DOWNLOAD PAST MINUTES District 9 & 10 Minutes (Acrobat Reader Required) District 9 » September 24, 2002 » April 24, 2002 » September 25, 2001 » August 28, 2001 » May 30, 2001 » April 24, 2001 District 10 » August 22, 2002 » December 10, 2001

• Parque Ninos Unidos: This new park at 23rd and Treat St. is near completion and will have its grand opening on Saturday, July 26 at noon. All are invited. Question was asked regarding a Rec Director at the park: We will have a director. We are trying for full-time with three people, 2 half-time for Mon – Friday and a third for Saturday.
  
• Mission Dolores Park: Resurfacing the tennis courts and basketball court and new basketball hoops.
  
• Eureka Valley (18th & Collingwood): Will be closed starting the beginning of October for 12 to 13 months for renovations.
  
• Upper Noe: To be closed after Eureka Valley reopens for 12 to 13 months for renovations.
  
• Mission Rec Center: Have field trips for kids every Thursday from June 19 to August 14(distributed field trip list). Also have judo classes and a two-week arts and crafts program emphasizing film/media. Girls basketball for 10 to 16 year olds is on-going
  
• Jose Coronado: Have soccer and youth baseball at Jose Coronado playground. In general, they are maintaining hours and programs despite lay-offs (1 or 2).
  
• Questions:
  How many rec directors lost?
  Lost 8 part-time rec directors, about 20% of staff. But may be back—will believe when see them.
  Projection for next year? No projection, rumors only.

2. Robert Watkins, District 10

• McLaren Park: Staff shortages, down three gardeners (from 8 to 5) and expect one to be returning. Also, people need to realize that McLaren’s staff actually includes Little Hollywood, Visitation Valley and Greenway, and Bay View Hill.
  
• Little Hollywood: Community doing a lot there to help out.
  
• Joseph Lee Rec Center: RPD to present more plans and take back to the community (three options) regarding demolition of whole or part of building. Can save the gym but not all of rest of building. (see more under Community updates)
  
• La Raza: Plans for renovation beginning. Hope to have fencing up before school starts.
• Rolph Playground: Softball field being resurfaced. Community garden there now (more under Community updates)
  
• Visitation Valley Greenway: Staff shortages impacted the greenway. It includes five parcels of land.
  
• Visitation Valley Clubhouse: To open soon.
  
• India Basin: Play area to open soon.
  
• 24th St. Mini Park: To open July 21 for awhile (see more under updates). Project is on schedule.
  
• In general, lost five gardeners. We are being hit real hard. May get some gardeners back, particularly at McLaren. Please speak up for gardeners to Supervisors and at Park Commission meetings.

Additional Q and A/Comments:

• Esprit Park: Parkscan is helping but the gardener is only there half time but community not seeing anyone working there. Also, garbage accumulation bad.
  RW: Some trees need to be taken down. Will turn in the garbage problem.
  
• McKinley Square: Neighbor George Guenther reported to RW a number of problems that have been reported to him: Boundary of park not clearly defined and both RPD and DPW share areas of park, plus some areas where there is no agreement; Lawns—holes, etc.; Dogs—upper area not suitable for dogs because too overgrown; Security—how get more security, problems with drugs, homeless, prostitution; Playground –Lots of use and mothers asking for some improvements such as canopy for shade in play area.
  RW: Gardener at McKinley also has Potrero del Sol which is a full-time job in itself. Gardener is trying to keep up the top of McKinley and is cutting down the brush. McKinley play area redesigned just four years ago and community should have said something then about the need for a canopy. Regarding security, will notify police to make passing calls and bring up these issues at park operations meeting.
  George G: Will be concentrating on planning, clean-up, and more community involvement at McKinley
  
• Diseased Trees: McLaren in particular has hundreds of trees with canker disease. RW: To have this checked out.
  
• Garfield Park: Clean up every Thursday by Good Samaritan kids—Need trash cans.
  

III. Parkscan -- Sam Shaw, NPC

ParkScan is a new method to evaluate park conditions using computer technology to streamline communication between RPD and community members. The first three pilot projects took place in District 9 at Rolph, Precita and 24th St. Mini Park.

