineering and construction, land use management, procurement, maritime, marketing, real estate and the Harbor Police. The Port has around 600 tenant businesses paying rent that account for the majority of the Port’s revenues: more than $93 million in FY 2015. The current budget projects more than $149 million in revenue this year.
The agency oversees two maritime cargo terminals — the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal in San Diego and the National City Marine Terminal — as well as two cruise ship terminals. It also operates 22 public parks, the Harbor Police Department and the leases of hundreds of tenant and sub tenant businesses around the bay, according to the district. Return to story
3 "Who is Peter Q. Davis"
Peter Q. Davis' roots in San Diego County stretch back to the late 1800s in Coronado. He has 50 years of public service among county and city boards and commissions, which began in 1966 on the county’s Fiscal and Judicial Board of Directors.
Davis later joined San Diego’s small Bank of Commerce in the mid-’70s, became president and chairman a few years later and oversaw its growth to become the largest bank in town by 1999 when it was sold to Bank of America.
In 1976, he was appointed to the Centre City Development Corp.’s board of directors, where he became chairman and CEO in 1986. In 2002, he was appointed to the Port’s board of directors, where he became chairman in 2004 and served until 2005. Return to story
4 "Who is Mike McDade?"
J. Michael McDade was born in the then-agricultural community of Lemon Grove, went to high school in San Diego, undergraduate school at Georgetown and studied law at the University of San Diego School of Law while teaching history and government at St. Augustine High School.
During the 1970s, after passing the bar, McDade began practicing law in San Diego while rising quickly inside the Republic Central Committee to become vice chairman. He volunteered for Pete Wilson’s campaign for mayor, ran his re-election campaign and became known as someone who could make things happen politically.
Skipping ahead, McDade would end up running a total of four successful mayoral campaigns, becoming a top political adviser and chief of staff to Mayor Roger Hedgecock, as well as a successful environmental and land use attorney. In 1993, Mayor Susan Golding appointed McDade to the Port’s board of directors where he served for six years.
The political connections he developed early in his career proved essential in uniting five government agencies in an unlikely alliance — the North Embarcadero Alliance — determined to develop San Diego’s front porch for its citizens. The property would mitigate for the South Embarcadero, a wall of hotels, marine terminals and Navy land separating citizens from the water between Harbor Drive and National City. Former port commissioners Laurie Black, Peter Q. Davis and Steve Cushman, along with county Supervisor Greg Cox and others, credit McDade for his vision of a renewed waterfront. Return to story
5 The original North Embarcadero Alliance consisted of five government agencies united in a common goal: to revitalize the one-mile stretch of bayfront downtown called the North Embarcadero, and make it a gift to the city’s people and to the world.
The first agency was the U.S. Navy, the mainstay of San Diego’s economy since the early 20th century. It controls nearly half the land -- almost 1,900 acres -- along the bay’s 54 miles of shoreline. These are the naval bases, air stations, training centers and military depots.
Then there’s the San Diego Unified Port District — big, powerful and wealthy with a long history of backroom dealing and strong personalities. It controls 3,415 acres of land and almost the same amount of water, and manages that land for the citizens. It’s important to note that the Port doesn’t own the land, but rather holds it “in trust” for the people. A board of seven commissioners oversees the agency.
Then there’s the (now-defunct) Centre City Development Corp., or CCDC. The City of San Diego created the nonprofit corporation in 1972 to carry out downtown redevelopment projects and collect huge amounts of property taxes from those projects to build even more.
The fourth and fifth agencies are easy to remember and understand: the County and the City. The County has its Administration Center along the bay and the City surrounds the land at the heart of this story. Return to story
6 While the visionary plan was heavy on beautification, there were other elements it addressed as well. Its scope is summarized as establishing:
“…the location and character of public plazas, parks, piers, and other public amenities; the circulation pattern and parking strategy to support development and public access; and the location, intensity, and character of commercial and residential development. It offers strategies for financing and implementing public improvements in the area and for ongoing cooperative arrangements among Alliance members.” Return to story
7 “What is the Port Master Plan?”
