49ers and Bayview lose

Jeffrey Betcher and Jeff Harlowe at a 49ers mid-season game.

by Jeffrey Betcher

I live in the heart of 49ers-land, the San Francisco neighborhood where Candlestick Park is located and where I had hoped to see scores of horn-honking, flag-waving, firecracker-lighting, red and gold wearing neighbors making the streets look like Mardi Gras West.

This Super Bowl loss is especially bitter. The San Francisco 49ers are moving to a new land, Santa Clara, an emigration that is all the more thorny to fans who are also neighbors. It suggests that the sports organization’s longtime home and deepest fan-roots seem to mean little to 49er executives.

Folks who know me might be surprised I care. I’ve never been a big sports fan. In fact, it was just this year that I went to my first game at Candlestick Park.

But I do care. I care about my neighborhood.

The 49ers' move is strangely familiar to me as one of many losses of late. I’ve come to think that the southerly wind blowing at the team is the same wind that is blowing through all of our nation’s Mega Cities, taking whole neighborhoods with it. In fact, I’ve come to think that the 49ers' move was in motion even before the 49ers organization knew it.

Is San Francisco's grit slipping?  Please see the full story on examiner.com.