San Francisco reacts to Alcatraz visit by Trump administration officials
SAN FRANCISCO - Alcatraz is one of San Francisco's biggest sightseeing attractions, but on Thursday two members of the Trump administration toured the former federal prison, indicating they were on a mission to follow through on President Trump's proposal to reopen the site as a prison.
Back to ‘law and order’?
What they're saying:
"I like the symbolism, the message that it sends, one that America is going to go back to a country of law and order," John Dennis, the California Republican Party Chair of Chairs said.
On Thursday, crowds of tourists boarded the ferries to visit the island where the infamous former federal prison stood until it closed in 1963.
"It was interesting. I've always been curious, so it answered a lot of questions," Ross Schoenharr, a tourist from Detroit said, after taking a tour of the island.
Those who saw the aging infrastructure said they were surprised that Attorney General Pam Bondi And Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum were on the island earlier in the day. Bondi and Burgum toured the site, on a mission to look into President Trump's proposal to revert it back to a federal prison.
Cost of restoration -taxpayer money
Some say it could take hundreds of millions of dollars to restore the facility, due to the fact Alcatraz is about 1.5 miles from shore and needs to have supplies brought by boat.
"It did close down for a reason because it wasn't economically sound, and it wasn't a good proposition, so I think it should be left alone," Judy Park, a tourist from Carlsbad, said.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and others say reopening a prison there would be a loss of revenue and a waste of taxpayers' money.
"Tourists come from all over the world to visit Alcatraz, over 100 million visitors, tens of million in economic activity to the city and the region," Lurie said.
"I don't like the idea of spending all the money that you need to spend to make it into a prison," former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown said.
"The revenue that it generates is so much needed, especially at this time," Claudine Cheng of San Francisco said.
Historic and sacred ground
Alcatraz island also holds historic and sacred meaning for some Bay Area indigenous people, who staged a 1969 protest there to reclaim the land and have held annual ceremonies ever since to honor their ancestors.
Redbird Willie of Sebastopol was a child during the protest, and traces his ancestry to the Pomo, Wailaki, Wintu and Paiute tribes.
"I feel like we’ve been spending all this time since then trying to heal that place and trying, trying to make it a good place...having that gathering out there and Thanksgiving and on Indigenous Peoples Day," Willie said.
Trolling SF
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman says he thinks the Trump administration is trying to create a distraction.
"They're making a lot of noise. They're excellent at trolling us. They want us to be chasing after every crazy idea they throw out there. This is a crazy idea. I don't think we should be chasing after it until we know it's real," Mandelman said.
Dennis says while some Republicans might agree on the Alcatraz prison site in principle, there might be resistance due to the cost.
"Republicans that have been a little loose on spending might come around and say hey, ‘We got to do something about this’, so that ultimately might be the hangup on it. But again, I like the idea of doing it because it sends a message that we're serious about crime and law and order," Dennis said.
Featured
When did Alcatraz close? A look at the notorious prison's history
From 1934 until its closure in 1963, Alcatraz operated as a maximum-security federal penitentiary designed to hold what some consider America's most notorious criminals.