The Port’s Master Plan was adopted in 1964 for the purpose of laying out the Port’s official planning policies for development of the tidelands. It guides policy decisions, serves as a basis for capital improvements programming and provides the public with information about its land being held in trust by the Port.
It’s important to note that the Port Master Plan is not a guidance document, like the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan, but instead is the law. Major changes to the document must go through a public amendment process and must be certified by a state regulatory agency — the California Coastal Commission. For example, if the plan calls for 50 acres of land to be zoned for commercial use, and the Port wants instead to make that land a public park, it must go through an amendment process involving the public, the Port staff and the California Coastal Commission (at least).
The Port Master Plan has been amended 34 times since 1984, with the most recent amendment gaining Coastal Commission approval in 2012 for the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan. Return to story
8 After re-checking their files, the port found and forwarded six inter-office emails referencing several meetings between port staff and Briggs on behalf of the coalition. The emails offer little detail about the meetings. Return to story
9 "Who is Laurie Black?"
Laurie Black, who describes herself as once being a “hairy-legged, Birkenstock, pretty-hardcore feminist” back in 1976, became enmeshed in San Diego politics and development from the 1990s forward, serving as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Lynn Schenk, as President of the Downtown Partnership, on the California Regional Water Quality Control Board and San Diego City Library Commission and as a Port Commissioner from 2007 to 2009, along with Steve Cushman and Peter Q. Davis. Return to story
10 Activists and others wanted cruise ship operations moved to the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal, a working dock a mile south. But in 2004, the Port had passed a resolution barring itself from having any future discussions about using the terminal for anything other than maritime trade.
“This was Cushman's doing one hundred percent,” said Peter Q. Davis.
Cushman concurs.
“Maritime jobs are important and having that economy coming into San Diego: the bananas, the cars, they’re good jobs and they’re good for San Diego,” Cushman said. “Peter Q. Davis and I fought like crazy on that issue.” Return to story
11 Click here for cruise ship trends by fiscal year. Return to story
12 Navy Broadway Complex Coalition lawsuits and outcomes:
Jan. 4, 2007:
Parties: NBCC v. Dept. of Defense, US Navy, Manchester Pacific Gateway.
Matter: Lease and development of the Navy Broadway Complex, NEPA and 2009 FONSI.
Outcome: NBCC victory.
Notes: “As the court concludes that Defendants failed to comply with the public notice and participation requirement, the court does not reach the other issues raised by the parties.” Settlement awarded for $105,000 to NBCC.
Feb. 20, 2007:
Parties: NBCC v. City of San Diego, Centre City Development Corp., Manchester Pacific Gateway.
Matter: Challenging Navy Broadway Complex on the California Environmental Quality Act (Global Climate Change) Environmental Impact Report.
Outcome: NBCC loss.
Notes: Coalition appealed loss to higher court.
May 21, 2007:
Parties: NBCC v. US Navy.
Matter: Freedom of Information Act request for lease information regarding the Navy Broadway Complex and Manchester’s bidding documents.
Outcome: Divided.
Notes: Some records released, others not.
August 14, 2009:
Parties: NBCC v. City of San Diego, Manchester Pacific Gateway
Matter: (Appealed from lower court) Challenging Navy Broadway Complex on the California Environmental Quality Act (Global Climate Change) Environmental Impact Report.
Outcome: NBCC loss.
Notes: "We therefore conclude that the trial court did not err in denying the Coalition's amended petition."
August 21, 2009:
Parties: NBCC v. Port of San Diego
Matter: Deletion of the Oval Park and the coastal development permit for the Broadway Pavilion.
Outcome: NBCC loss.
Notes: “The Port did not agree to waive $622.56 [owed by the coalition] but no appeal was filed. So we searched and we never got any payment in that amount. Probably we should have. But we never did." — Port of San Diego spokeswoman Tanya Castaneda.
