Sidewalk Science

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A post shared by @mmmavis on Jun 28, 2017 at 12:15am PDT

Report from the July workday at the Panhandle

At yesterday's Panhandle workday, volunteers from the community turned out to work with Rec and Park staff to take care of the park's gardens, focusing on the area near the playground.

A few of yesterday's accomplishments -

• Removing sand from the south pathway next to the playground 
• Tending the rain garden by removing trash, raking leaves, and pulling weeds, and
• Thoroughly removing weeds from the mound next to the restroom (planted this past winter, in part by volunteers in February and in part by city workers), and 
• Most impressively: installing a sturdier, and more attractive rope fence around the planting on the mound. 

See the pictures below for more - 

On the mound, clipping expired blooms from yarrow can result in new growth 

Installing the sturdy new posts required a stake pounder and a lot of work

The new fence was strung at the end of the morning

Since planting at the beginning of 2016, the sticky monkey, coyote brush, and other plants have grown and bloomed. Volunteers have fertilized the plants and also keep on top of the weeds that inevitably sprout. 

A large portion of the yarrow in the rain garden looked black and blighted. Yesterday's solution: remove to the ground level, watch for new growth, and replant the area if necessary. This coast buckwheat will enjoy the space to grow. 

The community volunteer program at the Panhandle continues on the second Saturday of each month, from 9 am - 12 noon. 

Walkway rebuild at the east end of the Panhandle

Work began last week on the paved walkway on the eastern edge of the Panhandle. As of Friday, Bauman Landscape, a go-to company for construction in San Francisco's parks, had removed the portion of the path that was previously asphalt. During the construction, car parking along Baker Street is suspended and a wall of bright orange barriers is in place so that people are able to walk in the street.

Midblock at the eastern edge of the Panhandle

A smaller portion near Fell is also excavated

The walkway along the eastern edge of the Panhandle has long had inconsistent design, part asphalt and part cement.

From the archives - prior to re-orientation of parking on Baker St

The area next to this path, between Baker Street and the McKinley Monument, has seen improvement, starting about seven years ago when the city planted an orderly, symmetrical arc of cherry trees and horse chestnuts. The parks department's tree crew and volunteers from Panhandle Park Stewards have put a considerable effort into helping those trees grow tall and strong.

From the archives: 2011 workday

2014 workday

Workday report for March 2016

Saturday morning was the only time during the weekend that it didn't rain, so the Panhandle Community workday on March 12 was the perfect time to spend a couple of hours outside with friends experiencing early springtime.

Thank you, regular volunteers, for braving the weather to show up for some raking, weeding, and planting.

Guillermo took care of blowing the pathways after the storm to provide a safe place to walk and ride.

The yellow blooms on Coast Live Oak

Spring blooms: Fairchild's kohuhu

Magnolias in bloom

White flowering horse chestnut

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. 

Park workers busy during break in the storm

Thank you Guillermo for clearing our pathways this morning during the break in the storm!

Yesterday's Pineapple Express storm brought San Francisco a couple inches of rain and a lot of wind, bringing down a mess of branches out of the mature trees in the Panhandle. Getting the branches off the paths helps everyone navigate more safely, a nice benefit given today's mild weather.

The winds also split an old elm tree located near Central Ave on the Oak Street side. The limbs have already been cut and removed, but removing the trunk will probably require another crew.

Split in the tree, tagged #259

Another view of the split tree

Park entrances at Oak & Ashbury: one rebuilt and one still in progress

Curb access work finishes at Cole and starts at Ashbury

The four access points into the park at Cole Street - two on the south side and two on the north - are all rebuilt. A few construction cones remain, but they're all open for public use. (See previous post on this work at Cole St.).

Entering the park from Cole @ Fell Street

Leaving the park to Cole @ Oak. The pathway doesn't align with the crosswalk. 

Now, similar access work has begun at the southwest connector from Oak Street at Ashbury, and a long stretch is dug up. Because the entire stretch from the street to the gardener's shack is dug up, people walking on the south path can't get around, and so the work crew positioned a barrier and sign stating that the path is closed. It's aggravating to see a closure like that affecting the park during a busy holiday weekend.

South path closed between Clayton and Ashbury, 1/17/15

Rebuilding starts on path from Ashbury @ Oak 

South path blocked by the work

Pathway accessibility work at Cole St

The curb ramps leading into the park from Cole Street are under reconstruction. Two of them look complete (one on the north and one on the south). The other two are still underway.

one of the entrances on the north side at Cole

And one of the entrances
on the south side at Cole

Similar work was completed at Clayton last year. And curb ramps were rebuilt at Fell/Baker in September at the start of the PUC's stormwater project. Accessibility is important, but I sense that photos and posts about curb ramps aren't very stirring. Watch for more interesting news about the Panhandle coming out soon!

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

Entry ramp work completed at Clayton

After three months of work, the entry ramps and paths into the park at Clayton have been completed.

A similar project to modernize the curb ramps was completed at Lyon Street last year, but this project has a longer curbed ramp leading into the park on the Fell Street side. The cement ramp then connects to a new, straight, pancake-flat stretch of asphalt to reach the east-west pathway.  

The work at Fell and Clayton follows the removal of a eucalyptus tree there last year. Now, the curb cuts at Baker St are the only remaining entrances into the park without the yellow-dot treatment. 

