New streets to be named for 49ers, Giants Hall of Famers

Developer FivePoint (a spin off of Lennar Corporation, the company adding thousands of new units to the city’s southeastern neighborhoods) announced today that it will name nine new streets in the Candlestick Point area after former 49ers and San Francisco Giants players and staff.

The Giants departed Candlestick Park (itself now departed) in 2000 in favor of their current residence in South Beach and the 49ers forsook San Francisco altogether in favor of Santa Clara.

But at least they’ll remain in name once development in the neighborhood of the former ballpark finishes.

FivePoint said in a press release that both the company and the city will confer the names of NFL Hall of Famers and 49ers veterans Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, and Jerry Rice on incoming avenues, along with former coach Bill Walsh, former team owner Edward DeBartolo Jr (also noted for his real estate dealings and legal problems), and former team VP Carmen Policy.

Carol M. Highsmith

Baseball Hall of Famers and former Giants Orlando Cepeda and Juan Marichal will also get the street treatment, along with home run record-holder Barry Bonds.

Surprisingly, nobody announced a forthcoming Willie Mays Avenue or Willie Mays Street. Although a cable car and a plaza at AT&T Park bear the Say Hey Kid’s name, he’s never had a street named for him in San Francisco, where he played for over a decade and endured neighborhood racism to buy a home in the city in the 1950s.

Note that New York City actually named two streets after Mays.

This seems like such a strange oversight it’s hard to believe, but according to the city’s database there is no Willie Mays Street locally, and Adrian VerHagen, a land surveyor with the Bureau of Streets Use and Mapping, tells Curbed SF, “The Public Works database for the subject name did not return any such street or avenue.”

Maybe Candlestick developers will yet find room for the Mays. In the meantime, FivePoint is planning over 7,000 new homes in the Candlestick neighborhood in the coming years.

Stephen Kelly

• Willie Mays Honored With Cable Car [Chronicle]
• SF Street Names [Department of Building Inspection]
• Two Streets For Mays [NY Daily News]
• Edward Debartolo [Forbes]
• Mays On Miraloma Drive [Outside Lands]