Exercise equipment coming to the Panhandle

According to postings at the park, "A new outdoor gym will be installed in the Panhandle. The new exercise area is projected to open in January 2020."

The poster shows that the exercise equipment will be placed just west of the basketball courts, which is currently a stretch of unprogrammed asphalt. The Project Manager from Rec and Park, Kelli Rudnick, can be reached at 415.581.2561.

October Workday is October 8

The next Panhandle Park community workday is coming up soon: 

Panhandle Park Community Workday

Saturday, October 8

9 am - 12 noon 

All are welcome! 

Meet at the bulletin board near the playground (Oak at Ashbury) 

Gloves and tools provided 

And it's looking to be a busy fall in the park. Construction for the Panhandle Pedestrian Safety Project starts Monday - see the Rec and Park page for Phase 2 description. 

How to request repairs in the Panhandle

Have you noticed any maintenance needs at the Panhandle? Potholed pathways, faded paint, broken sinks or toilets? The best way to request repair is through SF311. Today, stencils on the pedestrian path near Shrader were repainted, perhaps the result of a resident's request. 

I find it really easy to contact SF311 through Twitter. Everyone can see my 311 requests pertaining to the park by searching "@4thepanhandle @sf311" on Twitter. 

April workday report

Volunteers helped out at Saturday's community workday by planting dozens of new plants: ceanothus, mugwort, bee plant, yarrow, sticky monkey-flower, and white sage, to name a few. Some went into the area next to the playground, and others into the rain garden, helping to finally build up the plantings around the edges of the garden, something we've been hoping for a long time. The plants were provided by SF Rec and Park Department.

As we gathered in the morning, everyone's attention was on the worsening drought in California. San Francisco must cut water consumption by another 10 percent. Guillermo, the gardener from Rec and Park, told us that he will cut back further on watering in the Panhandle, and that fortunately, some new sprinkler heads have been installed that will help him to do that. Many other localities around the state must cut back by more than ten percent. Much attention has been placed on changes to gardens and landscaping, and losing your lawn is catching on.

Photos from January workday

A large group from the neighborhood and families from the SF Day School were part of our community workday last weekend, the first of 20150. Working with some our gardener and also some extra support from Rec and Park, our major project was to spread healthy soil in the meadow between Lyon and Central. We also amended the soil beneath the laurel trees in the meadow between Masonic and Central. And a group of our regular volunteers took care of the plants in our rain garden by removing weeds and eucalyptus leaves.

We had a huge pile of soil from the city's compost yard to work with

Working together to spread a thin layer of soil in the bare spots.  

The grass in the meadow between Lyon and Central will resprout through the soil. 

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).

New sign displays park hours and park rules

Close on the heels of installing several signs displaying the new park hours, the parks department has installed a more prominent sign next to the bike path at Ashbury. In addition to the park hours, the new sign displays a litany of park rules pertaining to camping, smoking, dogs, and pathways.

New Park Rules

Two sets of signs were installed in and around the Panhandle this month. 

The first set of signs is directed to those arriving at the park pathways from Oak and Fell Streets. They advise visitors that park hours are 5 a.m. to midnight. The new park hours were codified this year in Park Code 3.21, a change that was approved amid a great deal of controversy. The legislation specifically permitted travel through and across the Panhandle, though that exception is not noted on the signs. 

The second set of signs was installed over the weekend by SFMTA. Although they are much greater in number, they'll mainly be noticed by people parking their vehicles on the park's perimeter. They impose No Parking for vehicles over 22 feet long or 7 feet high, from 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m., everyday. The "oversize vehicle" rule restrict people's ability to park campers, RVs, and other large vehicles overnight next to the Panhandle. While overnight habitation in vehicles was already prohibited, enforcement was never very effective. The no parking rules for oversize vehicles have been implemented in specific locations around the city, and the Panhandle is part of the second batch of locations.

April Workday report

Volunteers from the neighborhood joined with Rec and Park gardening staff on Saturday to work in the Panhandle around Lyon Street, spreading wood chips around the pair of arbutus close to the redwood grove. Volunteers also worked to shape some fast-growing shrubs bordering Oak Street, and then spent time with some detail work tending a long bed close to the multi-use path, where perennials like ceanothus, yarrow, sage, and sticky monkey are getting well-established (they were planted by students from the Day School about a year ago).

Additionally, one volunteer teamed up with a Rec and Park employee for a special project by the playground. Cobblestones now line the bed at the west side of the playground and look beautiful.

Photo by Leah Hickey. See more photos of the work by USF students at NOPNA's Facebook page. 