How it will work: teams of volunteers, in groups of two, carry out surveys in parks once or twice a month using hand held computers and digital cameras. The recorded conditions will be forwarded to relevant agencies (RPD, DPW, etc.) and stored in our database. Neighborhood volunteers generally walk their hour-long route two times per month. Unsatisfactory conditions are photographed, prioritized by the surveyors, and are posted to the ParkScan website. RPD has three days to address the problem – not necessarily to fix it, but to address it. If the issue is a serious health or safety threat, RPD has agreed to respond within 1 business day.

Parkscan establishes a dialog between RPD and the community. They also see how the Dept. works--viewing the website you can see the progress of a problem and how it is addressed by RPD, showing its decision-making process. All of our past surveys, comments, and RPD responses are on our website.

We plan to continue with 24th St. Mini Park when it reopens and plan to do Ninos Unidos in District 9. In District 10, we will be doing Little Hollywood and Esprit. The demand has been great and we now have a backlog, including Boeddeker in District 6, Ina Coolbrith in District 3, Duboce park in District 5. Park groups that have participated so far have reported noticeable improvement at their parks. They have seen real results.

Parkscan Provides Public Comment: Parkscan now has a new feature. If your park doesn’t have Parkscan yet, you may go to the website and post comments and/or pictures. They will be screened carefully prior to appearance.

If you are interested in being part of a Parkscan volunteer team at your neighborhood park or elsewhere, contact Sam at 621-3260 x103 or go to the website at http://www.parkscansf.org. Also give him feedback on the website.

Q and A/Comments:

• How does it work in follow-through?
  A record is created that is easy to see on website and RPD has been very responsive. Leora at Rolph playground said things have been taken care of, particularly, graffiti and dangerous conditions, eg. metal pipe sticking up from ground, rated a high priority. Lower priority items take longer. It is up to community to prioritize and be realistic—everything can’t be high priority. RW said it helps him as the same thing keeps coming up, he can get a better response time on fixing it.
  24th St. Mini Park: Alfredo said they also have seen big improvements since Parkscan. There is accountability now. Seeing things getting done much quicker now.
  Sam of Parkscan: We are asking RPD to do a lot and don’t want to overwhelm them. There are 4 parks online right now and expect up to 11 by fall (one per district) so we are slowly speeding up. We are all (community, Parkscan and RPD) on the same side; not rating gardeners, but the system.
• Is the work done archived? Yes, online forever.
  

IV. Open Space Study -- Vidya Tikku, NPC and Bob McDonald, RPD

Proposition C, passed by the voters in 2000, mandated that a minimum of 5% of the Open Space Fund be dedicated to acquisition of new property, including new rec facilities (Hand-out provided: overview, map and survey to determine community priorities for acquisitions). RPD wants future acquisitions to be planned and will work with PROSAC (Park, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Committee) to develop a process and set of criteria regarding future acquisitions.
RPD has inventoried private and City agencies’ (eg., DPW, PUC, School District, Redevelopment Agency) properties (map provided showing properties) and has been asked to consider acquiring these for rec facilities and/or open spaces. Bob is working to expand the map and make a priorities list with PROSAC and to develop a process to establish a program for acquisition to include with the Capital Plan.

District 10: Sites that could be considered for acquisition by the community:

Site next to the Potrero Hill Police and Fire station on 3rd St. for construction of a rec facility; IM school site for a rec facility (lot with 2-story structure, about _ acre); Star King Park: property on slope as a natural area, trail (owned by Redevelopment Agency); Palou-Phelps Natural Area: would like to purchase remainder of lots, now lease park and would like to purchase and renovate; Keith St. Lots: Natural area, would be a transfer from Redevelopment agency; India Basin: Opportunity to link India Basin sites (#4) and have water access; Bay View Hill: Western slope privately owned; Visitation Valley Greenway: Water Dept. property and RPD now leasing; Little Hollywood: RPD only owns part of park (lower section) and NorCal owns upper area, plus have their own park-like property separated by a chain-link fence adjacent. Sup. Ammiano said he may be able to assist in these negotiations as he has worked with NorCal when they acquired this land. Finally, McLaren Park-Delta St. property: privately owned now.

