The Brisbane Transportation Subcommittee isn’t expected to meet again for a few generations 
5 Likes
But they’ll make up for lost time in 2099 by meeting twice in the span of six minutes.
2 Likes
Prologis and Caltrain envision an 850-foot mixed-use tower in San Francisco’s Mission Bay and China Basin.
The locally based commercial developer and the local commuter railroad line have floated a plan to build the second-tallest skyscraper in the city on 20 acres of railyards along San Francisco’s Townsend Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The joint venture unveiled the concept to build the tower at 4th and King Street Station at 700 Fourth Street in a virtual community meeting last month. No project application has been filed.
“We think this is the second-most important transit hub in the city, so it should be the second-tallest tower,” Kristen Hall, whose eponymous design firm is working on the site’s redevelopment, told attendees.
Prologis owns the property. Caltrain has permission to operate its rail lines there. In 2021, both began to explore a feasible development at the site.
The 850-foot tower would be the tallest building at the railyard redevelopment, within a broader project plan, which the city expects Prologis and Caltrain to file this spring.
Prologis and Caltrain envision a transit village with a mix of homes, offices, shops, restaurants and open space.
The railyard project would also make streetscape improvements to help link Mission Bay, Showplace Square and South of Market, neighborhoods historically separated by the yards.
The number of homes and amount of commercial space under consideration were not disclosed.
Both the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Planning Department expressed support for significant height and density at the railyards site, Tuesday, though it is not clear whether the city will support the 850-foot building.
If all goes as planned, Prologis and Caltrain could secure project approvals in 2027, and begin early construction work in 2028, according to a timeline released by the Planning Department and seen by the Business Journal.
The 4th and King Street Station is part of a railway redevelopment project that includes the Portal, a 1.3-mile rail extension that will connect Caltrain and eventual high-speed rail from 4th and King into the Salesforce Transit Center, according to the Business Journal.
The completion of the Portal will allow Prologis and Caltrain to move forward with the railyards’ redevelopment, either by moving Caltrain’s rail lines underground or by reworking the footprint there.
4 Likes
Interesting that Prologis would take on a project of this type - they are the world’s largest warehouse/logistics owner and focus exclusively on that asset type.
update:
2 Likes
1 Like
The comments in that article are laughable and sad at the same time, and completely on-point for “typical Fox news comments”.
Not only would it be extremely unfeasible to reopen that prison, it’s on a relatively small piece of land, so expansion would be rather difficult and expensive.
3 Likes
It also, as usual, doesn’t make any sense. The US already has a federal super max prison, which is far more secure than Alcatraz ever was or ever will be.
1 Like
The biggest selling point for Alcatraz is that it’s on an island so escape is difficult. That’s legitimately the only reason why they’re suggesting this (other than it’s reputation). There’s plenty of other remote places in the U.S. (e.g. Nevada Desert or Texas) to build a new super max prison that meets today’s needs.
Or we could, you know, reform the criminal justice system to end mass-incarceration and prison overcrowding and offer evidence-based treatment programs that are known to reduce recidivism for a number of offences, and we won’t need more prisons, and room can be made for the violent criminals in existing facilities. But that’s common sense, and the current administration operates in a way that lacks it.
3 Likes
The type of criminals who exist in a super max prison (like Alcatraz or Florence) do not deserve anything other than what they’re given. Really they should be put to death immediately, but that’s not allowed most places.
That may sound harsh but go down the list of inmates at Florence and you’ll start thinking the same.
That’s just super max prisons though, which are an entirely different case from the rest of the prison system which does need to be reformed massively.
To the original point though, being on an Island can give some semblance of security but it’s really not needed for a properly funded and run super max. The problems only arise when you get to the underfunded, overcrowded state run ones.
1 Like
Yeah, I understand the point of supermax prisons and why they exist, and some inmates definitely deserve the death penalty. That I am not disagreeing with. A properly set up supermax (like the Federal one in Colorado) doesn’t need to be on an island and is already extremely secure.
But in general, I was addressing the fact that the current administration has a complete disregard for the criminal justice system and is essentially using it for political motives, especially since the U.S. prison system has one of the largest inmate populations in the world. By reforming the prison system, there can be more room for the legitimately dangerous people, fewer arrests for repeat offences, and the fact that many state-run prisons are underfunded (something you mentioned), combined with overcrowding, leads to big problems.
2 Likes
What a blockhead!
Hope I don’t get sent to Alcatraz for this comment.
2 Likes
1 Like
The downtown mall is finally closing - on January 26, 2026.
2 Likes