Maria Ayerdi Kaplan is the builder of Salesforce Transit Center, and the founder of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, she then served as its executive director from 2002 to 2016.
Ms. Kaplan, who was also San Francisco Deputy Mayor under Mayor Willie Brown (who started the path toward Salesforce Transit Center off when he called for a new Transbay Terminal in 1997), has yet to receive her entire due for the 19 years of meetings, conceiving, politicking, negotiating, imagining, and directing she did to see the Transit Center through to completion.
Instead, Maria has been the victim of fake news and the telling of an alternative history of the Transit Center, which is far more than a bus stop and contains a giant train level for California High Speed Rail.
Still, the late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee gave her special praise during the Salesforce Tower Groundbreaking, the Golden Gate Business Association, and the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council have praised and awarded Maria for her work.
Now, comes praise from another corner: renowned Oakland Developer Phil Tagami, Managing Partner of California Capital Group, and the builder of the Oakland Rotunda and The Fox Theater, wrote a Twitter tweet specifically praising Maria Ayerdi Kaplan for her effort in making Salesforce Transit Center a reality. This one:
What an amazing job on one of the most complicated projects in the Bay Area in the past decade. It takes quite a will to stay focused so long with many changing faces, funding streams, and yes politics. Building a team and supporting them along the way thanks for your leadership.
— Phillip Tagami (@ptagami) November 17, 2018
Stay tuned.