Panhandle playground chosen for renovation

In December, the city announced that the children’s playground located in the Panhandle was among six playgrounds selected for renovation using the funds of the 2012 San Francisco Parks Bond.

The current play structures and design were last rebuilt with support from the Saturn car company 15 years ago this spring. The playground has earned a “D” or “C” rating in recent years. Playgrounds with poor ratings such as these were assessed in a city-wide process last year that involved members of the community, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and the Rec and Parks Department.

Judging by the amount of funds made available for the six playgrounds selected, the playground renovation will be about a $2-$3 million project. The Parks Alliance reports that an implementation plan is expected in March. A process for community input into the playground’s design has not yet been established.

 In my view, this new capital improvement project presents several opportunities:

1. Incorporate interpretation of the park’s history. The park’s most distinctive feature is our mature trees, and their enduring beauty should be celebrated. A historical sign could explain the context of their planting by the early visionaries of San Francisco’s park system. This would also fit with recognizing Elizabeth McClintock, who was the Curator of Botany for the California Academy of Sciences and who authored The Trees of the Panhandle in 1964 when the park was threatened by highway construction. McClintock, a scientist, author, and advocate, died in 2004, and I know of no public memorial elsewhere.

 2. Include new gardener’s hut/tool shed. The current hut is in very poor condition, and the adjacent tool shed (which is a shipping container) is an eyesore. The gardener can do a better job maintaining the playground and supporting the regular volunteer stewardship programs that take place in the park with a modern facility.

3. Make a more prominent and welcoming entrance. One thing that would be great for families arriving by bike would be to include racks and space for bike parking both outside and inside the gate.

4. Consider an alternate site within the park. The current playground site is hemmed in by mature trees, which may limit options for modifying its design. The trees also present a maintenance burden due to constantly falling eucalyptus leaf and bark litter, as well as some hazard of falling limbs. Lastly, they might make the construction very tricky. The open asphalt covered area just east of the restrooms covers twice the space of the current playground and I strongly urge that site be assessed for the playground. It would be important to evaluate whether there would still be enough space left for the occasional party tents, porta-potties, and dumpsters that get stationed in that zone, and also how it would affect the groups that use the space informally (e.g., tai chi, martial arts, kid’s soccer). If the playground were re-situated, the current playground could stay in operation during construction, and then afterwards, that site could be transitioned back to open space, or a community garden, or a sports court (such as petanque or bocce).

2003 article sheds light on path upgrade

It's been hard to recall exactly when the multi-use path was last rebuilt. Thanks to a local archivist, the answer was recently placed in my hands: it was 2003, and I wrote an article about it for the July/August issue of North Panhandle News.

Highlighted by some bicycle clip-art and accompanied by ads for Car Los and Club Waziema, the article led with a comment about "seven months of stop-and-start construction." (San Francisco public construction projects were as slow 11 years ago as they are now.) The article also references DPT (now MTA), and the recent approval of Fell Street bike lanes. There's an intriguing mention of signage and stencils that would be "designed to steer walkers to the south pathway and cyclists to the north pathways," but that are, mysteriously, "still in development."

Glancing through the rest of the newsletter brings back memories of District 5 Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, Annie Bourdon doing outreach for City CarShare (which then had a fleet of 85 cars), and Leila Fakouri's application to open Madrone Lounge, "primarily an art space."

 

North Panhandle News features history of the Panhandle park

The North Panhandle News, distributed to about 3,500 households in the boundaries of Turk, Divisadero, Masonic, and Fell Street, has a brief history of the Panhandle in its September/October issue. The article is written by Sean Sullivan, who is organizing the public safety event for the Panhandle Park Action Project. The newsletter was just printed, and I delivered newsletters along my route yesterday. If you live outside the boundaries, or if you haven't received a copy of the newsletter, you can also check the newsletter online. 

This issue also has an update on the Arts Commission plans to build a fence around the McKinley Statue. Neighborhood groups have reluctantly come around to supporting the plan to protect the piece from vandalism, and the Commission's agenda for this past Monday, September 9 included a motion for approval of an octagonal iron fence.

Pictures from January workday

Today's Panhandle workday involved repeat volunteers and the families of the second grade class at San Francisco Day School. Here are a few photos from our day and one of our special guest.

Sweeping in the memorial circle


Clearing the Shrader cross-path of mud and debris

Dale Danley (L) with Megan Bierman by the sign that honors her mother, Sue Bierman

Someone gets a ride in a wheelbarrow pretty much every month

Besides what you see in the pictures, there was also a lot of leaf-raking, soil spreading, and shrub clipping. We were a large group and I think we all felt amazed by the amount of work we got done. Megan Bierman joined us in the work and expressed her appreciation for making the Sue Bierman Glade, installed in 2001, a more welcoming spot. To help us understand some of her mother's work in the struggle to keep the Panhandle park from being turned into an elevated freeway, she led us in singing The Cement Octopus, written by San Francisco song-writer Malvina Reynolds about the freeway revolt.

