Save the Cow Palace

Cow Palace. Yet another publicly-owned old stock show venue proposed for demolition - just like the Denver Stock Yards and probably our Tingley someday. 

Media awareness and appreciation of the physical manifestations of agricultural history are thin.  There is not one mention of rodeo or livestock or next month's Grand National Rodeo, Horse and Stock Show in this San Francisco Chronicle story - even though the original name was the California State Livestock Pavilion. 

State Sen. Leland Yee has introduced a bill to let Daly City purchase the Cow Palace property, which is owned by the state. He said he wants to fix up the neighborhoods near the Cow Palace and put more money in state coffers.  ...

"The Cow Palace has outlived its usefulness," said City Manager Patricia Martel. Events there "contribute nothing to our community. Why would we keep it?" ...

Some more talking points for her:

• This thing is a pain in the ass to maintain
• History, Schmistory 
• I hate circus clowns
• Cows scare me
• I don't like metal bands

O)pponents have gathered forces in a bid to preserve what they say is a Bay Area treasure. If anything, they argue, the Cow Palace - built in 1941 with funding from the Works Progress Administration - should receive special status as an officially designated landmark.

"I'm mad as hell," said Kevin Patterson, a San Francisco native whose Great Dickens Christmas Fair is held every year at the Cow Palace. Patterson, with other outraged residents, started the Web site www.savethecowpalace.com.

"It should not be sold to Daly City, and certainly should not be bulldozed. This is a real estate venture disguising itself as an attempt to improve the local community."

Wiki says the Cow Palace name probably came from a newspaper editorial that asked, "Why, when people are starving, should money be spent on a "palace for cows?"

Comments

[John]

Cow is an acronym for California-Oregon-Washington. The Cow Palace has outlived its usefulness. It takes up over 60 acres of much needed land bordering a section of an increasingly congested city, San Francisco. It has occupied a space that has been plagued with crime and neglect for many years - and continues to run its venues without regard or contribution to the lower income people who live in that part of town. It happens to be state owned - but is by no means a 'treasure'. The people who live near the Cow Palace beg to ask why those who lost their virginity in the Cow Palace parking lot in 1962, and haven't been remotely close to Visitation Valley since are so outraged that they could have some hope for a detree of prosperity.

Over 60 acres! So much could be done with that space, and people actually have the gall to ask "What about my Dickens Christmas musical I like to attend every year?"