Residents' Group Launches Petition To Stop Candlestick Park Implosion, Citing Health Concerns
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The plan for demolishing Candlestick Park and build new development on the site is running into increased opposition.
A Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood group has launched a petition to prevent development group Lennar Corporation from demolishing the stadium by implosion.
The petition, which has several hundred online signatures so far, said imploding the stadium would release a dust plume that would endanger the health of Bayview residents, especially with the swirling winds the Candlestick area is known for.
According to the petition:
"Extensive medical research backs up the connection between particulate matter exposure and many of the diseases Bayview Hunters Point residents already suffer from at the highest rates in this city - asthma and ischemic heart disease. Medical literature says particulate matter is also associated with risks of premature deaths, especially in the elderly and people with pre-existing cardiopulmonary disease."
"This is a disenfranchised Bayview neighborhood in San Francisco. Similar work has been done all over the city during the last twelve months in more affluent neighborhoods and numerus [sic] buildings have been deconstructed using mechanical dismantling. It is only in this Southeast corner of the city that politicians and developers feel they can act with impunity towards the health and safety of the community."
Lennar official B.H. Bronson Johnson downplayed the risks at a community meeting Monday, telling Bayview residents, "Conventional demolition or the implosion option does not lead to any risk to health."
"I think it's a ... 'black lives matter' situation," Marlee-I Hand told CBS News. "I think that environmental justice is something they don't consider in poor black neighborhoods."
The original plan was to dismantle Candlestick Park piece-by-piece, according to a 2010 environmental impact report.
Shirley Moore, vice president of the Bayview Hill Neighborhood Association, lives right next door to 'The Stick,' built in 1960.
"You put the ecosystem at risk, you put human beings at risk, you put more people at risk. You do more damage," said Moore. "They need to stick to the initial agreement and they need to mechanically dismantle this thing."
Lennar plans to build 12,000 housing units and a high-end shopping mall at the stadium site, and says the project will bring 10,000 permanent jobs to the area.
Lennar insists all hazardous materials will be removed from the park before they implode the structure.
"I've heard the concerns ... and we believe that it's really important to ensure that we are indeed dealing with it in not only the most efficient manner but in the safest manner for the community," Lennar Urban President Kofi Bonner told CBS News.
A new environment impact report has yet to get approval, but Lennar says it hopes the implosion will happen between January and March.