December Workday wrap-up

Not just leaves, but also branches and twigs have been falling in the Panhandle this month, and so we began yesterday's workday raking and filling dozens of wheelbarrows full in the garden around the playground. The small plants were glad to be uncovered.  

A bigger project also awaited the sixth grade class from the Day School and other volunteers: moving the soil from a long-neglected pile that had been left unused on the paved area east of the playground.

The soil had become heavy and compacted over time, so it took extra work to shovel and wheelbarrow over to some nearby trees.

We spread the soil around the grove of elms and pittosporums near Oak/west of Masonic Ave.

We took our break by the massive eucalyptus that stands nearby.

Emmett and his dad investigated a drain that we had uncovered. It's full of silt, so will take some further maintenance and further before it can do its job. Maybe when it works again it'll reduce the boggy conditions at the northeast end of the pavement.

Charlie and his crew were on hand and helped us finish the job.

Some volunteers asked me, "what is this space?" The simple answer is that it's a very useful paved space: birthday parties, Tai Chi groups, and bicycle ballet rehearsal all make frequent use of it. Historically, it's a reminder of the roadway that used to wind down the center of the park. Here's the area between Ashbury and Masonic in a 1938 aerial photo (and visit the image at the David Rumsey Map Collection to zoom in and see the surrounding area). 

Nopa Velo rides to the tall trees of the Panhandle

photo: Michael Helquist

Nopa Velo, our neighborhood cycling group, brought riders to the west end of the Panhandle on Sunday morning, where I told the group about Elizabeth McClintock and her contributions to the history of the Panhandle Park and the trees of Golden Gate Park. We continued on to the Presidio, and back to the 'hood for a backyard brunch.

Map fun: Site of Panhandle Bandshell

While playing around with Google Maps and creating a Panhandle Park/Neighborhood map to post here, I noticed that the current satellite images capture the construction (or perhaps dismantling?) of the Panhandle Bandshell. That was 2007! Wonder when we get new pics of SF?

flickr photo from affinity1

The bandshell still exists and lives up north at Fort Mason these days. I wonder if we could get it back to the park for the summer?

Knowing our history: Mary Helen Briscoe tells of community engagement with the park

One of the biggest champions of the Panhandle Park in recent years is Mary Helen Briscoe. I asked Mary Helen to share some of her park experiences. Here are some highlights from recent years in her own words and pictures.  

Neighbors getting organized to tackle problems
PROSF (Panhandle Residents Organization Stanyan Fulton) began in the eighties and from the first was involved with the Panhandle, the park being the focus of our neighborhood. Early on we joined with Clean City Coalition and other City-wide groups in picking up trash, which I'm bound to say was a worse problem in the nineties than today. There were many encampments and a lot of drug and alcohol abuse, especially near the old restroom and playground at Ashbury.

PROSF worked with the Capital Division of the Rec & Park Dept. to get the new restroom built after it had been closed for more than a year. PROSF also had many members in RAD, an organization working with the police and Guardian Angels to fight the drug problem in the Haight and Panhandle.

Learning to work with the city's Recreation and Parks staff
After working with Gloria Koch-Gonzalez, Park Supervisor, and Kristin Bowman of the R&P Volunteers Office on City-wide cleanups, Gloria asked me to be a volunteer representative for the Panhandle. Her persuasive powers, along with the charm and obvious needs of Guillermo, a Panhandle gardener, led to the regular cleanup, a joint effort with NOPNA (North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association).

The monthly cleanups began in 2007 and it was a great pleasure to work with Guillermo outdoors in a beautiful setting. He is so knowledgeable and cares so deeply about the park, especially the trees, that the cleanups are more than picking up trash, but also a learning experience about the needs and care of trees and other plants.

Guillermo gardens full-time in the park, and also has some fun planting flower beds and, in a whimsical moment, trimming a shrub into a rabbit. It can be found on the south side of the park near a utility box, east of Masonic. On one Saturday cleanup, we hosted a party in and around the playground for the children with refreshments and a pinata supplied by Guillermo.

What getting involved with the parks means to neighbors and families
The other wonderful experience in cleaning up is involvement with neighbors and city-wide volunteers. It is a delightful and hopeful sight to see young children wielding rakes and volunteers' dogs attracting the attention of passers-by. Although we've received thanks and encouragement from those on bikes or foot passing through, we've rarely been able to persuade them to help out. But we're raising consciousness!

Seeing people donating their time and energy to caring for their environment is a healthy example for others, especially the young. Adding more events in the park that are fun will engage people in their surroundings and help keep the park beautiful.

For the past two years PROSF with NOPNA has a grant application out for help in putting out a brochure describing the history and the trees of the Panhandle which are not only beautiful but historic and, often, rare. After the brochure, the plan is to fund at least one sign with the historic and botanical information about the Panhandle, to be placed at Stanyan and/or Baker. Due to cuts in granting agencies, it's taking time but we're still working on it.