EVOLUTION OF THE BAY'S WATERFRONT T
he Bay Area waterfront is everevolving. It is, at once, a remnant of the boom of recreational sailing, and a rapidly changing landscape being molded by the pressures of population. In the 1960s, unprecedented wealth amongst the middle class, coupled with the advent of relatively inexpensive and durable fiberglass boats, transformed the gritty working waterfront into the familiar and inviting recreational waterfront that we have today. In response to demand for facilities to keep these new boats, infrastructure was developed. Both private and public marinas were built throughout the Bay Area, boat ramps and launch facilities were established, and businesses supporting recreational boating and boaters grew alongside. This blossoming trend reached its peak in the late 1980s, but the ill-advised federal 'luxury tax' on new vessels put many small boatbuilders and marine vendors out of business, a trend that accelerated with recessions in the early 1990s and early 2000s. Then, just as things were starting to recover, the Great Recession of 2008-2009 bankrupted many of the remaining builders, and knocked the entire recreational marine industry back on its heels. As the waterfront continues to evolve, boats and boating are becoming less prominent features along local shores. Population growth and the corresponding development that serves it have shrunk both the footprint and visibility
of sailing. But there are no simple explanations here. The boating industry in the Bay Area is currently going through dramatic, and in some ways, wrenching changes. As sailors, there is reason to be both alarmed and encouraged. "Accessibility to the water has never been so great, yet barriers to participation have never been so few," said Paul Kaplan, the CEO of KKMI boatyard. We want to explore the headwinds boating is facing in the Bay Area, as well as the opportunities that are being created through new technologies and new forms of participation in the sport. Housing Trumps All Housing in the Bay Area, which is considered one of the most costly places to live in the country, has become famously expensive, with waterfront housing representing the pinnacle. The premium that water views and access add to the value of housing give developers every incentive to develop any and all shoreline parcels that become available. Waterfront businesses, like boatyards, marinas and marine vendors, simply cannot compete for prime real estate with housing. And once waterfront land is covered with condominiums or apartments, that land will never be turned back into a boatyard. According to Mark Sanders, owner of Westpoint Harbor in Redwood City, there are 27 job openings for every new
LATITUDE / JOHN
Sausalito is thick with boats, but note the humanity packed into the hills in the background. The City of Sausalito has been at the center of the Bay Area's debate over its waterfront, and despite the hefty march of gentrification, the waterfront has, for now, held its ground well.
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resident in the South Bay. Land in the mid-Peninsula is valued at $3 to $5 million per acre, demand for housing outstrips supply, and the 94063 zip code, representing the downtown and waterfront portions of Redwood City, is the most expensive in the United States. Average household income within three miles of Westpoint Harbor is just over $144,000 per year. The South Bay used to be home to several boatyards, but the last two — Pete's Harbor and South Bay Boatworks — have closed, and the land they occupied is now home to expensive condominiums and apartments. While demand for new waterfront housing threatens some of the Bay's existing marine infrastructure, that same demand may also be a source of salvation for aging marinas. The Redwood City developments — One Marina, Villas at Bair Island and Blu Harbor — all include new facilities, although these marinas are smaller than the ones they replaced. Two years ago, Svendsen's Boat Works in Alameda relocated and merged with another yard to become Svendsen's Bay Marine in Richmond. While the former yard in Alameda is currently sitting idle, a master plan for redeveloping the property was approved by all parties in 2018. The final plan calls for 760 hous-
