Once upon a time this city had as its motto: “The City that Knows How” — with good reason that slogan seems to have been retired along with the thought behind it.

The City built Candlestick Park back in the 1950s in order to lure the New York Giants out to the Bay Area. It has sat on that accomplishment for over nearly 60 years. During the intervening half-century we have watched the Giants abandon the place for a more convenient location downtown. After they moved out, the stadium has sat empty around 350 days and nights every year. For a number of years now the sole remaining tenant, the 49ers have also said that they want to move and are now actively trying to obtain a new facility down in Santa Clara.

Yet it is only now at the final, final, final moment that our city has suddenly awakened to the fact that Candlestick Park is inconveniently located in a cul-de-sac—isolated from both public transportation and from the 101 Freeway. Suddenly after more than 50 years of idleness the city is proposing a “transportation plan” that would put in a bridge to improve freeway traffic, expand the Harney Way entrance road, establish rapid transit to the area, and extend existing bus routes into the area of the stadium. There is even a proposal for a “traffic management center” in the area to coordinate the local traffic signals to keep traffic flowing.

What we city residents are entitled to ask are two simple questions:

1. Why did the "City that Knows How," take 50 years to plan for a way to get public transit to our city-owned stadium?

2. Will these improvements in access to the area take place if it is only a question of serving the residents who live there rather than the all-important 49er’s ticket holders of Marin, San Mateo, and Santa Clara?