San Jose leaders skeptical of museum proposals
RECENT BAILOUT REQUESTS FUEL DOUBTS OF VIABILITY
By Barry Witt
Mercury News
Article Launched: 11/05/2007 01:30:45 AM PST


Click photo to enlarge
This is an 1890 Franklin Steamer truck that was restored 10 years ago. It... (KAREN T. BORCHERS)«123»
Have your say!
Vote:
Which museum has the best chance of success?

A railroad museum. A firefighters museum. A museum for Hispanic baseball players. All touted as new attractions for downtown San Jose.

But all three proposals are being met with skepticism by some city leaders - especially after a series of recent bailout requests from local non-profit groups.

"We get a lot of proposals downtown," Councilman Sam Liccardo, who represents the area, said at a recent council committee meeting. "Are they viable? Are we really going to get people to come to them?"

Conventional wisdom holds that museums are a crucial part of a healthy downtown. In San Jose, the Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose Museum of Art and Children's Discovery Museum give locals and tourists alike reason to open their wallets.

But to Liccardo and others, the overlapping new proposals feel like overkill - and may not be financially sustainable.

"There are so many strategies to get things started, build the momentum for them, and then they come back and ask for money," Mayor Chuck Reed said. "We have the History San Jose model, or the Mexican Heritage Plaza model, or the Hayes Mansion model, or the Los Lagos Golf Course model." All four of those organizations have tapped taxpayers in recent years for new or increased subsidies for city facilities.

Yet Rod Diridon, the former county supervisor who has been seeking a railroad museum site for years, said there's no doubt his plan would succeed.

"It's the kind of


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advertisement

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quality-of-life and pride point that any great community would have," said Diridon, whose dreams of putting the railroad museum at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds were dashed in 2002 by the county board of supervisors. "You go to virtually any of the great communities across the United States, and they were started by a railroad."
Diridon and his California Trolley and Railroad Corp. now want a vacant 11-acre Union Pacific parcel on the east side of the Guadalupe River near Coleman Avenue. The location had been part of a railroad yard since the 1860s and still has an active rail line running alongside it. Diridon said he is not asking the city for money, only for support to seek an appropriation from Congress to buy the land from the railroad, which could cost $10 million or more.

"We expect not to ask the city ever for funding for this project to either build or maintain or operate it," he said.

The San Jose Fire Museum has been the dream of a group of retired San Jose firefighters since the city decided more than a decade ago to replace Station 1 on Market Street. They want the former station house, mothballed since 2000, as a showcase for their collection of historic fire engines and other equipment. The group's equipment now is housed in a city warehouse, inaccessible to the public. Some of it already is restored to its 19th-century glory, while other pieces need considerable work.

"If the museum could be built and opened, I think it would be an incredible value for the city as a tourist draw," said John McMillan, who retired as the department's assistant chief in 2004. "We have one of the best collections in the country, and Station 1 in downtown San Jose is the core station."

McMillan said if his group could get the property - which the city values at at least $2 million - "we would sign an agreement not to come back to the city to ask for a subsidy." He'd like the land donated but said his group would raise the money needed to buy it if necessary.

But the firefighters were stunned to learn that even though their interest in the property was well-known, the city's redevelopment agency last month issued a formal request to developers interested in buying the .45-acre parcel for a residential high rise, with a possible theater on the first floor. The agency frequently seeks council approval on the terms of such solicitations before issuing them, but did not do so in this case, leaving the firefighters no chance to plead their case.

"I was left out of the loop and not given the opportunity to tell all the council of the San Jose Fire Museum's interest," McMillan said.

Reed and Harry Mavrogenes, executive director of the redevelopment agency, said they are interested in a theater on the site to add to the entertainment district already established nearby at San Pedro Square.

After inquiries by the Mercury News last week, Mavrogenes invited the firefighters to submit a proposal.

Representatives of the Hispanic Baseball Museum Hall of Fame said they also want the city to provide a location for a facility that would honor major league players and others with Hispanic roots.

"It would be an attraction that would bring a lot of people here," said Tito Avila, the group's president, who has taken his San Francisco organization's displays on tours around the country. "It would bring a lot of credibility to the city, having a sports entity such as this, which would be equal to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It would be Cooperstown West."

But Liccardo, the downtown councilman, questions why San Jose would become home to a Hall of Fame because the city has no connection to Major League Baseball or any of the players, most of whom were born in Latin America.

"I don't see the Iditarod Dog Sled Hall of Fame being a big draw here, either," he said. "I'd look for something more reflective of San Jose."

Liccardo's concerns also go beyond whether the proposed museums would be a good thematic fit.

"We have a scarce amount of land," he said. "Is it all going to be museums?"




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------