SF Parks & Rec Community Budget Meetings

The new budget season has begun! Join SF Parks & Rec for an upcoming community budget meeting.

Monday, January 27, at Palega Recreation Center, 6-7:30 p.m

Monday, February 3, at Cabrillo Playground,  6-7:30 p.m

Hear SF Park & Rec's initial plans for the upcoming year, tell them your budget priorities, and find out more information on the city's budget process.

For more information, visit sfrecpark.org. 

Love Your Parks Day

Love Your Parks Day

May 19, 2012

Alemany Farm Herb Gardening
Join SFPA and Friends of Alemany Farm for an herb walk and hands-on demonstration with herbalist Kathryn Delwiche. Enjoy refreshments made with herbs from the farm, kids
activities, then get a tour of Alemany Farm- the largest working farm in San Francisco.

Where: Alemany Farm (700 Alemany Boulevard)
Time: Noon to 4:00pm
 

Visitacion Valley Greenway Native Planting
Green your thumb at Vis Valley Greenway, one of the most successful community gardens in the City. We'll be putting in native plants and mulching, and then enjoy lunch in the beautiful Herb Garden.

Meet: VVG Native Plant Garden (between Tioga and Tucker)
Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm
 

Hilltop Park Beautification and Lunch
Join SFPA, Habitat for Humanity and Parks 94124 to beautify Hilltop Park. We'll be replanting flower beds, clearing debris, and pruning vegetation, then sitting down for lunch to admire our work!

Where: Hilltop Park (Hudson St. at Whitney Young Circle)
Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm

McLaren Park Nature Walk and Turtle Play Area Revitalization
Join SFPA and the McLaren Park Collaborative for morning nature walks, exploring McLaren Park- one of San Francisco's largest and least known habitats. We'll then revitalize the Turtle Play Area with some new sand, and enjoy lunch together.

Where: See www.LoveYourParksDay.org for meeting times, locations and schedule
Time: 9:00am to 1:00pm
 

Silver Terrace Wellness Day: June 4th

The Southeast corner of San Francisco, home to some of the friendliest people in the city, is also home to some of the city’s most pressing health and wellness issues. Thankfully, there are a growing number of civic-minded neighbors and non-profit organizations that are trying to change that.

In response to the need for neighbors to get active and get outside, the Friends of Silver Terrace Playground, a new park and community group, is hosting its first Wellness Day on Saturday, June 4th Wellness Day at Silver Terrace Playground, which serves the Bayview, Portola, and Bernal Heights neighborhoods as their local playground, and the city at large as one of it's primary club sports venues.

Working with the Neighborhood Parks Council, Parks 94124 and Portola Family Connections, the event aims to address wellness issues facing this part of the city through sport and exercise, food and nutrition, and health and safety. It will present neighbors with a variety of ways to get healthy, including: basketball, volleyball, badminton, and soccer clinics, yoga, line dancing, walking, and more.

There will be gardening demonstrations by Quesada Gardens Initiative, Urban Sprouts and Flowercraft, vegetables donated by the SF Produce Market and Bi-Rite that will be given away by VeggieTable, plus local soil quality information. There will also be basic CPR instruction, health testing and information about asthma, COPD, diabetes, and HIV, plus other health, wellness, and safety information.

Area businesses have also graciously offered to chip in, with Recology providing healthy BBQ’d veggie burgers and vegetables, and AMR providing an ambulance for ‘junior paramedics’ to climb inside and to learn about our first responders.  We will also have a supervised dog play area, provided by Fog City Dogs, so that you can leave your dog in good hands while experiencing some of the events we have planned.

Sports Clinics:
10:30 - 1:00 Soccer (Sports Basement)
10:30 - 11:30 Volleyball (Samoan Community Development Center)
12:30 - 1:30 Basketball (Rec & Park Dept)
1:00 - 2:00 Badminton

Activities:
10:00 - 11:00 Yoga
10:30 & 12:30 Basic CPR
11:30 Hula
12:30 Line dancing

All Day:
Free Veggie give-away
Free lunch
Gardening demos
Ambulance rides

Silver Terrace Playground, located at the corner of Silver Ave and Bayshore Blvd and renovated in 2006 through the City Fields Foundation, was once an unsafe and unwelcoming place. The renovation has seen usage of the playground increase by over 5000 hours annually, and has created a safer place for everyone to enjoy.

Silver Terrace Playground Wellness Day Saturday, June 4, 2011 10AM – 2PM Silver Ave at Bayshore Blvd, just off Hwy-101

Wellness Day is being organized by the Friends of Silver Terrace Playground, Portola Family Connections, Parks94124, and the Neighborhood Parks Council, and is being put on entirely through volunteer effort and donations. To help, or for more information, contact: Chris Waddling at cawaddling@gmail.com or Victoria Bell at vbell@sfnpc.org or 415-621-3260. On the web at http://sfnpc.org/wellnessday/

Community Meetings in May/June regarding a possible remodel for Sundial (Hilltop) park

Attention to All Community Members and Stakeholders,

 The Trust for Public Land has again lent their support to the Bayview Hunter's Point Community. Several years ago, The Trust for Public Land was instrumental in assisting the India Basin Community in revitalizing India Basin Shoreline Park. Through their support and community effort, India Basin Shoreline park has become a premiere park in our community located by the Shipyard on Evans/ Innes Avenue.

