Ed Lee talks of tearing down end of I-280

Interstate 280 interchanges at Sixth Street, above, and Fourth Street are targeted for elimination in Mayor Ed Lee's proposal. Interstate 280 interchanges at Sixth Street, above, and Fourth Street are targeted for elimination in Mayor Ed Lee's proposal. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Ed Lee talks of tearing down end of I-280 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Mayor Ed Lee is floating the idea of tearing down the stub end of Interstate 280 in San Francisco in hopes of creating a new neighborhood and speeding up the arrival of high-speed rail service downtown.

The idea, laid out by the mayor's chief transit planner, Gillian Gillett, in a memo to the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission, would be to knock down I-280 before 16th Street - eliminating the ramps both at Sixth and Brannan streets and at Fourth and King streets. It would be replaced by a street-level boulevard akin to those built after the Embarcadero and Central freeways were knocked down.

The plan also calls for clearing out the adjacent rail yard to make way for a high-speed rail line.

"The mayor is a big proponent of high-speed rail," said Lee's spokeswoman, Christine Falvey. "And the mayor is interested in looking at that concept if it can bring high-speed rail to San Francisco faster, better and cheaper."

She added, "It could be a big boon to the city if we develop a neighborhood in the process."

But Falvey cautioned there are years of work ahead.

And some transit insiders worry that a potential fight over a freeway pull-down could actually slow the high-speed rail planning process.

"Nobody has said 'no' to the idea," said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. But it will take lots of talk before anything happens, he said.

Battle lines: Oakland City Council members are gearing up for a real showdown Tuesday night when they consider whether to bring in former New York Police Chief William Bratton as a $250,000 crime consultant.

"I've sent out 5,000 mailers asking people to come to the meeting,." said Councilwoman Libby Schaaf, who is backing the Bratton hire.

"We'll be out in force as well," said Dan Siegel, an attorney and ex-adviser to Mayor Jean Quan who's working overtime to block Bratton.

Siegel and his Occupy allies think Bratton will import "stop and frisk," a police tactic he's used elsewhere that aims to get guns off the streets by having officers search suspects on the smallest of pretexts. Siegel says it doesn't work and will lead to racial profiling.

In a letter to the council, Quan said Bratton was being brought in only to advise the police and made it clear that "racial profiling will not be tolerated ... period."

However, it's interesting to note that while Oakland loudly debates stop and frisk, plenty of people in the city are being stopped by the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP started patrolling streets in November at Quan's request. Its tactics in "Operation Impact" sound a lot like stop and frisk: Officers pull over vehicles for traffic infractions or other minor causes and do a "full subject" search of the driver or passengers, said CHP spokesman Officer Sam Morgan.

To date, the CHP has made more than 1,700 stops in Oakland, arrested 282 people, recovered 66 stolen vehicles and seized 12 guns.

And no one has said a word.

Courting: John Fisher, the mega-millionaire owner of the Oakland A's, and his financial guys were spotted courtside as guests of Golden State Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob at Wednesday night's game against the Miami Heat.

That prompted one East Bay mover and shaker to speculate that a deal might be in the offing for Lacob to buy the A's.

Don't bet on it.

"Lacob and John are friends," A's managing partner Lew Wolff told us. But the team isn't for sale, he said.

Spilt Milk: If San Francisco Supervisor David Campos was looking to hook the attention of the gay community with his call to rename SFO in honor of Harvey Milk, he certainly got his wish.

Gay politicos tell us they have little choice but to support Campos' call, but that privately they fear voters might reject the idea - embarrassing the LGBT community and tarnishing Milk's legacy.

"That is a risk," Campos conceded, but "so far the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive."

Former Police Commissioner and Milk confidant Wayne Friday is one of the few gay activists going public with his skepticism.

"I'd love to see it happen, but trust me, it's not going to fly," Friday said of the renaming. "It was a good publicity stunt to solidify his (Campos') gay and lesbian base, but that's about it.

Meanwhile, the renaming proposal was the talk of the Gay Legislative Caucus reception in Sacramento, which Campos attended at the invitation of Assemblyman Tom Ammiano - whom Campos hopes one day to succeed.