A new federal building in San Francisco is home to Nancy Pelosi. The price tag to the taxpayer is $18,736 per month. The high-living, high-spending California wine maven, House Speaker and omnipotent megalomaniac, moved to the new building last Fall to occupy a "greener" space - and gain 1,000 square feet in office space. The building's architect designed elevators forcing employees to take the stairs, and use umbrellas in their "cubicles" to keep the sun off - employees say the building is a green nightmare.
San Francisco Federal Building
I see no estimate of Pelosi's rent in the "old office building," but her spokesman says the new space will cost taxpayers less due to lessened energy costs, which includes heating, cooling and lighting an additional 1,000 square feet. How stupid do they think we are?
Pelosi's constituency hasn't significantly expanded in size, but her San Francisco staff has increased to a size that requires a larger space for files
Roll Call reported Monday that Pelosi's new office space costs almost double that of the next-highest rental office held by a House member. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., reportedly pays just under $10,600 a month for his office in New York's Soho neighborhood.
The excuse is, Nancy is the U.S. House Speaker, and as such needs more of everything. In November, maybe those grandiose needs will be obliterated. I wonder if she has a clause in her lease, that if she loses the Speaker-ship, she can move out of the new digs with no penalties? Nah, I don't think so either.
The building, known as the George H.W. Bush Federal Building has been excoriated. Employees hate it: (Was it a conspiracy? Name a dysfunctional building after a conservative - a kinda/sorta conservative?)
The first fact about the building that may cause surprise is its lack of air conditioning or heat. According to Mayne, “a bike rack and air conditioning get you the same point. [Mayne is the architect].
When I spoke with a Labor Department worker at the building (who noted that she is encountering the type of bad work conditions that her agency is supposed to enforce against), she confirmed what might have been an urban legend: that some employees must use umbrellas to keep the sun out of their cubicles.
Big Brother decided to reform San Francisco's fatties, and so set the elevators to only stop at "every third floor." Workers are either too hot or too cold. "A happy medium has proved elusive."
The architect, further concerned about the city's fatties, put the building's cafeteria across the street and told the workers to take a hike.
Tsk, tsk, the greenies planning this nightmare "failed to secure LEED approval. LEED is The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and it rates "Green Building."
But the project’s failure to satisfy LEED’s scoring system is not the problem. Rather, it is that the federal government spent millions over budget to create a building that does not provide a minimally satisfactory work environment.
And the project’s huge cost overruns and functional inadequacies have apparently been ignored solely due to excitement over its “Green” stature.Unintended consequences strikes again. Pelosi decided to boost the building's image and move in. I'm sure she will get that LEEDS-rating-thingey fixed pronto.