Meanwhile, Saturday was also a day of service for students from University of San Francisco. Dozens of students chose to perform service in Golden Gate Park, and a group of them was assigned the vital duty of lifting mud and weeds from pathways. Thanks to the labor of more than a dozen students, the cross-over paths at Shrader and Cole were cleared and cleaned. We've done this job before and we know it's hard work. Thank you, USF!  

Good results at the first workday of the spring season. Pictured: Horse Chestnut in bloom

Congratulations, Lisa Wayne...

...for earning the prestigious Good Government Award from SPUR.

It's a planting day for March 8, followed by community meeting

Our next community workday for the Panhandle Park is coming up in ten days. March is still planting season, and a bunch of plants are being provided by Rec and Park and intended for our rain garden. It'll be the biggest new addition of plants since our initial planting there last March! 

Gloves and Tools will be provided, but feel free to bring your own gloves if you prefer. The forecast shows rain this week and next, followed by a clearing for the weekend...so it'll probably be muddy in the park. 

current radar of the bay area precipitation.  

Panhandle Community Workday 

Saturday, March 8 

9 am - 11:30 am

Meet near the Playground (Oak @ Ashbury) 

*************************************************************

IMPORTANT COMMUNITY MEETING at 11 AM 

Near the end of our Workday, back at the Bulletin Board at 11 am, everyone is invited to participate in a community meeting regarding a proposal that is being assembled to improve the Panhandle Park. The outline currently includes:

- better signage, 

- a re-paved south pedestrian walkway, 

- better lighting, 

- more, better fixtures like benches and trashcans, and bike racks

A flyer about the meeting and two other subsequent outreach meetings can be downloaded directly from the NOPNA post about these meetings. The proposal is being developed to submit to Rec and Park's Community Opportunity Fund. 

Waking up Sunday to Fall Back into Nature

With the end of daylight savings time Sunday morning, we had an extra hour to prepare for a special free event that brought community groups together to celebrate nature in the Panhandle. It was the second of the special events planned for the Panhandle Park Action Project.

Dozens of kids were excited by the free face-painting and everyone was treated to fuji apples donated by Earl's Organic Produce. Here are some photos to show you more of the highlights.

Families from New Traditions Elementary School offered native and edible plants along with expert advice. New Traditions is located a block from the Panhandle and has a dynamic green schoolyard program.

branch, a group of nature educators, offered a scavenger hunt that got dozens of kids running around the park.

Learning about lemons with Just One Tree

The rain garden was available as a spot for planting a young dogwood, generously provided by the Recreation and Parks Department and planted with the help of four young ladies. Cornus sericea supsp. occidentalis is the species of dogwood found locally, typically in wetlands. Its red stems are most apparent in winter, during its dormant season, and in the summer it has clusters of small white flowers.  

A pine and a eucalyptus slated for removal this week

SF Rec and Park have posted another two tree removals in the Panhandle. Department staff have informed me that an assessment by an arborist found they were hazardous, and that the removals will happen this coming week.

One tree is a Red River Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) located near Fell @ Cole. The tree, though not very large, leans heavily over the cars parked at the curb on Fell Street and its trunk is riddled with holes.

The other tree posted for removal is a tall Monterey Pine near Oak @ Cole. Like the eucalyptus, this tree also shows some damage at the base of its trunk, and the only remaining branches are near the top of the tree. Monterey Pines are one of the major introduced species of trees in Golden Gate Park, but they are growing more scarce in our local green spaces such as the Panhandle due to pitch canker. McClintock's Trees of the Panhandle, published in 1965, mapped four Monterey Pines in just the one block of the park between Cole and Shrader.

 

In 2012 we had a substantial number of tree removals in the Panhandle, and in 2013 we have seen the beginning of tree planting. A larger-scale tree planting is now expected to commence in early 2014.

Photos of a rainy September workday

Yesterday's rain showers started just before our 9 am starting time, but a good-sized group of both new and regular volunteers still came out for the community workday. We broke into two groups, the larger of which was tasked with planting nearly 50 plants that had been provided and laid out by Rec and Park staff.    

The new plants were designated for a patch around the playground that has been mostly weedy and sandy. A couple of months ago, we added thick layers of soil and mulch to start suppressing the weeds and building better conditions for plants. We chose California native plants like ceanothus, heuchera, currant, and penstemon, all of which will remain short in stature so as to keep the views into the playground. The area is partially shaded by tall eucalyptus and Monterey Cypress, and it will be interesting to see which of the plants are able to survive.  

Even with the recently added soil, in order to dig deep enough for the new plants, we ran into tough soil and a bunch of roots, which meant a lot more work. I was incredibly impressed by the volunteers who kept going, even as the rain started falling more steadily. 

