That's strange. I was always under the impression that new sports stadiums helped the neighborhood by bringing in businesses looking to make money off the fans attending the games.
And how could any area of Californis be a disaster? Isn't land there worth like a jillion dollars a square foot? Or is that the problem. Housing is so expensive nobody can afford to maintain it.
No wonder somebody from California moves to Austin or Phoenix every 30 seconds.
Your impression is correct. But everytime someone wants to build a new stadium some activist group complains that it will ruin the neighborhood, and they then cite areas like Hunters Point or the area around the Oakland Coliseum (Bad neighborhoods) and say see, stadiums bring crime. If you actually look, the crime was already there, that's why the land was cheap in the first place.
Hunters Point is the epitome of ghetto, very run down, high crime, low job prospects, lousy public schools, big gang problems. It really does look like someone just dropped a bomb on it or something. Candlestick is in a bad area to begin with, it's right near the bay so the land is flood prone, the dirt parking lots are always mud. It's extremely windy there(one of the more popular wind surfing spots around). It creates huge backups on 101 getting there and getting home.
I used to love going to Giants games there as a kid but that was sort of a badge of courage thing, my friends and I used to have contests over who could go the longest without putting on a jacket, stupid stuff like that.
