Late one Friday night I was in the Castro being naughty but nice. My eyes fixed on a good-looking young black man who apparently was into much older men.
We talked for a while and then enjoyed one another, if you know what I mean. Then this pleasant and soft-spoken man asked me for a ride home to "Third Street."
I thought it was a bit odd that once we were in the area, he kept pointing directions up the hill to where he lived. Whether he did not want me to be alarmed or he was just too ashamed; he never mentioned where he lived, by name.
The Alice Griffith housing projects, a.k.a. Double Rock, is in San Francisco's misunderstood Bayview-Hunters Point where Candlestick Park is located. For years, it has been my passion to help improve the reputation of the Bayview, especially the notorious Double Rock.
Humble Candlestick Park and the surrounding community have been nothing short of faithful to the 49ers since 1971 when the team began to share the stadium originally built in 1960 for the Giants baseball team.
Recently, and with great pomp and circumstance, a groundbreaking ceremony took place in Santa Clara for the 49ers new $1.2 billion stadium project. The fact that this stadium is a public facility, financed with public funds, and the ceremony was closed to the public, was a good indicator that someone was trying to hide an illicit affair.
We can differ on the morals of a one-night stand; however, after a 40-year relationship in the Bayview, the moral thing to do is to be more respectful of an ex-lover who may still have strong feelings after a separation.
The Santa Clara mayor and city council lured the 49ers with an offer to relocate 35 miles south of the team's 1946 birth and nuptials. With help from the NFL, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, and Goldman Sachs, they gave affluent Silicon Valley a $1.2 billion stadium, set to open in 2014.
Then, after only a month of construction, the 49ers crept back into bed with elected San Francisco officials in what appears to be a booty call, or one-night stand.
The 49ers, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, and Supervisor Mark Farrell are attempting to have the city of San Francisco play a "host role" in a bid to bring the 2016 Super Bowl to the new Santa Clara stadium. This one-time event would help the team repay a huge chunk of its new stadium loan.
However, the 49ers were unwilling to help a struggling community with the economic lift a billion-dollar stadium project could give to Bayview-Hunters Point in San Francisco.
First, the team thought they were entitled to more from the city, solely for their bedroom (Candlestick) performance, where five Super Bowls were conceived. One could argue that the team is partly to blame for standing in the way of rebuilding the area. Then the team jumped at the opportunity to leave the city with the name San Francisco; inherited through marriage.
Now the team has placed a booty call to cash-strapped city officials who are horny enough to risk the reputation of San Francisco, "Everyone's favorite city," just to pleasure an unfaithful ex-spouse.
What the 49ers have forgotten is that it is best to make a clean break in a relationship gone south (pun intended). Reaching back for favors from a scorned lover has disaster written all over it.
Urban myth tells about a man who dumped his dentist girlfriend for another woman. Knowing that the ex-girlfriend still had feelings for him, the man returned for a favor. He asked her to extract a bothersome tooth. The woman agreed but could not resist the subtle suggestion that caused her to lose her mind. The man woke up to the fact that she had removed all his teeth.
The rebuke of saying "No!" to hosting a Super Bowl would be fitting. We must let the world know that the 49ers are not going to treat San Francisco like a one-night stand, after a 66-year relationship in which five Super Bowls were raised.
The bidding process for a possible 2016 Super Bowl will begin this summer. The NFL Super Bowl Advisory Committee will decide in October on who will host Super Bowl L.
San Francisco saying no to the NFL and the 49ers might cost the Bay Area millions in a one-time economic lift. However, the single statement could cause a self-serving NFL and a particular wealthy Ohio family to hear San Francisco say loud and clear, "I'm not that kind of girl."
Contact Mayor Lee, Supervisor Farrell, and Supervisor Scott Wiener and let them know enough is enough before the San Francisco 49ers insist the city and the 49ers go Dutch on the Super Bowl Host City application fee.
Allen Jones is older than Candlestick Park but not as dilapidated. He is a published author and solely responsible for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors resolution declaring September 22, 2011 Oliver W. Sipple Day in San Francisco. For further information, you can contact him by email at mailto:[email protected].