I recently read a photo book on the geologic history of San Francisco.
I have lived next to a chert outcropping on the side of Twin Peaks that has a beautiful view of San Francisco looking East. Lived here for more than a half century. The photo book gave credit for the creation of the open space on the hill to a neighbor who had nothing to do with it. I am not mentioning her name. She is dead and certainly in Hell. She was a liar like another prominent activist of her era Amy Meyer.
I actually created the outcropping as a city park. This memory involves two sidebar comments, below.
First, in ~1973 I supported turning the 3 acre piece of vacant land, Kite Hill, into an R2 zoning district. That was a designation for 2 story residential housing. It was formerly zoned R4 which allowed apartment buildings. I knew nothing about the ownership at the time, but knew that a down zoning would make the area less likely to be developed.
Then in the late 1970’s a neighbor asked me for help on an ‘Open Spaces bond initiative. Her name was Ortiz. I don’t remember her first name. She lived at 52 Short Street. I made a few phone calls and raised several hundred thousand dollars to put the initiative on the City ballot and promote it.
We won the initiative and I got Ms. Ortiz appointed chair of the selection committee. She then made the purchase of Kite Hill from ‘old man Tiscornia’ the first purchase.
SIDEBAR: It is hard for me to take credit for anything I did. In the case of Kite Hill, I only made a few phone calls. It is hard for anyone to understand how a few phone calls can change a zoning hearing or create a City initiative. In the early 1970’s I had a great deal of influence. I was universally known in San Francisco as the man who created Mastercard, as the president of Point Foundation and as the manager of Glide Memorial Church. I had also been important in Joe Alioto’s campaign for Mayor and as former president of a blue ribbon committee on the public schools (SCOPE).
Internet search engines have totally failed me; Google, Bing and Duck Duck.. I can not find a citation for the name of ‘old man Tiscornia’, yet in the late 1960’s he was the largest landowner in San Francisco, owning much of the commercial real estate in the business district of San Francisco as well as large holdings all over the City and around the Bay. He had no children. From the search engine point of view, he didn’t exist. The same is true of the bond initiative that I got financed. No record of it on the Internet.