Making good on their promise to fight the proposed Mission Bay Warriors' Arena "until the cows come home," the Mission Bay Alliance yesterday filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court accusing the future neighbor of the would-be arena, the University of California San Francisco, of inappropriately reaching an October 6th agreement with the Warriors regarding potential traffic congestion resulting from arena events.
The suit claims that UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood went above and beyond his authority in negotiating the deal as he did not get official approval from the UC Board of Regents. It also claims that the deal is a bad one, reports the Examiner, as it apparently precludes the University from taking the Warriors to court over any future traffic related problems.
The Mission Bay Alliance is a deep-pocketed organization that, according to its website, is made up of "a coalition of UCSF stakeholders, donors, faculty, physicians and the working men and women of San Francisco."
So, yes, a group of people affiliated with UCSF have sued UCSF alleging the organization made a bad deal with the Warriors regarding future traffic management, even as the Ex notes that UCSF endorsed the arena only after San Francisco officials agreed to millions of dollars in area transportation improvements.
In an attempt to illustrate the impacts of arena traffic on the Mission Bay UCSF medical campus, the suit includes assistant professor of biology and SFist commenter Jennifer Wade as a plaintiff. Wade's son has a congenital heart defect, and she is reportedly worried about access to the campus in an emergency situation.
“Magnus is alive today because of a series of heart surgeries performed by UCSF doctors,” KRON 4 reports her as saying in a statement. “I filed this lawsuit because I can’t believe that the Chancellor would allow the Warriors to build their arena next to the hospital.”
In response to previous SFist coverage on the proposed arena, Wade wrote:
I've been heavily involved in the opposition to this arena because I have a medically fragile child with a rare condition, and he depends on access to the UCSF pediatric ER. I am also concerned about the noise impact the arena would have on families who spend weeks and months in the hospital with their critically ill children. One of the biggest disappointments to me in this battle has been the callousness of arena proponents, including Warriors employees, some of whom openly snickered at parents' testimony about how this arena project makes them fear for their children's lives at the meeting on Tuesday. Characterizing the opposition as "throwing fits and suing everyone" is really not much better. I know that having a critically ill child is an experience most people don't have (thankfully) and don't really understand, but sheesh, I'd love to see just a LITTLE sensitivity to the fact that young lives are at stake here.
Previously: Warriors Arena Appeal Fails, Opponents Still Vowing To Throw Fits And Sue Everyone