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

Clearing our walking path at the August workday

Presenting the new footpath on the south side of the park, heading west toward Masonic:  

It's like the old path, but it's about 20 percent wider. You've got more room for walking or jogging, and hopefully fewer mud puddles. That's because our volunteers yesterday scraped up and removed several feet of soil that was encroaching on the path. 

Wouldn't it have been great to do that for the entire length of the path? Absolutely, but that will take a bigger volunteer turnout. Imagine how heavy it is to lift the damp, compacted soil. We were a strong group of volunteers, but an hour of that work meant sore shoulders and back (for me, anyway). 

The sun came out during break time at the memorial

In addition to pathway clearing, we tended to a half-dozen smaller jobs in the east end, like weeding around the trees along Baker Street, removing ivy climbing a eucalyptus, and trimming back the enormous shrub that grows into the bike path close to Baker. 

During the mid-summer, the combination of irrigation, fog drip, and increased solar energy makes the Panhandle a bright green oasis. Get out and enjoy it, with or without blue skies.

Community workday February 9: It's finally planting time

Our next community workday is Saturday, February 9, at our usual time and location. Good news: we will be ready to plant into the rain garden that awaits us in the area just north of the playground. Tools and gloves (adult sizes, Small-XL) will be provided.

Panhandle Community Workday

RAIN GARDEN PLANTING DAY!! 

Saturday, February 9

9 am - 12 noon 

Gather near the restroom ( Oak @ Ashbury)

I am asking for extra help this month: please email me if you have some experience with planting and can be a planting leader (please send me your name even if you've already told me). The planting leaders will get a run-through of our planting methods for this specific area, and then will coach two or three other people to make sure the job is done well. Planting leaders need to be available from 9 am - 11 am.

The rain garden is an important component of our capital project, funded by San Francisco residents through the Community Opportunity Fund. We are bringing native California plants for our rain garden, and have selected species that should thrive in the partly shady, damp conditions. The initial (re)planting of an area like this is very exciting, and when you visit the park in the future, you will be able to see the plants you put in the ground grow and mature.

Does it seem like a long wait since we submitted our proposal for the Community Opportunity Fund in 2010? The capital improvement project is almost complete, according to city staff. Fences will be left in place for two months in order to help new grass get established. One issue that has complicated the completion of the project is a classic Panhandle problem that has irked countless neighbors over the years: pathways lined with mud, puddles, and tire ruts. Fortunately, some additional work to improve the condition of the Ashbury path has been ordered and should be done in the next couple of weeks.

Back in 2010, I looked at the problems with our pathways by conducting initial and followup assessments of every cross-over path in the Panhandle. I found fewer ruts and puddles over a 3-month time span between winter and spring. Because pathway conditions have seemed to improve, I haven't conducted another park wide assessment since then. We are making progress, and I credit our gardening staff for caring about and trying to find solutions, and our volunteers at community workdays who scoop mud and weeds from paths, and even Recology workers who now keep their trucks on Oak and Fell when fetching trash bins from the park. There are surely other helpful factors, too. We're seeing these improvements despite frequently having heavy trucks in the park (e.g., targeted tree removals in 2012, installation of traffic control devices at Masonic).

At Ashbury, however, this problem has persisted. A year and a half ago, park staff devised a short-term fix for the north side by laying down a mosaic of chunks of concrete. And about a month ago, in keeping with the circulation design that was a component of the capital improvement project, the westside Ashbury pathway leading from Fell St was widened. However, this winter the conditions on the Ashbury path leading south towards Oak St worsened, with a combination of puddles, compacted soil, and even broken asphalt. That part of the pathway is not really car or truck-accessible due to the presence of lightpoles & utility boxes near the street, and that path has not been widened. The additional work to be done in the next few weeks should improve the conditions so that the outcome of our capital improvement project isn't compromised by problems in that area.

Some related good news in the neighborhood: For residents interested in a community garden, the "New Liberation" Church community garden (Divisadero near Eddy) is making a comeback! If you want to help, and possible earn a garden plot of your own, check out the effort by Neighbors Developing Divisadero and join a "Garden Party" on Saturday February 16. You can find out more at their Facebook event page.

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.

McKinley graffiti removed; also curb ramp underway at Lyon St

After being hit with several waves of graffiti, and after many calls and 311 reports from annoyed members of the community, the McKinley Memorial was finally cleaned up on Wednesday. This 1904 artwork by Robert Ingersoll Aitken is among artworks listed by the San Francisco Arts Commission as most in need of immediate attention & restoration.

Nearby, Precision Engineering company has work underway at Lyon Street to build a curb ramp connecting the park to the crosswalk across Fell. That was one of the last intersections around the Panhandle Park without an accessible curb ramp.

September workday report

Community work crew at the Panhandle

September's workday brought the park stewards to the far east end of the park, where we worked in the shade of the redwood grove at the northeast corner of the park. Previous workdays have improved the soil and removed weeds at the base of these trees, and when the rains come we will be ready for planting. We hope to diversify the park by bringing in understory plants that you might typically find beneath sequoia sempervirens, thus beautifying the eastern entrance to Golden Gate Park and giving our community a way to experience a habitat that's representative of coastal California. 

Cobbling together a fix at Ashbury

Also in the park this month, we got to see the work done by our Rec and Park crews to address a persistent problem with standing water where Ashbury meets the Panhandle. The work definitely showed a dedicated attempt to fix the problem, and I'm glad for the effort, but would also like to see work proceed for our approved capital improvement project, which includes regrading and path repair in this spot.