Meredith's blog

Dear Friends,

More updates from our Executive Director, Meredith Thomas:

1. Linden Alley progress: After nearly 4 years of work to green Linden Alley with support from the Community Challenge Grant Program and Supervisor Mirkarimi, the project is getting close to reality. It is a pilot for the city so there were a number of complicated steps to work through.

Now that the Recreation and Park Commission has approved the Department’s plan for accommodating the 30% reduction ($12.4 million) in support from the City’s General Fund, the lengthy process begins for the Mayor’s Office and Board of Supervisors to build out San Francisco’s Budget. Over the next several months, the City will be working to tackle and immense budget shortfall of more than $450 million, and their choices will affect parks. NPC will be engaging in this process and we will keep you in the loop. 

The good news is that there are a number of innovative solutions proposed by the Recreation and Park Department (RPD) that will deal with the budget shortfall, and could change the way that RPD operates for the better. 

Dear Coalition,

Because you love your parks, I urge you to become involved with the Recreation and Park  Department’s budget planning this month. RPD’s budget proposal is due to the Mayor’s office on February 19th and will include a combination of cuts in spending and sources of new revenue. NPC is working with RPD to make sure that the difficult financial choices the Department has to make will be done in a manner that is guided by RPD’s mission to foster the well being of San Franciscans and maintain beautiful parks and open spaces.

Hi Park People

Here are a bunch of things that I am currently working on.  Thought you might want to see what’s on my desk and on my mind at the moment:

·  Dolores Park Playground is on track to have the bid package go out for construction in the spring, once the next bonds get sold in March. Ground breaking is still set for summer 2010.

·  Sarah Ballard moved  from City Hall to Rec and Park last week. Sarah will be working on policy and partnership issues.

·  Bob Palacio is acting Supervisor of Neighborhood Services at RPD until 5/1/10

·  Comments were due this week on the Hunter’s Point Shipyard Environmental Impact Report (EIR). An EIR is required for most land use projects under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”, pronounced “SEE Kwaa”) and when approved, it becomes the playbook or roadmap for how a project can progress. Basically, NPC wants the best possible options for parks and connectivity for bikes and pedestrians possible, and so our comments focused on that (click here to read.)

On Monday, January 11th, I attended a presentation on the DRAFT prioritization for the Hazard Tree Abatement Plan of the Neighborhood Park Bond.  This is the basic plan in which RPD’s urban forestry expert outlines the work that Rec and Park will do with the $4M allotted by the bond.  The consultant, HortScience, walked us through the rationale and data used to determine which parks will get priority for hazard tree work.

There are a few important things to keep in mind here: