By Calvin Welch, HANC Housing and Land Use Board Member and Member of the Kezar Stadium Advisory Committee

For the entire 35 year history of the “new” Kezar stadium Rec and Park (or as it is known by long time San Franciscans, “Wreck the Park”) has attempted to transform the facility into a “pay to play” venue, generating revenue for the department,

HANC was asked in 1987 to support a campaign for a general obligation bond to demolish the derelict hulk of the old sixty-foot-high, 60,000-seat stadium that was left empty when Rec and Park and the 49ers left it for the friendlier confines of Candlestick Park. Neither had any plans or concerns for the site. They were happy leaving it to rot.

The community did, however, have a vision: reclaim the old Poly High School site and the old Kezar site and extend the residential community to Poly and Golden Gate Park to Kezar.

Over a four-year planning process started by the community, a design for 114 units of permanently affordable, limited-equity ownership family housing was devised for Poly and an open recreational and youth sports center was conceived for Kezar. The neighborhood would be extended to Golden Gate Park and Golden Gate Park would be extended to the neighborhood, tearing down two abandoned hulks that separated each from the other.

And the community’s vision prevailed, able to be seen by all who care to look. Scores of kids have grown up in the housing and thousands of others have played on the field of the new Kezar. Tens of thousands of everyday San Franciscans have run the track, walked the bleacher steps or simply sat on the grass of the open stadium, admiring their tax dollars at splendid “ play.”

Key to that happening was the adoption, in 1991, of a simple rule: no booze at Kezar. Alcohol is the “gateway drug” for pro sports. No booze, no pro sports. It really is that simple. And it has worked for 35 years to keep Kezar for our kids and for all of us who paid for it.

Now Phil Ginsburg, the General Manager of Rec and Park, wants to lease it for 20 Saturdays a year for five years to a pro soccer team. And because they can’t make money without selling beer, wine and hard liquor, Ginsburg wants to break the 35-year ban on alcohol at Kezar.

HANC opposes the proposal. So does the Kezar Stadium Community Advisory Committee. Read our letter and write one of your own to the Commission.