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.

After Bay to Breakers 2013

The Bay to Breakers crowds are mostly gone, and there's still another hour or so of daylight, so head out for a walk in the park! Here are a few scenes from late afternoon.

Waste Busters and SF Conservation Corps nearly done with their big job

Temporary fencing helped protect some of the planting that is still getting established 

Volleyball near Cole 

Meadows still a little busy

Did anyone else notice?

Sometimes, a pet peeve just goes away and you hardly notice. In the Panhandle, many, many years ago wooden poles were lodged deep in the ground in several locations around the basketball courts, apparently to create some kind of mount for a garbage can. The Park moved on to a new design, but the poles were left behind, despite being an eyesore and tripping hazard. Well, they're finally gone, removed from the park by gardening and maintenance staff.

Having the posts removed means one less detail to tend to during the upcoming refurbishing of the area between the basketball courts and the restrooms. Thanks SF!

What the heck, one more shot for old time's sake:

August work day wrap-up

Here's a belated report on what went down during our workday on Saturday, August 13. We had the opportunity to work with Dave, the gardener responsible for the western half of the Panhandle, and also Zack, a park supervisor. Several neighbors joined us, both routine volunteers and also some joining us for the first time. Our summer fog gave way early, and we ended up working in an awesome, sunny morning. 

The ornamental plantings around the playground have grown larger and more beautiful, and have become one of the highlights of the Panhandle, so we started our workday there, spreading some mulch. That will help retain moisture in the soil and protect the small plants. 

Next we moved on to the west, where we spread fresh soil around a big bare patch just off of the basketball courts. Dave said that after the soil is placed there, he would seed the area to re-establish the grass.  

New soil will help re-establish the turf by the basketball courts

We ended up with a final project for the day: cleaning up under the huge walnut tree (close to Oak & Clayton), one of the park's most beautiful trees. There are two benches and a trash can next to the tree, and there was a mess of grime, mud, and trash that had congealed in the area. Some holes had also been dug. We scooped it all up, and filled in some holes, resulting in an immediate improvement. We also talked about whether removing the trash can might actually reduce problems at that spot.

A few days later, the trash can was removed. Keep an eye on conditions there, and let us know what you think. With universal recycling & composting in San Francisco households, more use of reusable food and drink containers, and less wasteful packaging, maybe we don't need as many trash containers as before. Or, will fewer trash containers just lead to more trash in the park?

The benches below the giant walnut tree got some overdue attention

November Work Day wrap up

At yesterday's Panhandle work day, regular volunteers joined with students and parents from SF Day School to take care of our neighborhood park. 

I was happy to have many volunteers, because the weather was awesome and it was our last work day of the year. We had an enormous pile of compost soil to spread out in the redwoods at the southeast corner of the park.  It was definitely not manure, and smelled like fresh ground cypress. This project in the redwoods followed up last month's work day, when we cut back the young redwood shoots growing thickly from the burls of the large redwood trunks. By spreading nourishing soil in this area, we were giving the redwoods the nourishment they might not otherwise get from the sandy soil found throughout the park. 

Shoveling is hard work, but we enjoyed working in the shade of the trees, and getting some fresh air and exercise to begin the weekend. 

Other work that we got to do was removal of mud and weeds from  the crossover path connecting Lyon St, and some trash pickup behind the McKinley Monument. I heard that several socks were found. 

We found conclusively that fifth graders are big enough to maneuver a wheelbarrow across the lawn. Thanks everyone! 

SFPD citing campers/drinkers in the park today

When you visit Haight Street or the Panhandle Park, you may see what many people refer to as gangs of homeless youth. The SF Chronicle, the city government and our new police chief have been engaging in some political drama about how to police these folks, especially when they hunker down on the sidewalks of Haight St. The increasing police pressure on Haight St might be pushing them down more often into the Panhandle park.

Today, I saw three police officers on bicycles engage with a group of five men drinking under a big redwood tree and get them moving. And the photo shows some of the empties left over after a drinking party yesterday in a grove of trees near the Central Ave cross-over.

Using 311 for furniture and illegal dumping

When you see furniture or other large objects left in the park, call 311 to have city workers remove it. It's also easy to use 311 online, if you can figure out how to click your way through. For something like this chair, you'd select Parks on the main page, then Neighborhood Services, then Trash or Dumping.

The online form requires a search for location, and GGP Panhandle is how the park is listed. Try to remember the nearest cross-streets so you can include that when you describe the location.

Don't assume somebody else has already reported it. In my experience, they probably haven't.