California Nurses Association: Sports Arena Adjacent to Hospital Poses Adverse Consequences on Patients and Public Health

Citing impacts on access to care, patient health and the ability of patients, family members and health professionals to access Mission Bay’s hospitals and clinics in gridlock traffic, the California Nurses Association, today voiced opposition to the current plan for the proposed Golden State Warriors’ entertainment complex in Mission Bay.

“Our role here is our concern over the effects of the proposed plan on patients needing care at the hospitals in Mission Bay,” said UCSF RN Maureen Dugan, a board member of CNA, which represents UC San Francisco RNs.

“The addition of a large sports and entertainment complex adjacent to our healthcare facilities would likely limit our ability to protect thousands of children and adults each day,” said Randy Howell, RN who works at UCSF Mission Bay.

“For nurses, our concern is to make sure our patients, their family members, and those who care for them are assured of having full access, 24-hours a day, to the critical healthcare facilities,” Howell added.

Nurses at a Monday press conference challenged the project as proposed and, encouraged the city to put the city’s health and welfare first.

“Our membership is concerned that the City is putting so much attention, effort and resources behind a poorly planned project when we have so many challenges in San Francisco – such as the health and welfare of our City’s sick and the ability to provide affordable housing for so many in our community who are struggling to get by,” said Dugan.

The City released its draft Environmental Impact Report for the project earlier this month, underscoring the impacts of this facility on the surrounding community.

City officials, developers, and the team owners propose to build an 18,500-seat complex in the Mission Bay neighborhood – directly across the street from the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, the UCSF Bakar Cancer Center, the UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital and the UCSF Ron Conway Family Gateway Medical Building, in addition to other facilities.

The entertainment center would host 225 events each year – a game, convention or other special event more than every other day – which critics warn would increase congestion in the area, threatening to limit timely access to critical healthcare facilities.

Despite the size of the facility, the arena project as proposed only includes 200 dedicated parking spaces. Event traffic would be directed to park in private lots already dedicated to other facilities, such as UCSF’s hospital parking lots currently utilized by patients, family members, other hospital visitors and healthcare workers.

Further, the EIR illustrates how the proposed project would bring traffic in all surrounding intersections to a halt, resulting in gridlock during special events.

“If built as proposed, the draft EIR shows that the crowds and traffic generated by this arena would flood the small Mission Bay area, which could grind the area to a halt and over saturate the few existing parking lots in the neighborhood,” said Howell. “Add that to the impact on air quality from the congestion and idling cars, factors that have not been adequately studied.”

Nurses said they would raise concerns directly with the City at the June 30 public hearing at City Hall on the project’s draft EIR.