Doesn't sound too bright.
Is this Rome? Cast off our military capabilities so the serfs can indulge in some bread and circuses distractions.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
The decision to close was made some time ago. Probably independent of any such considerations, but one never knows what went into the BRAC process. (Base Realignment and Closing)
It's closing, regardless of what's to be done with the land. The problem is that the military is exempt from most environmental legislation, so the land has to be cleaned up before anyone else can occupy it.
When a military base closes, jobs leave with it. City officials want to open the land to new businesses that will create jobs. They have an agonizing wait while the military cleans up the site, an under-budgeted process that starts out as a five year plan and usually takes at least ten. I've talked to folks in Long Beach and Vallejo about their frustrations with that process (the Long Beach and Mare Island shipyards, respectively).
The request to the Navy is not unreasonable, and since San Francisco's own congresscritter is the Speaker of the House, the city might have the political juice to pull it off. Now, the reasonableness or wisdom of building a gazillion-dollar new stadium with taxpayer funds, that's a whole 'nother question.
As an Atlantan, this sort of debate just makes me want to kiss Billy Payne and Arthur Blank on the face.