You already know City Hall has agreed to give away hundreds of millions of dollars of your money and public land to downtown developers for the Grand Avenue project.

You also know that the housing market is down.  Way down -- as in sales hit 20-year low in six Southern California counties.

Guess who wants to step into their shoes?  The Royal Family of Dubai.  They’re willing to put $75 million into the project.  (Then again, the exchange rate being what it is, $75 million isn’t what it used to be:  a real dollar now sells for just one Canadian dollar.)  The name of their company is Istithmar -- not Ishtar.

Now, I’m all for foreign investment in our country.  As far as I’m concerned, people from the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the Klingon Federation or wherever are welcome to pour their euros, yen or pounds into our economy.

What does not work for me, however, is paying taxes to provide subsidies to the Royal Family of Dubai, the Queen of England, or other multi-millionaires, foreign or domestic, with or without sceptres.

The City and County should take this opportunity to pull out of the deal -- just as CALPERS has done, presumably on the advice of “its San Francisco-based advisor, investment management McFarlane Partners.”

At a time when the City wants to charge us extra to repair the sidewalk in front of our homes -- something our tax dollars should already cover -- we should not also have to shell out money for people whose family jewels are actually family jewels.

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2. Epilogue/Update - March 3, 2008:  The Royal Family of Dubai has committed $100 million to the Grand Avenue project in exchange for a 40% ownership interest.