Fiery reaction to Flame of Liberty

SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. – San Francisco Public Utilities Commission boss Dennis Normandy, enthusiastically supported by Lynda, has launched a new brainchild, a very gigantic undertaking – the proposed Flame of Liberty statue on Treasure Island, which would be San Francisco’s version of New York’s Statue of Liberty.

This very ambitious project has long been overdue as a welcome tribute to Asian immigrants who traveled westward and landed in the state of California, their new home. The monument is to be constructed atop an International Heritage Education Center on Treasure Island and features a gigantic arm.

Public reaction (based on what the San Francisco Chronicle columnists were saying, that is) was not so flattering. Rob Morse described it as a monstrosity and "right out of Planet of the Apes." Richard Morasci wanted to know why San Francisco needed another monument when the Golden Gate Bridge was monument enough. Phil Matier reported that people he talked to just didn’t like the Flame of Liberty project.

Coming to Normandy’s defense, City College board trustee Rodel Rodis noted that despite the liberal open-mindedness of San Francisco, racism is not dead. He encouraged the Fil-Am community to support the building of the Flame of Liberty.

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Meanwhile, another project in The City that is also long overdue is the re-building of the International Hotel, once the home of Filipino and Chinese senior citizens in the 1960s. Located on Kearny Street in Chinatown, the old hotel housed some 80 people who were forcibly removed from their homes after a commercial developer purchased the property. The hotel was demolished and the property left vacant for more than 24 years, perhaps because of the heartbreak and notoriety that accompanied its purchase.

The Kearny Street Housing Corporation, in association with the Archdiocese of San Francisco, will build a new senior housing building in the old International Hotel location. Funding has been granted by the Housing and Urban Development office, which stipulates that construction should start in September.

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Suki and Gerardo Ungson have returned to the Bay Area after a few years in Oregon where Gerardo was a professor at the University of Oregon for more than 20 years. An Ateneo de Manila University graduate of management and engineering, Ungson will join the San Francisco State University next month.

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Cosmetics entrepreneurs Wil and Zen Coronado hosted a birthday celebration for his now 90-year-old mother Ester Nepomuceno Coronado the other week in Newark. Mrs. Coronado’s guests included her contemporaries Ramona Doronila, Marie Cristobal, Dorothy Menez, Myrando Menes and Marilou Melzeno.