Gerry is upset about what they're saying in San Francisco
BALLYMORE & SAN FRANSCISCO, 14 September 2000: 3.00pm by Brian Byrne. Gerry Deane is a nice guy. Everybody says so. Even those who have opposed strenuously his plans for Ballymore.
“Sure, we like Gerry,” says one founding member of the ABCD development lobby which opposed Gerry's Abbeydrive Developments plan for their village. “We don’t like his plans for us, and we’ll keep fighting them until they’re right. But Gerry is a nice guy.”
So it's understandable when Gerry gets upset at people who say things about him that aren't nice. As are some newspapers in the US, and owners of some properties he built while he worked in San Francisco as a developer.
Never mind the fact that some of his developments were controversial. In the home-shortage climate of San Francisco (below), anything to do with development is controversial for the last decade or so.
But Gerry always got his permits, going right through the planning processes of the city that brought us Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. And Boardman Place. That last is where Gerry built 14 apartments which, according to city records, sold for between $179,000 and $305,000 apiece after they went on the market in 1996.
That was before he came home to Ireland, nearly four years ago. Something the Leitrim-born plasterer had always planned to do since he went out in 1985 to seek his fortune on the west coast of the United States.
Boardman Place was opposed by city community activists from the beginning, because it was under the 'live-work' scheme, where developers built 'loft'-style apartments understood to be used by 'artists'. They're supposed to raise the tone of low-income areas, and bring life back to the locality. They're supported by city development concessions, such as only having to pay half the levies on schools provision. Developers under the scheme also don't have to put aside a percentage for affordable housing or green space.
Those making noises against such developments say 'live-work' schemes are simply being used by developers to provide 'market-rate' apartments in disguise, at less cost to those building them. To date, almost 2,000 such units have been built and applications for another 2,200 are pending.
There are always begrudgers, particularly in development. No consideration for the poor construction guy trying to make a buck and do his bit to bring some dynamism into the city. Or to the deserted village.
Gerry got his plans for Boardman Place through the Planning Commission hearings. He built and was inspected every step of the way. Not like Ireland, they HAVE the inspectors in San Francisco. "The building was built per approved plans and was inspected at various stages by my architect and engineer and also by the city building inspectors - about 15 inspections in all," he told me. "When completed, a final inspection took place and a certificate of occupancy and compliance was issued by the city's district inspector."
There was no problem selling the lofts, either. Nice places. There's one for resale at the moment. Nice pictures to help the sale.
The lawsuit wasn't lodged until after Gerry left. It's in the San Francisco Superior Court, docket #300052, 'Boardman Homeowners Association v Deane'. Dated December 28 1998.
"Anyone who publishes the substance of the allegations here does so at their peril," Gerry told me last week. It was nice of him to look out for my interests. But I'd expect no less.
"There were no proceedings threatened or issued against me before I left America," Gerry said. "If there had been, I certainly would be defending them on the basis that I was not responsible for any problems that may have ensued with that building."
We don't need to say what those problems are. Gerry isn't responsible, after all. He clearly says so. Besides, there's that warning of 'publish at peril'.
It's easier in the US for journalists. So the articles in the San Francisco Chronicle of August 16 and 17 are more free to give the details of the allegations in the lawsuit than we are. They publish on the internet, too.
However, it IS fair to say that San Francisco city officials have promised to investigate the Boardman Place project. That's a fact.
And it is a fact that Gerry has told us there weren't any building code violations on the project. It is also a fact that he's upset about the allegations. "The tone of the articles and the implication that I was somewhat involved in any wrongdoing is so grossly insulting and offensive to me, my wife and family, as to not warrant any further comment," he says. "The allegations that are contained in them are false, misleading and grossly inaccurate."
Gerry has too many other things on his mind to get involved in what's happening in San Francisco at the moment. There is the sale of his two pubs - the Manor Inn in Naas and the Castle Inn in Athy. And there's the current planning application for 179 houses at Broadleas Commons in Ballymore Eustace, down from 187 houses applied for last March. This follows his defeat by ABCD in an application for more than 400 houses on the same site last year following an An Bord Pleanala hearing into a positive decision by Kildare County Council.
"We're still opposed to his current application," an ABCD member told KNN this week. "We're determined to fight it all the way until we get the houses off the hill, as proposed. But most of us like Gerry personally."
Well, he IS a nice guy.
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NAAS, 14 September 2000: by 
SRAG members Mary McCarthy, Nell O’Driscoll and Lorna Gormley say footpaths at the top of the Sallins Road are also a disgrace. Particularly bad, they claim, is the footpath at the entrance to St Mary’s College and McDonalds - one of the busiest stretches of path in the town. “Besides access to the Sallins Road residences and businesses, it also has daily access to the Catholic Church, a secondary and two primary schools and a public carpark.”
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KILL, 12 September 2000: 8.30am by 
Commenting last night at a small celebration of the committee members in Kill, chairwoman Joan Kerr (right) said the people of the village are ‘very happy’ about the score, which was the same as last year. But she said it was very disheartening for those regulars who put their heart into keeping Kill a landmark tidy village when they were faced with the kind of recent vandalism which has marred the area.
NAAS, 12 September 2000: by 
“This is the second occasion that a large volume of travelling traders have moved into our area in the last year,” Alan Hore (right), chairman of the Residents Association of Caragh Court, Caragh Green & Caragh Meadows. “In October last year we had approximately 80 travelling families occupying the local Parc na Og which made national press. These travellers destroyed the existing park, which incidentally has never been reinstated and is currently a dump used for landfilling. 
"It's the only answer to what is a massive problem," Cllr O'Reilly (right) told KNN after the meeting. "None of the other proposed sites are as suitable, or can hold the numbers of cars we have to deal with. And I'm convinced that the idea would actually improve the traffic situation in the area, including St Corban's Lane."
And he said there’s increasing danger at the north entrance to the car park when motorists at times have to reverse back out onto the access road by the Court Shopping Centre, because badly-parked cars in the car park block their way.
LEIXLIP, 11 September 2000: by 
Kildare athletes walk proud down under
of Leixlip (right) is the current Irish 800 metres and 1,000 metres record holder, and he will compete in the 800 metres in Sydney. Susan Shortt from Kilgowan in Kilcullen (left) is taking part in the three-day-eventing competition as part of an Irish team of four competitors, and Karen Shinkins from Newbridge will also be running in a number of events.
Susan Shortt, who is 34, went to Halverstown Primary School and attended secondary school in Cross and Passion College in Kilcullen. Her career with the horses started with the Kildare Pony Club and by the time she was 14 she was taking part in international competitions with the Junior Irish Team. She has already done over 60 three-day-eventing competitions and in many of these she finished in the first ten, riding different horses.
NAAS, 15 September 2000: by 
