Entrepreneur With Parking Solution
Loses His Patience in San Francisco
Bill Schwenker did not leave his heart in San Francisco.
The 43-year-old San Diegan thought he had a sure-fire idea for the chronic parking needs of San Francisco: a West German invention called a Park Lift that allows cars to be stacked, thus putting, for example, two full-size Mercedes-Benzes in a one-car garage.
As a former broker for Shearson Lehman in La Jolla and former operator of fitness parlors in Oceanside, Solana Beach, Escondido and Pacific Beach, Schwenker also figured he knew something about being insistent and coping
with bureaucracy.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Schwenker said. “I could never get a straight answer on what permits I’d need and how long it would take. I saw city employees drinking coffee, reading the newspaper, talking to their friends. One told me if I really wanted to open a business, I should try Oakland.”
The Oct. 17 earthquake, Schwenker concluded, has become an all-purpose excuse for civic inertia.
In frustration, he wrote to Mayor Art Agnos. Nothing. He wrote to all 11 members of the Board of Supervisors. Nothing times 11.
He tried to call Agnos’ $93,000-a-year deputy mayor for parking and transportation. The $93,000 deputy mayor was out, and his answering machine was on the fritz.
He wrote a scalding letter (“rudeness is so pervasive that I can only assume it is city policy”) to the San Francisco Examiner. The paper printed his letter on Christmas but misspelled his name.
Next week, Schwenker will make another run at The City. He has decided that, although San Francisco is rightfully proud of its highbrow life style, it has disdain for most business ventures.
Still, he’s got a stratagem for getting appointments with important officials, a way to tweak the interest of even the most lead-bottomed bureaucrat.
He’s going to tell them he wants to open a fancy restaurant.
When Less Means More
Here’s what I hear.
* Newly elected San Diego Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt has surprised her council colleagues with a mid-year request for two additional staff members.
Her rationale is interesting: Under the new district elections system I’m responsible only for my own district. Thus I’m entitled to a larger staff than my predecessor Ed Struiksma, whose responsibility was citywide.
More for less. If you don’t understand the logic, you have a lot to learn about government.
* The Union-Tribune has a long history of fighting against official secrecy. The newspapers’ attorneys have gone to court a number of times to protect the public’s right to know.
There are limits, however.
The U-T management asked the Newspaper Guild to agree to a news blackout on the mediation sessions set to begin today. The guild refused.
* The cold and rain have meant an increased number of homeless people seeking shelter in the downtown library.
On a recent morning, the men’s room on the second floor was jammed with homeless men changing their clothes, shaving and taking sponge baths. Others were sleeping at reading tables.
* The Naval Academy Glee Club is scheduled for a free public concert Thursday at the Balboa Park Organ Pavilion. The group has even gone modern, with a rock ‘n’ roll troupe that promoters promise is “a Naval Academy version of Sha Na Na.”
Conservative Verse
Ready for Libertarian poetry? Here’s some light-hearted verse from the San Diego party’s recent newsletter:
If you have two apples
and I have but one
it’s unfair, not right
undemocratic
I’ll join a union
or a movement
start a riot
and kill you for your extra apple.
Personally, I prefer “I once knew a liberal from Nantucket . . . “
