Yeah, This Will Solve the Problem...

I was driving in to the BART station when an advertisement comes on the radio. The woman’s voice was serious as she spoke of “San Francisco’s growing crisis of affordable recreation.” The crisis is so severe, in fact, that the lack of “affordable recreation” is causing families to leave The City!

That’s funny—I thought it was the lack of affordable housing that was causing families to leave The City.

Case in point: my grandparents bought a house in a neighborhood that was called “The Outer Mission” in 1925. They bought this house, which was practically in the country, for $9,000. My mother & uncle sold the same house after my grandfather died in 1970 for $12,000. That same house, now in “Noe Valley”—a more upscale neighborhood—was recently listed for sale. The asking price was $950,000. It sold for $1.2 million. The only difference between when my mother lived there and now is a modernized kitchen and a change in “neighborhood.”

I can’t afford a $1.2 million dollar house. Not with kids, anyway.

According to the website, Affordable Recreation:

“San Francisco faces a public health crisis that is aggravated by the City's lack of recreational opportunities. Piers 27-31 will not only provide affordable recreational opportunities for all San Franciscans, but will help combat the City's critical health challenges.

“The Statistics are Shocking:

“Obesity: Nearly 40% of California public school children are unfit. The numbers grow even larger among African-Americans and Latinos.

“Asthma: 1 in 6 children in Bayview Hunters Point has asthma (15.5%). An estimated 54,000 San Franciscans are diagnosed with asthma.

“Studies have shown that exercise is the single best way to combat these health risks, but our kids are exercising less than ever before. The lack of recreational facilities and concerns about safety are contributing factors. Obesity also creates real economic costs a recent report found insufficient exercise cost California $21.7 billion in workers compensation and lost productivity in the year 2000.”

All true, I’m afraid. But here’s the kicker:

“Piers 27-31 will provide a safe and affordable place for every child in San Francisco to exercise and play. The Piers 27-31 plan creates 365,000 sq. ft. of open space, and a 165,000 sq. ft. community-based YMCA with access to swimming pools, soccer fields, basketball courts, and dozens of treadmills, cardio equipment, and free weights.”

As you might have guessed, Piers 27-31 are right on the Bay. In fact, they’re right over the Bay. This “safe and affordable place for every child in San Francisco” will be sandwiched between Pier 39 (and the Blue & Gold Ferry) on one side and Fisherman’s Wharf on the other. This is nowhere close to the Bayview-Hunters Point area, which is on the other side of The City. And the last time I checked, the YMCA, non-profit though they are and a great organization, charges for the use of their facilities. In my suburb, a family membership to the “Y” (which does not include children over 16) runs about $100.00 per month—not something those families in the Bayview-Hunters Point area will be able to afford.

I wanted to get an idea of what the San Francisco Park & Rec Department currently offers, so I went to this website: http://216.103.100.45/ParkRecFacilities/FacilitySearch.aspx, which is listed under San Francisco’s official website: http://www.sfgov.org/. I had to search, but the list of facilities goes on for several pages. The list doesn’t include the Golden Gate National Recreation Area: the Presidio, Crissy Field, Fort Point, Hyde Street Pier, Aquatic Park, Baker Beach, and Ocean Beach, all of which are within city limits.

So what’s going on? It’s clear that this project isn’t really about “affordable recreation.” The kids who need it can’t afford it. The jobs will be union, but I didn’t read that they are guaranteed to residents. (How many welfare recipients can teach sailing, which is one of the activities to be offered? Or sea kayaking?) Why don’t the developers come right out and say what they’re doing: they’re building an upscale recreational facility—including a state-of-the-art gym for the YMCA—on prime real estate in San Francisco. And they can get away with it because they’re calling it “community development.”

San Francisco is, unfortunately, becoming a City where only the very rich and the very poor can live. The problem isn’t a simple one to fix, either. San Francisco has only 49-square-miles and much of it is devoted to commercial real estate or was previously owned by the Federal Government where the ground requires extensive rehabilitation before homes can be built. (Hunters Point was a Navy shipyard; Crissy Field was an Army Air Field.) Building a recreational facility isn’t going to change that.