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Candlestick Update: only bad news.
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dvCali



Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 1314

PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 11:38 am    Post subject: Candlestick Update: only bad news. Reply with quote

Unfortunately the news about Candlestick are not good. There are two distinct problems, both seemingly unsolvable and rooted in the disregard of the Park, and especially City administration for the location.

The Park will remain open only 9am to 5pm, and there is no plan to remove or change the position of the cement barriers inside the Park. The barriers make "the circle" not accessible, limiting parking and increasing the distance to the "beach". The root problem is that the Park is severely understaffed and has no low enforcement force in place. There is only one ranger assigned to the Park. (He said that there are five payed unfilled positions for Stick, but nobody takes one because the pay is too low to survive in the City. How to solve that is very unclear, it would require changing pay rates at the State level.)

The City continues the closure of Hunter Points Highway (HPH). It has been four months, and the legality of the move is very unclear, but all the contacts I made with City Hall dodged the question. From an action/protest point of view the problem is that it is very difficult to identify who, besides windsurfers, fishermen, maybe some local commuters, cares. Pressure on City Hall to reopen HPH is probably close to non existent Compare to the situation for another closure: the Great Highway, where local residents were able to sue the city for closing the highway.

So, no good, especially going into day time saving and the more crowded time of the year. For things to get better all it would take is for City Hall to reopen HPH. Eliminating the car donuts problem would just take putting down some cement blocks as car lane dividers, and/pr having some police presence. For comparison with the rich part of town: I counted 4 police cars in Golden Gate Park this morning, and Park ranger presence is constant.

Anyway, there are alternative parking areas at Stick. One in front of the Park Gates, requiring a very sizable walk. The other on the west side of HPH, that would require carrying equipment down a 15 meters drop, and launching west of the pier.

I am doing another round of outreach and will update if something comes about. Otherwise ... Crissy.



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Last edited by dvCali on Wed Mar 09, 2022 11:50 am; edited 1 time in total
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vmaher2045



Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 54

PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2022 6:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looking forward to the start of the season. Does this mean no parking at our usual spots?
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dvCali



Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 1314

PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2022 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

vmaher2045 wrote:
Looking forward to the start of the season. Does this mean no parking at our usual spots?

Yep, no parking on Hunters Point Highway anywhere. Only parking inside the Park, but not to the "circle", until 5pm.



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vmaher2045



Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 54

PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2022 4:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I called my San Francisco supervisor Hillary Ronan and the supervisor for that district Shamann Walton. Everyone should call to ask about the closure. Does the SFBA know about this?
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dvCali



Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 1314

PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2022 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

vmaher2045 wrote:
I called my San Francisco supervisor Hillary Ronan and the supervisor for that district Shamann Walton. Everyone should call to ask about the closure. Does the SFBA know about this?

Yes, we have been at this for about three months ... HPH closed in mid Nov.
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Goodwind



Joined: 06 May 2005
Posts: 323
Location: On water

PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2022 11:56 pm    Post subject: Re: Candlestick Update: only bad news. Reply with quote

dvCali wrote:

The Park will remain open only 9am to 5pm, and there is no plan to remove or change the position of the cement barriers inside the Park. The barriers make "the circle" not accessible, limiting parking and increasing the distance to the "beach". The root problem is that the Park is severely understaffed and has no low enforcement force in place. There is only one ranger assigned to the Park. (He said that there are five payed unfilled positions for Stick, but nobody takes one because the pay is too low to survive in the City. How to solve that is very unclear, it would require changing pay rates at the State level.)


Pretty good wind today. Unfortunately all five of us have to get in shortly after 4pm in order to get out by 5pm. To help keep the park open later, the ranger asked us to spread the words that the state parking is hiring.



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Last edited by Goodwind on Thu Mar 10, 2022 12:22 am; edited 1 time in total
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Goodwind



Joined: 06 May 2005
Posts: 323
Location: On water

PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2022 12:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Now I really miss the homeless folks (minus the auto shop). They made parking near the launch so much easier. And we don't have to worry about any closing time.


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dvCali



Joined: 23 Aug 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2022 9:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I swung by the Stick today and if possible the situation seems to be getting worse. A recap: the city has kept Hunters Point Expressway closed since November. Now they are actually opening it every day but just to grant access to the multitude of big trucks that are moving stuff in/out of the old Candlestick Stadium spot.

They need a guy on site all day to stop people to go through with the cars, and they need to move the cement blocks twice EVERY DAY to close access to the road when the trucks are done. I can't imagine the cost of that, probably a few thousands/day.

It looks like this might be permanent. And I am afraid that the nightmarish development planned for the Stick might be starting, and it might the reason for the closure (see below and https://www.candlesticksf.com/).



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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2022 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Even as a WSer who has never sailed the Bay (I've been to Candlestick only once), this whole Stick thing is an emotional blow. Again to us strangers, Candlestick is the most iconic launch on the Bay. To see it devolving from what I saw there in the '80s -- dozens of WSers even on a borderline day on a sandy beach -- to what you depict now is devastating even from Hood River. It's almost as though they closed the Gorge due to politicians not giving a crap.

I've always appreciated you locals' opportunity to put in a full day's work, then brave rush hour traffic to put in a few hours of sailing, sleep be damned. Many of my eastern WA locals very often do the same thing, with the primary difference being that their 60 to 90 minute one-way drive is at 70 mph on cruise control. I so hope that Candlestick is just one of several good accesses to The Bay and The Bridge, not the uniquely superior marvel we've long envisioned from afar, wind shadow aside.


Last edited by isobars on Wed Jun 08, 2022 10:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
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jpf18



Joined: 13 Aug 2000
Posts: 347
Location: San Francisco

PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2022 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dvCali wrote:
And I am afraid that the nightmarish development planned for the Stick might be starting, and it might the reason for the closure (see below and https://www.candlesticksf.com/).
The developer FivePoint seems to be facing some headwinds. The mall planned for the site was already called off in 2019. Here's the latest (May 18, 2022) that I could find:
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2022/05/18/fivepoint-candlestick-hunters-point-layoffs.html

'The current approved plans for FivePoint’s San Francisco projects are as follows:

Hunters Point Shipyard: 3,500 homes, 4.2 million square feet of commercial space, 656,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space. The project was halted in 2018 after reports of fraud in the remediation of portions of the nearly 500-acre site.
Candlestick Point: 7,128 homes; a 130,000-square-foot, 220-room hotel; 750,000 square feet of research and development and office space; and about 300,000 square feet of lifestyle retail space. Plans were approved in 2019; construction at the 272-acre site has not commenced.

Former CEO Haddad, asked by analysts during an earnings call last spring about increasing density at Hunters Point, said the company saw an opportunity for optimization there. He later told my colleague Laura Waxmann the company was not in any ongoing discussions with the city about the matter.

FivePoint did not immediately respond to request for comment about the reassessing of its San Francisco projects.

Haddad said last spring that FivePoint was actively talking to the city about converting the 750,000 square feet of office and research and development space for use as a health care campus.

He described conversations with the city as “extremely productive,” and told the Business Times the project would potentially need to move some approved office uses from Hunters Point to Candlestick. Construction at Candlestick, which is not subject to the same issues as Hunters Point, could commence as soon as FivePoint has a tenant commitment in hand, Haddad said at the time.'
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