California May Possibly Be Trying To Put Up For Sale Some Of Its Most Admired Landmarks?
Monday, June 8, 2009 12:17The state of California is virtually bankrupt, with a $24 billion budget deficit. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that something has to be done to mend the problem and his plan called for the selling of some of California’s most well-liked landmarks.
On the block would be San Quentin State Prison, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the California State Fairgrounds.
The governor said that the sale of these landmarks as well as four others and eleven office buildings around the state could advance $3 billion for the state. This would help the budget after the proposed cuts in education, welfare, parks, and health care are passed through.
Unfortunately, it could take years to conclude sales of these sites. That means that it would do nothing for the immediate problems the budget deficit is causing. The other problem with the selling of the real estate is the downturn in the Californian real estate market.
Robert Griswold, a real estate author and one of the members of the planning commission of San Diego said, “Fundamentally, this is the wrong time to do this. The market is down and is now in the favor of people looking to buy these properties and not in the favor of the state.”
San Quentin Prison sits on 400 acres on the San Francisco Bay and was built in the 1880’s. The landmark may possibly fetch as much as $1 billion for the state. The idea is not to turn the prison into a museum or some other historical site for visitors, on the whole real estate buyers would tear the prison down and build condos or some other overpriced real estate on the land.
But what about California’s death row inmates, you know, the ones still housed at San Quentin? At this time it is undecided where they would go. There are currently 5,150 inmates at San Quentin and moving them could cost the state millions of dollars and would take away from any of the income made from the sale of San Quentin.
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and can seat 100,000 people. The state expects a buyer for the Coliseum to carry on using it as such. It does not currently have a price tag, but expectations are that the sale will take up to three years.
This isn’t the first time that the sale of landmarks have been considered by a government. The London Bridge was sold to Lake Havasu City, Arizona after, in 1962, it was deemed no longer fitting for the amount of traffic going across it. It was put back together in Arizona and has been there ever since.
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