San Francisco is My Home

28
Feb

Save the Palace!

Author: kris, Category: Landmarks, News, Politics

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San Francisco has three important palaces. There’s the Palace of Fine Arts, and the Palace of the Legion of Honor. And then there is the Cow Palace.

The amusing name derives from its original function, which was to house large livestock at the Pan-Pacific International Expo. The idea came about in 1915, but wasn’t completed until 1941.

These days the Palace houses all kinds of stuff, from the annual Dickens Christmas Faire to political speakers to popular bands to Disney’s Princess on Ice show. But State Senator Yee is proposing to sell the Palace to Daly City, who will definitely knock it down and replace it with a supermarket and other stuff the neighborhood needs.

What kind of person tells a Daly City family they can’t have a grocery store because we want to keep our entertainment center there, right? And yet…

The thing that makes living in SF and environs good, the reason we pay such high prices for rent and food and transportation, the reason people flock here in droves, isn’t just the great weather. It’s because the Bay Area is one of those places that still has a strong personality, one that would shine through even if you removed all the kooky, lovable characters. Because we have things like the Castro Theatre and the Albany Bulb and, of course, the Cow Palace.

If you are unconvinced, consider that part of why the Daly City council wants the thing torn down is because it hosts “too many gun shows, erotic balls and rap concerts.” A strike for the Cow Palace is a strike against censorship!

If you’ve got something to say on this, whether for or against, I urge you to attend tonight’s first meeting to discuss the possible sale of the C.P.

Meeting times are:

Tonight, 7 o’clock: Bayshore Community Center, 450 Martin St., Daly City

March 8, 10 a.m.: Visitacion Valley Community Center, 66 Raymond Ave., San Francisco

March 8, 11 a.m.: Bayshore Community Center, 450 Martin St., Daly City

March 25, 7 p.m.: Saddleback Homeowners Clubhouse, 1800 Saddleback Drive, Daly City

This photo of The Beatles playing at the Cow Palace was taken by Bob Campbell.