Dec. 15, 2010:
Parties: NBCC v. U.S. Coast Guard, Port of San Diego
Matter: Challenging the 100 yard buffer zone around cruise ships related to terrorism.
Outcome: Dismissed by both parties.
Notes: “After they were served with the Complaint and Application for TRO, but before the hearing on Plaintiff’s application, on Dec. 20, 2010, Defendants issued a Temporary Final Rule suspending paragraph b2, thus eliminating the 100 yard on shore security zone.”
Jan. 25, 2011:
Parties: NBCC v. Dept. of Defense.
Matter: Lease and development of the Navy Broadway Complex, NEPA and 2009 FONSI, EIS or SEIS.
Outcome: NBCC loss.
Notes: Coalition appealed loss to higher court.
Oct. 11, 2011:
Parties: NBCC v. Port of San Diego, Midway Museum.
Matter: Broadway Pier and Midway Museum mitigation measures, views.
Outcome: NBCC loss.
Notes: “The port agreed to waive payment of costs in exchange for no appeal.” — Port of San Diego spokeswoman Tanya Castaneda.
Dec. 11, 2012:
Parties: NBCC v. Dept. of Defense.
Matter: Lease and development of the Navy Broadway Complex, NEPA and 2009 FONSI, EIS or SEIS (appealed from lower court)
Outcome: NBCC loss.
Notes: “We conclude that [the Dept. of Defense] have taken a hard look at the
environmental consequences of their actions, and therefore fulfilled their obligations under NEPA.”
Nov. 25, 2013:
Parties: NBCC v. California Coastal Commission, City of San Diego, Port of San Diego.
Matter: EIR, PMPA Convention Center Expansion and Hilton Hotel Expansion.
Outcome: Currently in court.
Notes: Consolidated with similar case (below)
March 17, 2014:
Parties: NBCC v. California Coastal Commission, Port of San Diego.
Matter: EIR, PMPA Convention Center Expansion and Hilton Hotel Expansion.
Outcome: Currently in court.
Notes: Consolidated with similar case (above)
April 2, 2014:
Parties: NBCC v. Port of San Diego, Sunroad Enterprises.
Matter: Sunroad Harbor Island Hotel, East Harbor Island PMP Amendment Project.
Outcome: Currently in court.
June 15, 2015:
Parties: NBCC v. California Coastal Commission, City of San Diego, One Park Boulevard LLC, Port of San Diego.
Matter: EIR, CEQA PMPA Convention Center Expansion and Hilton Expansion.
Outcome: Currently in court.
13 “Word for word”
“The Coalition will support and actively advocate for, in writing, and where practicable in person or orally: (1) all approvals of NEVP Phase I, (2) the acquisition of 1220 Pacific Highway, (3) funding for Future NEVP Phases, and (4) all approvals of a revised Lane Field project.
“…the Coalition must, at a minimum, advocate in writing or other comparable means sufficient to evidence its support for the issue at hand and appear in-person at meetings held in San Diego County.” Return to story
14 “Don Wood and the coalition”
Wood declined to speak to inewsource or offer a comment on this story, but did email a video and 2010 report for the purpose of showing “some of the good things we’ve done over the years.”
The report, called “Re-Envisioning Our Waterfront,” detailed a community event centered around planning for the Port’s future development in regard to the visionary plan. Wood helped prepare the report and submitted a set of seven “major recommendations” to the Port to consider when creating its new master plan amendment. They included bringing the county back into the alliance, creating a longterm plan for relocating the cruise ships to 10th Avenue, expanding the North Embarcadero planning area and implementing a bayfront shuttle operation. Aside from the shuttle, the Port hasn’t implemented any of the recommendations as of today.
Wood did not respond to follow-up emails asking about the report and the coalition’s efficacy in implementing its suggestions. Return to story

We'll let you know when big things happen.