Last night San Francisco serenaded the soon-to-be-demolished Candlestick Park in a giant chorus of "Hey Jude" led by Sir Paul McCartney. Next year, the wrecking balls will arrive and Lennar Urban will demolish the park to pave the way for an ambitious mixed-use development complete with housing, office, and retail. As much as we'd like to see the place transformed into a giant hydroponic greenhouse and utopian community garden, housing is probably the best bet here. But at least Sir Paul was on hand to channel the '60s in musical form, and thousands of us were on hand to grainily capture the proceedings with our me-machines of choice! What we got, in addition to Paul's guitar licks and many rounds of stunning pyrotechnics, was a giant collective tribute to the 'Stick as it takes its final bow before becoming, like the rest of this city, an octopus garden condos. Sir Paul was, of course, a fitting farewell emcee—as you recall, the Beatles played their final concert as a group at Candlestick in 1966—but the park itself drew fans of its own. At the end of the show, several aspiring preservationists began digging up chunks of grass to tote home in go containers. Such touching vandalism we never saw. (No really, we didn't see it—the most incriminating Instagrams have been left out below to protect the identities of the nostalgic).
· Plans Announced to Blow Up Candlestick Park Next Year to Make Room for Shopping Center [Curbed SF]
· A Bold New Vision for Hunters Point That Doesn't Involve Condos [Curbed SF]