The Trust for Public Land has returned to our community to help once again. After being courted by the members of Parks 94124, the Trust for Public Land has committed again to this community in the form of grant writing and support. The Trust for Pubic land is writing a multi-million dollar grant to totally revitalize Sundial (Hilltop) Park. Hilltop Park which is fondly known as Sundial Park to the Hunter's Point Community is located in the heart of the hill and for nearly a decade the park has been missing a play structure and workable bathrooms. The lack of a play structure or any form of play equipment,  decaying skateboard park and the faded Sundial are just a few major things that need to be addressed in this grant process.

Play Day 2011

Neighborhood Parks Council (NPC) is hosting Play Day with their event partner Let’s Go Chipper at Herz Playground in Visitacion Valley on Friday May 6th from 10am to 2pm.

Play Day, an annual event, shines a spotlight on San Francisco’s playgrounds and highlights the importance of play in our city. Joined also by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD), this 2-hour workday will be followed by a fun, family-friendly event led by Let’s Go Chipper.

Friday May 6th
Volunteer workday: 10am-noon
Family event: noon-2pm



Play Day is the kick-off to the Playground Initiative, a series of summer clean-up days at in-need playgrounds prioritized with RPD. Herz Playground is located in Visitacion Valley. The site received a D-grade in our 2010 Playground Report Card and so it could use some extra love from volunteers.
Interested in joining us for the event portion of the day? Contact NPC for more information at (415) 621-3260 or council@sfnpc.org.
Financial support provided by Growing Up for Good.

Play Day 2010
Last year’s event was held at the Peru Avenue Play Area in McLaren Park. This play area will be renovated this year thanks to the efforts of the Playground Initiative and a community group called Help McLaren Park. Click here to see photos from Play Day 2010.

SF Parks Trust and Neighborhood Parks Council explore partnership

Adapted from a message from Glenn Snyder, SFPT Board Chair, on the SFPT website:

San Francisco has two primary nonprofits striving to meet the increasing needs of park and recreation users: SF Parks Trust (SFPT) and Neighborhood Parks Council (NPC) are world-class, independent nonprofits that hold the enduring vision for parks, align community needs with accountable management by our government, and provide resources for parks through volunteerism and philanthropy. The decrease of public funding is leading to a decline in park conditions, creating greater urgency and demand for a nonprofit organization which can facilitate the collaboration between residents and city government to maintain and improve parks and offer recreational and cultural opportunities in them.

A vision has been building at both SFPT and NPC to create a unified organization that can ensure that volunteerism, civic engagement, advocacy, and philanthropy are coordinated and leveraged to achieve the best outcomes for our parks. They would like to build on the best and most effective programs and practices from both organizations, recognizing that a unified organization can eliminate duplication of efforts, be more efficient, and bring more resources to our parks. Right now SFPT and NPC are in discussions, exploring the possibilities for a new unified nonprofit parks organization. They welcome your feedback about the ideal park organization for San Francisco and will receive your comments on their web sites, by email, or by phone.

Click here to email SFPT your input, comments, or questions

Click here to RSVP for the event

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JOINT SFPT AND NPC STAKEHOLDER'S MEETING
Join San Francisco Parks Trust and The Neighborhood Parks Council to discuss the future of parks advocacy in San Francisco as we envision a new parks organization. An open, public meeting will be held April 14th, 6-8pm, at SPUR's Urban Center at 654 Mission St.
Download a "green paper" produced by SFPT and NPC on the potential new parks organization.

Parks94124 Kick-off next Saturday

From the San Francisco Examiner,

Lafayette Park has a neighborhood group that advocates for it. So does Glen Canyon Park. And Dolores Park has several.

But the 11 parks in the Bayview-Hunters Point area have not had a loud advocating voice, and local resident Geoffrea Morris wondered if that was why those other parks are getting renovated while the parks in her neighborhood seem to be in a state of perpetual disrepair.

Morris, who was a District 10 candidate in the last San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, and three other women from the Bayview decided to remedy that problem by forming the new group Parks 94124. The group aims to secure new funding to rehabilitate what the group describes as “the  many neglected and dilapidated parks in the 94124 ZIP code.”

In addition to advocating for The City to maintain the parks more, the group will take matters into their own hands and organize cleanup efforts, as well as conduct outreach on park stewardship.

The group will officially launch next Saturday, Feb. 26, in an event supported by themayor’s office, Supervisor Malia Cohen, among others. Then they will take up trash bags and scrub brushes for some community park cleanups in March and April.

The three highest priority parks will be Hilltop Park, Hunters Point Youth Park, and Gillman Park.
These parks are in such bad shape that they “really should have been in the 2008 bond measure” – but  in fact, none of the parks in the neighborhood were, outside of a handful of bathroom renovations.

“That’s why the group really started, is to push the agenda of the parks in the Bayview. Since we have the most kids in our neighborhood, we need our parks to be safe, clean and usable,” Morris said.

The community kickoff will take place at 1 p.m. on Feb. 26 at the Joseph Lee Recreation Center.

Rec and Park Department Community Budget Presentation

For those of you interested in what goes on in our parks and how the Rec and Parks Department is planning on allocating its 2011-12 budget, mark Thursday, February 3rd on your calendars.  RPD will be hosting a series of four informational meetings around the city, with the last one at the Joseph Lee Recreation Center, 1395 Mendell St, near the Bayview Opera House.

A preview of the RPD presentation can be found online at the SF Rec and Parks website.

Also, there is also a group called 'Take Back Our Parks' that is organizing to ensure some oversight of the Rec and Parks Department, and folks may be interested in checking them out if they have concerns about clubhouse closings, budget allocation issues, etc.