Bill Butler

I’m Vice President and General Manager of Hansen Aggregates’ Mid-Pacific Region. I’m originally from Southwest Colorado, near Durango. I went to school at the Colorado School of Mines and went to work with Hanson right out of school

We’re a construction material supplier, supplying sand and gravel, crushed stone throughout the world. We’re one of the world’s largest construction material suppliers. Our sand and gravel resources are really tied to where you can find the good quality sand and rock that can be used for construction purposes, such as ready-made concrete, asphalt, hot mix asphalt or a variety of other base for roads, foundations and things like that.

Sand and gravel, like trees, are a resource that we’re going to exhaust eventually.

People say, "Look at the Sierras. They’re all made out of rock." Well, very true but the issue with our industry is that sand and gravel is a very bulky and heavy and low cost commodity so transportation of that resource is everything.

That’s why it makes sense to do it near water. Traditionally these kinds of materials have been trucked and that’s very expensive. As everyone knows, around the Bay traffic is a major consideration.

Lately, we’ve been mining sand right out of the Bay. In mid-1999, we purchased Tidewater Sand and Gravel Company and then, at the end of 1999, we purchased Olin Jones Sand Company,. Both companies had been traditionally mining sand from the Bay.

We have some state leases with the State Lands Commission that are out between Alcatraz and Angel Island. That’s a big source of high quality sand fit for construction. We are definitely regulated environmentally and take seriously our responsibility to be good environmental and community stewards.

People want to live along the waterfront now. We want to be able to coexist alongside other uses. We try to minimize the noise our heavy equipment makes. Things like safety backup alarms that we’ve put on that only go off if they sense that someone is behind them so that they’re not beeping constantly. But we know noise is going to be an issue along the waterfront. But we feel like we’re part of the solution by helping keep trucks off the road.

Classic Sailboat Club

Brad McCrea

I got involved back in 1997 after finishing grad school. A guy from Svendsen’s Boatyard wanted to donate his folkboat, the Elskling, which is Scandinavian for "little darling" or "sweetheart." Kerry Salisbury at Oakland’s Lake Merritt Boating Center offered to put this guy’s folkboat into a new program and added that the donor could sail it any time he wanted and, if the program didn’t work out, he could have the boat back. This caught on and now the City has four folkboats in its Classic Sailboat Club.

The Lake Merritt Boating Center sent out a flyer advertising the club. At the time, I was racing on a friend’s folkboat with the San Francisco Bay Folkboat Association and, when I heard about the new club, I called up the City and said, "Hey, I want to become a member." The answer was, "Well, we don’t really have any members yet so why don’t you give us your name and we’ll get back to you." That went on for six months and then they finally said, "Heck, if you’re so interested, why don’t you help us organize it?"

Folkboats are wooden boats, Scandinavian in design and known for their sturdiness. They feature what’s known as a Lapstrake design, meaning overlapping boards that make up the hull. They’re very seaworthy and great for the San Francisco Bay. The boats have a full keel and are well loved by the many folkboat owners here in the Bay Area and around the world. The original ones were wooden, but fiberglass boats started showing up in the 1970’s. The City of Oakland has three wooden folkboats and one fiberglass folkboat.

The club members are responsible for maintaining the boats. There are only about twenty members but I expect that the club will continue to grow. It costs $395 a year to be a member, plus a commitment to work two weekends each year on maintenance. That gives a person rights to sail the boats, based on availability. Currently there’s no overnighting. It’s only day sailing. The club is self-sustaining, so that the memberships cover the costs of maintenance and repairs to the boats. The club will be operated from the City of Oakland’s new boathouse on the Oakland Estuary very near Jack London Square. We consider ourselves very lucky folks, no pun intended.

For more information about the Classic SailBoat Club contact:

Lake Merritt Boating Center

568 Bellevue Avenue

Oakland, CA 94612

510/444-3807

Maritime Attorney

Dennis Herrera

People wouldn’t really think of me as a waterfront worker, but I am. People have to realize that waterfront workers come in all varieties of occupations. The vast majority of my legal practice is dedicated to serving maritime clients, many of whom are here on the San Francisco waterfront. The fact of the matter is, I would venture to say, that although my office is up here in a tower at the foot of Market Street, I’m on the waterfront just as much as a lot of folks that work out on the water.

I used to work with the United States Maritime Administration, which is an agency of the United State Department of Transportation. It’s designed to basically set and promote U.S. maritime interests. I was there after President Clinton took office from mid-1993 to the end of 1995 and I functioned as the Chief of Staff there.

I have a variety of clients - some based here in San Francisco, others not. It really does run the gamut - from shipyards to large U.S. container operators to small tugboat operators and dinner cruise businesses.

I’m also the President of the San Francisco Police Commission, which is something I enjoy greatly. It gives me the opportunity to give back to my community and to participate in the San Francisco political process, which as everybody would acknowledge, is fairy colorful and very interesting.

I predict a tremendous period of change in the maritime industry. You’re seeing, on the global level, tremendous consolidation of ship operators. You’re seeing consolidation, rationalization, interlink between international carriers and United States carriers and that, I think, is leading to a more global industry, an industry that is becoming increasingly more competitive and inter-dependent and I think something that is really leading the way for countries to become less protectionist of their maritime industries than in the past. The globalization that’s occurring in other industries is now occurring in the maritime industry and that had led to tremendous change but also tremendous opportunity for U.S. maritime industries to compete at the international level.

San Francisco’s waterfront is constantly changing and evolving, being required to do so more now because of the pace of change in the maritime industry. What we’re finding is that just like we have old finger piers here on the Northern Waterfront that once served the great ocean liners of the past, they’re not going to be used for that function anymore. You’re seeing San Franciscans understanding that our waterfront has to evolve if it’s going to remain relevant in maritime trades and industry.

There’s no doubt that the establishment of a comprehensive and far reaching ferry system will ameliorate and minimize the impact of what’s been lost and provide the opportunity for good paying union jobs for workers in the maritime trades. I think you’ll also find that people that work on the waterfront, people that are involved in the maritime industries generally, are very adaptable people and have the ability to work with folks from a whole variety of different stripes and walks of life.