Forty date palms were planted along Bayshore Blvd. as part of a $617,000 project to spruce up key parts of the city. The wooden braces that kept them in place for nearly a year have been removed and the ground cover that accompanied them has matured.
Many were critical of the millions of dollars spent by officials in the Bay area to spruce up key parts of the city and to purchase surveillance and security equipment prior to the 2012 Republican National Convention. Given the state of the economy and the narrow focus of the expenditures, it is easy to understand those concerns. But spend it they did, beautifying parts of the city and purchasing a trove of state-of-the-art technology and equipment for law enforcement. We went back to see what was left a year later. Here are some of the residual benefits of the Republicans coming to town last year.
This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 4, 2013.