Can community pressure reverse the dangerous secret Lennar-City decision to implode Candlestick Stadium?

by Helen H. Kang, Joe Baskin and Raymond Tompkins

The Chronicle reported in November that Lennar Urban, the developer for the massive Candlestick Park development in Bayview Hunters Point, says that it thinks most people want to “just blow the thing up,” speaking of the 70,000-plus-seat stadium. Implosions, as they are called, using explosives, create quite a show.

Most of us have seen videos of building implosions and have marveled at the engineering that can level structures in a matter of minutes without sending large pieces of concrete flying into the neighborhood. But, what happens to the smaller particulate matter in an implosion is less than marvelous.

A 2005 health study done in Canada suggests that implosions in metropolitan areas should be prohibited. The study found that dust – as harmless as it may sound – can be dispersed more than 10 miles from the site of implosion. The concentration of dust can increase to thousands of times the background levels after an implosion.

Bayview Hunters Point residents know about air pollution firsthand. Extensive research backs up the connection between exposure to particulate matter and many of the diseases that Bayview Hunters Point residents already suffer from – 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. In children, particulate matter exposure means reduced lung function, a condition that may plague them the rest of their lives.

While the construction of a 500,000 square foot shopping center has much of the media in a buzz, less attention has been given to the health impacts of how the City of San Francisco goes about demolishing the stadium and constructing the center.

Although Lennar Urban is reported as saying that the decision about whether to implode the stadium will be made in the spring, in actuality the San Francisco Planning Department made that decision in September. That decision went unreported, and the residents of Bayview did not know about it.

After we protested this unpublicized decision – when the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic found out that none of the approvals that Lennar Urban said occurred for dust mitigation had actually been given by the Air District or the City Health Department – the Planning Department promised to review the decision, but without committing to consult first with the community that would be directly affected.

This is a great city. It can do better. It can tear the stadium down the right way by involving the public in this decision, especially considering that the state and the Air District both have recognized the Bayview Hunters Point area as a vulnerable community.

The city can have its share of Michael Kors, Burberry and Nike stores and protect its air for its citizens. Mementos of the old stadium should not lodge in young children’s lungs.

Helen H. Kang is professor of law and director of the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic at Golden Gate University School of Law, 536 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94105-2968. Joseph Baskin is a certified law student working with the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic. Raymond Tompkins, a scientist, retired professor and longtime community advocate, whose work has won many environmental justice struggles, can be reached at [email protected].

“Athlone cooling towers demolition 2010-08-22” by Zunaid – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Look at the dust – particulate matter that can sicken and kill – kicked up by the implosion of the cooling towers of the Athlone Power Station in Cape Town, South Africa, on Aug. 22, 2010. – Wikimedia