The other volunteers worked in our rain garden, removing weeds and eucalyptus leaf litter.

By 10:30 the rain was steady, and we helped the waters breach the border of the rain garden. Everyone was stoked to see the garden working as designed. And with about a half-inch of rain accumulated, we called an early end to our workday. Sadly, we also cancelled the picnic that had been planned to celebrate the completion of our 2012 Capital Project. 

Clayton Street accessibility work in gear

The Clayton Street entrances to the Panhandle are undergoing a rebuild to improve accessibility, and signs posted on the site indicate the work will continue through September. Once the work is done and the grass grows back, most of us will probably take the yellow, accessible curb ramps for granted.

In May 2012, new curb ramps of this type were installed at Lyon Street. With this project and the curb work that came with the repavement of Stanyan in August 2012, the curb ramp infrastructure of the Panhandle is about a complete job with at least one major exception: Baker Street, across the street from Mercy Terrace, where most cyclists enter and exit the park. 

On each side, North and South of the park, a single crosswalk leads from the east side of Clayton Street to the Panhandle's pathways. The north path (approaching Clayton @ Fell Street) used to skirt alongside a large eucalyptus, but the tree was removed as a hazard in December. The north side job looks complicated, with digging, removal of roots and reconstruction of a stretch of curbside along the park.

Clayton @ Fell - some digging and removal of roots

Clayton @ Fell - re-build of the curb

The work on the south side of the park at Oak Street appears less complicated. However, this access point is important because it serves as an entry point for Park and Rec's vehicles that need to reach the dump.

Clayton @ Oak

Grand jury recommends city start tracking results of outreach to homeless in Golden Gate Park

There was a surge of camping and littering near the McKinley Memorial earlier this summer, and fortunately it seems to be waning. Besides what I can see for myself when I visit the park, each week when I get the email newsletter from Park Station - which contains a list of the week's citations - I open up the document and search for "Panhandle." The times of enforcement varied, but often showed that police were out in the middle of the night to roust campers in the Panhandle. For a while, the citations, for camping, nighttime sleeping (not allowed 8pm-8am), and alcohol use were increasing in frequency, and now they are tapering off.

Camping in the park has a long history, and areas beyond the Panhandle are even more severely affected. Now a new report by the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury offers recommendations for how San Francisco should change its response to "park dwellers" in Golden Gate Park. See the list of current reports to find a link to download the report, published June 20 and called "Golden Gate Park’s Homeless Population: Are San Francisco’s Policies Serving Us Well?"

The Grand Jury's report examined what these individuals need, how the city enforces park rules, and how to address litter accumulation that results from camping. The report has little descriptive information about park dwellers, though it characterizes population of park dwellers in the eastern edge of the park (Panhandle, Alvord Lake, McLaren lodge area) as younger and more transient. Not having been here long, they are less likely to be familiar with city services than typical park dwellers in western end of the park.

 The report delivers a straightforward description of the recent history of San Francisco's homeless outreach strategies. The Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) initially started up in the downtown are and then expanded to the park since about 2007. Their tactic was to drop in on encampments at 4 am to engage park dwellers. It has been successful, at least as judged by the fact that the percentage of the homeless living in parks or on the streets, which used to stand at over 50 percent, is now down to about 28 percent. However when the success of HOT plateaued, it became inefficient to continue the same outreach strategy month after month. There is now a shift to a new outreach model, Engagement Specialist Teams (EST) and the EST's aren't yet serving the park yet. Instead, SFPD and Park Patrol have been handed responsibility for outreach and enforcement. Homeless outreach has been incorporated into SFPD officers' training (but not park patrol training), so when they approach park dwellers, they issue citations and offer homeless services information. However, one of the report's conclusion is that citing people for camping or nighttime sleeping isn't an effective deterrent. The report recommends that the city have a system for gathering information on the characteristics of park dwellers and for tracking its outreach efforts to park dwellers.

 The report also examines the litter left in the park at homeless encampments, quantifying it and describing the processes in place to remove it. Since shopping carts were found to facilitate moving personal items into the park, a recommendation of the report is that the San Francisco Park Code should ban shopping carts in Golden Gate Park in order to discourage living in the Park and to reduce litter.

Saturday workday: we planted into our new rain garden

The Panhandle capital project is complete, and the rain garden located just west of the restroom is ready for community-based stewardship, so Saturday we undertook a major planting.

Our plants came from the HANC Native Plant Nursery, from Rec and Park's Golden Gate Park nursery, and from Bay Natives. We selected plants that are local to the bay area and that have the ability to do well in the generally shady, damp conditions. Within the site, we also chose specific places for each species based on water & light conditions. Even after putting in 100+ plants, there remains a good amount of space for further plantings in the future.

