#rose pak

Rose x Jennie - Chaennie

Pak also publicly chided Herrera for suing her pal Stephens. After such pleasantries, she joined Brown and Public Works chief Mohammed Nuru in a burgundy Rolls-Royce from the Academy of Art’s classic-car collection and headed to a Chinatown luncheon — escorted by SFPD motorcycle officers.

“It was a Fellini movie — if it had been filmed for reality TV, nobody would have believed it,” said San Francisco PR agent Lee Houskeeper, who was among the spectators.

From the greeting by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and two former mayors to the Rolls-Royce ride — complete with police escort — it would be hard to imagine anyone from President Obama on down topping the welcome for Chinatown majordomo Rose Pak on her return to the city.

The 300 greeters who took the drive out to the airport Monday for Pak’s welcome–home from China, where she underwent months of kidney treatment, included former Mayors Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown, Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Jane Kim, Norman Yee and David Campos, Public Defender Jeff Adachi and City Attorney Dennis Herrera.

Also there was Academy of Art University President Elisa Stephens — whom Herrera just sued, claiming the school has illegally converted 22 buildings in the city into student housing and other uses.

Even acting Police Chief Toney Chaplin made the pilgrimage.

Pak wasted little time tossing out barbs as she emerged from customs, with Herrera being the first target.

In the 1970s, she helped save Chinatown’s Chinese Hospital, an underfunded medical center for Cantonese-speaking poor. A few years ago, she took over efforts to raise more than $100 million to rebuild the facility.

“I don’t know if I’m the best person, but someone had to do it,” she said, according to the newspaper.

Pak was such an institution that 300 people, including Lt. Gov. and former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, were on hand in May at San Francisco’s airport to greet her when she returned from China.

She told the crowd that her doctor said she could live another 40 years.

Pak said she only needed 15, including 10 to rebuild a housing complex in Chinatown and five “to get even with the people who wished me dead.”

In 2011, Pak started a campaign that led to Ed Lee becoming the city’s first Chinese American mayor. She would later call him an enormous disappointment.

On Monday, she unveiled her plan to fight the Stockton Street proposal.

“Wait until I have my blockade of the MTA for a week and see how they like it,” said Pak. “We’ll have thousands of trucks and cars blockading the whole City Hall and MTA area for one week and see how they like it when no one can get in and out.”

Pak told CBS SF reporter Phil Matier she was completely serious about using her influence to make  the blockade happen.