Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will propose selling San Quentin Prison, the Los Angeles Coliseum and other state-owned properties in a bid to raise cash to counter the state’s daunting budget shortfall.
He also wants to accelerate the sale of Agnews Developmental Center, the 81-acre facility on the north edge of San Jose that closed its doors in March after 120 years. The proposal to sell off state assets is part of the governor’s revised budget plan being released today. Besides the Coliseum and San Quentin, the properties he’s eyeing for sale are the Cow Palace in Daly City, the Orange County Fairgrounds, Cal Expo in Sacramento, Del Mar Fairground, and the Ventura County Fair.
The sale of those properties would generate upward of $600 million and possibly more than $1 billion for the state, according to a copy of Schwarzenegger’s proposal. But proceeds from those sales would not arrive for another two to five years. Selling the Agnews property would be done within two years.
With its stunning views of the San Francisco Bay, San Quentin has long been eyed for a more lucrative use. Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Modesto, has proposed selling both San Quentin and the Coliseum to generate badly needed revenues for the state. If voters reject a slate of ballot propositions in a special election Tuesday, as polls indicate they will, the state will face a deficit of $21.3 billion through mid-2010.
Are the tenants included in this deal? If not it should make a great resort hotel……or the Feds could buy it and make it into a Gitmo West facilty!
Hey John and Adam!
This could be a great place for “The Kights of the No Adenda”. It would make a bitch’n Armory.
“In the morning!”
Knight’s in the morning? There’s a joke in there somewhere…
Why did I put an apostrophe in knights?
(that’s a retorical question)
Oh, BigBoyBC, you beat me to it.
Waterfront, fantastic views, super convenient access to the Golden Gate ferry and the freeway to Marin, San Francisco, and the East Bay (Oakland),
Fantastic property! they should sell it and not waste it on a bunch of criminals.
SELL IT!!!
I thought the LA Mausoleum was owned by LA and controlled by the LA Colosseum Commission. What happens to it will be far more fascinating (At least to me). The LA Colosseum Commission is what is keeping the NFL out of LA as the NFL refuses to deal with them (Losing three pro teams and the Bruins is their limit). If an NFL team or third party company were able to buy the stadium, it would change that dynamic. They might actually expend some effort to clean up that sewer.
They should sell it and build a new supermax facility for these criminals near Sac.
The left wing bleeding liberal hearts will get all bent out of shape. San Quentin is where California’s death row is. Being so close the epicenter of the left (Berkeley, Marin, SF, et. all) gives the inmates lots of access to death penalty haters.
If it were were up to me, I’d move them to Barstow or Victorville.
If voters reject a slate of ballot propositions in a special election Tuesday, as polls indicate they will..
Everyone wants the benefits but not the bill. California may not be destroyed by fire or earthquake but instead riots when the meltdown begins.
“…the state will face a deficit of $21.3 billion through mid-2010.” Well, then, that $600 mil a couple of years later will really come in handy. And I’m sure California won’t mind losing another historic site to the development bulldozer. Sadly, California’s prisons are overcrowded so they’ll need to build another prison somewhere to house the 5,000 or so men warehoused in San Quentin. Shouldn’t cost more than eight or nine hundred million to do that. I know the steroids take a toll, Arnie, but try THINKING!
Pretty nice piece of property. They are selling at the bottom of the market though. Maybe they should put it off until the market rebounds.
“…the Feds could buy it and make it into a Gitmo West facilty!”
Sounds like a great idea to me! Put them near bunch of people that wanted them out of Gitmo.
The state deserves all the financial problems it now has. When there was a surplus, (not too long ago), the politicians had not the slightest inclination to return any money to taxpayers. Instead, they figured out what new government programs they could start. Now, they can’t visualize eliminating any of those programs. Just raise taxes. That’s the limit of their thinking. Screw them. Why not sell the buildings in Sacramento? Asses.
And the question of where to put the unfortunate victims who reside in San Quentin? How about sending them to Mexico, and making the crooks down there house them in exchange for us housing, paying, and feeding all of their criminal illegal immigrants? What the hell is unfair about that? I am sure the hoodlums in San Quentin would be quite happy in a vermin-infested Mexican jail. Pedro would see to their every need.
# 7 EvilPoliticians said,
“Everyone wants the benefits but not the bill. California may not be destroyed by fire or earthquake but instead riots when the meltdown begins.”
Damn straight those propositions will fail. Californians, by and large, are finally becoming fed up with being taxed to death. A few months after the largest state tax increase in the history of the United States they have the audacity to lie to our faces and expect us to extend those extreme taxes another couple of years!!!
Californians have been lied to so often that they no longer believe any claims coming out of Sacramento or the Governor! Of course the first personnel to be laid off will be the fire fighters, police and medical staff. God forbid you start off with the 10’s of thousands of cubicle workers, managers or any of the countless other state employees that contribute nothing critical to the public. Anyone with an IQ above 50 could see this day was coming sooner or later. Every time the State had a good income year the legislature (and sometimes the voters) would spend that windfall on programs that would continue to require that same funding year after year. The sad thing is that passing these propositions would be a complete waste of money. Even if they passed it would only postpone the inevitable by a short time. There is only one solution and it is equivalent to what GM and Chrysler are facing.
#13 “Californians, by and large, are finally becoming fed up with being taxed to death. A few months after the largest state tax increase in the history of the United States they have the audacity to lie to our faces and expect us to extend those extreme taxes another couple of years!!!”
God help you if you get a Democrat governor! 🙂
# 14 Hugh Ripper said,
“God help you if you get a Democrat governor! ”
Well actually…. for all intensive purposes, we do! 🙂
Jokes aside, it matters less the party that the governor belongs to than the character and integrity of the person who is the governor. The Arnold that was voted in five+ years ago is not the same person that he is today. He was elected because he promised to reform Sacramento. He set up a special election with reform propositions and the state union leadership spend 100’s of millions in TV and radio ads to defeat them. At some point he gave up and is now working for the state workers (and their unions) instead of the people who elected him.
Coward!
Yeah, San Quentin does have the clout that Alcatraz does (or use to). They never made a movie about escapes from San Quentin. Though I’ll bet they had more than Alcatraz did. That’s another eyesore they should sell off. I can’t believe it brings in that much tourism dollars, to keep it going. Just think of it. Pirates Bay could buy Alcatraz, and start anew there. Or make it into a repository for all the world’s knowledge, in case of a plague or killer robots.
Does that mean we’re going to see more SM prison style porn?
Sell it, move the inmates to the Mojave & build a tent city surrounded by minefields. Cheap.
If Californians want to see who’s at fault, they should look in the mirror. Year after year, people vote for politicians who promise them more goodies without raising their taxes. Honest politicians who point out that if you want goodies you have to pay the taxes for them are voted out of office.
Every expenditure in the California state budget has a constituency. And every constituency is calling for everyone else’s expenditures to be cut. Cuz ours are important and yours isn’t. Riiiiiight.