 

 

After break, volunteers also helped maintain a new bed of plants next to the gardener's shed.

Volunteers from San Francisco Day School began our first week in the area behind the restroom, where patchy asphalt surrounding several eucalyptus trees was recently removed. The first stage was to spread wood chips that will define a social path through the site.

 

Meadow work continues with lawn aerator

A Rec and Park truck with a large lawn aerator hitched to the back was driven by a Rec and Park crewmember in the Panhandle this afternoon. Guillermo was on hand to help guide the work to the areas that need help. This work follows up Saturday's work spreading compost fines in the meadow near Lyon. Now we would also like to see a bit of rain in the forecast.

Major tree planting on the horizon after a year of removals

After one more eucalyptus is removed, attention will shift in 2013 to Panhandle tree planting 

Blue Gum to be marked for removal

Another large eucalyptus - a Blue Gum tagged as #302 that is a familiar sight at Fell Street at Clayton - will be marked this week, giving notice to local residents that it is to be removed. Melinda Stockmann at the SFRPD explained that a decay test found extensive decay in the lower trunk. The department plans to remove it within weeks, to abate a hazard before the remainder of the storm season.

That Blue Gum suffers the same fate of several other Panhandle trees - mostly eucalyptus and one large acacia - sent to the chipper this year. A few other trees that had been marked for possible removal ended up getting a major pruning instead. While safety was the driver behind the pruning and removals, some people have been sad to see the end of these trees, especially given their old age and enormous stature.

Opening for treeplanting

After this last removal, the emphasis next year will be on a major tree planting. Park forestry is a program of the 2008 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond, and is also included in the new, $195 million 2012 Parks Bond that received voter approval in November. While a schedule for implementation is not yet in place, the city has developed a draft species list for Panhandle replanting and has defined five replanting zones within the Panhandle - four between Stanyan and Masonic, while just one of the zones is east of Masonic. An example of the zones is this open area near Oak between Cole and Shrader, where the acacia had been.

Cypress and eucalyptus standing tall along
Oak Street won't be replicated 

But the number of new trees - about 40, according to the department's initial plans - is much larger than the number of trees removed this year. And the plan for planting attempts to prevent some of the problems that have turned into management headaches. For one thing, eucalyptus - which is still abundant in the Panhandle, and which besides dropping large limbs, also drops leaf and bark litter year-round - will not be planted in the Panhandle next year. Also, to reduce property damage from limbs falling on parked cars, any tree planted close to Oak or Fell will be species that don’t reach giant stature. Instead, Michelia (michelia doltsopa), Sweetgum (liquidambar styraciflua) and Maidenhair (gingko bliloba) are suggested as trees to plant somewhat close to the streets.

Trees growing about 3 feet from the bike path

Most trees in the Panhandle grow several feet away from the pathways. Standards for pathway design dictate a minimum of three feet, and recommended even greater distance. While the department hasn't committed to a specific distance [see update below], they said they would keep new trees planted away from paths. It’s not only a matter of not wanting people to run into the trees, it’s also to keep their hanging branches and their drip lines (the circumference in which the leaves drip fog and mist) away from the path.

UPDATE 12/9/12: 

I received the following note from the department: For the Park Forestry Program Replanting Plan, we are committing to planting trees no closer than 10’ from paved paths (bike and pedestrian) and street edges.

Open spaces allow full sun on the basketball courts

The department has also heard that neighbors who enjoy the Panhandle’s open, sunny areas want to maintain the open meadows. Although some new trees will be planted along the edges of meadows, these plantings will be done to create a succession of smaller to larger trees and so it could be done without shading out meadows. Likewise, I hope that trees aren't planted on the south side of the basketball courts to block the afternoon sun.

Additional planting could shield the staging area 

Also, recent management practices in the Panhandle have increased openness and visibility,  rather than form a shrubby wall or fortress effect with trees and other plants. That general practice will be maintained with next year's planting. However, there is one place where a row of dense trees may be planted, along the tongue of pavement that extends east of the basketball courts. In this area, park staff temporarily stage leaves and branches before removing them by truck to the parkwide compost yard. A row of trees - complimenting three yews that survive from a planting long, long ago - is planned for that location, and that’s one area where it makes sense to create a kind of shield.

Besides these species previously mentioned, additional trees on the draft species list are Monterey Cypress, Giant Sequoia, Chilean Wine Palm, Copper Beech, Queensland Kauri, Lily of the Valley tree, two species of Magnolia, Monkey’s Hand Tree, Red Horse Chestnut, Norfolk Pine, Dawn Redwood, and Tulip Tree.