Historic Waterfront ‘Joint’ Could Be Doomed

The view of the future from Jim Kennedy Sr.’s waterfront restaurant is bleak, and Kennedy says a powerful earthquake and city plans for a stylish new promenade outside are to blame.

City officials see it differently.

They insist that plans to replace the Embarcadero Freeway, smashed in the 1989 Loma Prieta temblor, with an artsy promenade and other improvements will bring more visitors--and money--to the area where Kennedy’s Boondocks eatery resides.

Kennedy worries that when construction of the 25-foot-wide promenade begins alongside San Francisco Bay, the fate of his “joint” on Pier 28 will be sealed forever in concrete.

Kennedy, 78, argues that the construction will cost him 10 parking meters and other spaces at the restaurant’s front door, and that’s bad news for his beleaguered business.

During the lunch rush, customers quickly fill up the two-hour meters and are often double and triple-parked in a postage-stamp-sized lot adjoining the restaurant.

“If they can’t get in, it’s bye-bye baby,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said his dark-paneled restaurant, which teemed with customers when he took over with his son in 1986, has lost much of its lunchtime clientele to the recession and the rerouting of the Embarcadero Freeway.

Boondocks, established more than half a century ago, once served nearly 100 lunches on a busy day, Kennedy said. On a recent afternoon, while more than 60 workers from nearby offices and a construction site munched bag lunches outdoors on a nearby pier, the restaurant was serving half that number inside.

Most of the customers were regulars sipping Manhattans and eating hamburgers.

Many of those regulars said they’re outraged at what they claim is the inflexibility of the Port of San Francisco and the Waterfront Transportation Projects, which are coordinating the South Embarcadero renovations. That inflexibility, said patron Stephen Lewis, could drive a “South of Embarcadero institution” out of business.

“We don’t want to stop development of the promenade. We only want it to be adapted to accommodate all interests,” Lewis said. “A 10-foot-wide sidewalk could accommodate all those who want to walk and jog and still accommodate a 15-foot car.”

Determined to make themselves heard, Boondocks’ loyal patrons have collected more than 400 signatures and written letters to Mayor Frank Jordan. Kennedy fears it is too little, too late.

“I feel no matter what we do, we can’t do anything about the promenade,” he said.

Kennedy blames his plight on the Waterfront Transportation Projects and the Port of San Francisco. He claims neither body informed him that he would lose the parking meters to a walkway until three months ago.

“They told me there was going to be a hearing about having a promenade here, you bet your last . . . dollar I’d be there,” he said.

Project coordinators paint a different picture. Project Manager Emilio Cruz said the proposed promenade, which would stretch from Telegraph Hill to China Basin, has been on the drawing board for more than three years.

The promenade, scheduled for completion next June, is the latest improvement in a grand plan to revamp the entire neighborhood with new homes, new businesses and accessible public transportation.

Sharon Saslafsky, public and community relations manager for the promenade project, said she does not understand how Kennedy could not have been aware of the impending construction and the lost meters.

“As a port tenant and somebody in the business community, I can’t explain that. What is shocking for most people is when you actually see the construction. Probably what shocked him is, ‘Oh, my God, it’s here,’ ” she said. “But we’re all trying to work it out.”

The port says it offered Kennedy a new lease and 20 parking spots for the price of 10 on nearby pier 30-32 to offset the loss of street parking.

Kennedy says the parking offer is not much of an offer at all.

“We can’t control who parks there, and that’s another $650 a month when we can’t even pay our rent,” he said.

Another olive branch arrived recently when Cruz sat down with Kennedy for nearly an hour, offering suggestions on how Boondocks could keep its doors open during and after construction. He pointed out several times that the promenade has the potential to bring in new, walk-in business.

Kennedy listened. But he argues that the city and port are planning changes that cannot possibly help his restaurant. He points to well-heeled strollers pictured in an architect’s sketch of the promenade.

“There’s nothing to bring people like this down here,” he said. “This is the end of the line. It’s the boondocks. This is a waterfront bar, a joint. It’s not people like this who are going to help us survive.”