District 9: Sites that could be considered for acquisition by the community:

Not a lot of sites identified in District 9. One is the property along 280 near St. Mary’s Park that overlooks the SLUG garden on Alemany.

The District Park Planning program has been working on a study of the gaps in service areas of San Francisco’s parks as well as the acquisitions of new parkland over the past thirty years.

San Francisco has 3317 acres of parkland. Of that, 2300 acres are in the city’s five largest parks. The remaining third is in our neighborhood parks. In the past 30 years, San Francisco has acquired 91.8 acres of new park land – that’s less than a 3% increase in our open space in the last 30 years.

San Francisco does not have an open space acquisition plan. We hope that one will be developed that takes into consideration existing park land, gaps in service areas, demographics, topography (eg., hardscape or greenscape, hill or flat), and types of open space needed. We need to answer the question: If open space is acquired in the future, what kind of park is needed in a neighborhood?

DPP staff has created GIS (Geographic Information System) maps that graphically show what are or are not within a convenient, "useable" distance (service area) of a park. These distances vary with the size and type of park as determined by the Planning Department. For instance, a mini park’s service area is about 1/8 of a mile. A large park like McLaren serves up to 1/2 mile.

Our maps using the Planning Department’s service area as criteria show District 9 looking better than it actually may be with very few gaps. District 10 has huge gaps but in largely industrial areas.

Our open space database is not complete and we need community input. Please look at maps and give us information we may have missed, e.g. right-of-ways, community gardens, mini parks, topography or other elements that limit accessibility. Also, the community needs to set up priorities: the type (classification) of open space you want purchased, e.g., neighborhood park, rec center, athletic fields. We will take your recommendations back to PROSAC members/RPD and the Planning Dept. Let Vidya know of any additional open spaces in your neighborhood: Contact Vidya at 621-3260 x102 or vtikku@sfnpc.org.
Also contact her for a copy of the powerpoint presentation.

Playgrounds: Also see maps of playgrounds in District 9 and 10. Maps show those owned by RPD and the School District. They need to share facilities like what is happening at La Raza/Plaza del Sol and Buena Vista school.

Sup. Tom Ammiano: Yes, there will be more sharing of playgrounds. I started a committee, 2 reps from the BOS and 2 reps from the School Board, who will be moving this along. RPD and the School District need to get used to working together.

Workshop: There will be a workshop in the future to look at this whole open space study by NPC and RPD’s Open Space Program. We will develop guidelines and criteria and continue to build the open space database.

Q & A/Comments:

• What procedure do you have for transferring land between City agencies? We develop an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Dept. in question so have an agreement to use, maintain, or transfer the land. This would then go to the Board of Supervisors for approval.
  
• Both DPW and RPD employ gardeners. How do you coordinate between them? Yes, there are turf issues sometimes, different sources of funding for maintenance, need to transfer to the right jurisdiction.
  
• Some prefer acquiring land for active recreation but you seem to be expanding existing parkland rather than proposing new open space? We need a study like the one Vidya is doing including service areas, topography, finding where the gaps are in order to make proposals for new open space purchases.
  
• Bob McDonald: We need to look at what the Planning Dept. is doing in the Eastern neighborhoods, particularly regarding housing, and coordinate the open space acquisition program with their plans. Also, Dept. agencies have come to RPD and asked about land transfers but need to know the community’s priorities. Eg., playing fields, do you need another soccer field in District 9 or baseball field?
  
• Alfredo: Can see where housing going up and need to get to land first to acquire open space to go with the new housing.
  
• Soccer Field: A visitor to meeting said there is a soccer field nearby that has been closed for two years because of minor repairs.
  
• Leora: The waterfront area could be a good opportunity for acquisition. Why not look at real estate for sale there where there is not much public land? Vidya: Most of this land is under the jurisdiction of the Port Commission and they control the open space there. RPD is looking at India Basin area which is outside the Port’s jurisdiction; the land in question is privately owned.
  
• How about Hunter’s Point Shipyard? They have their own open space plan through the Redevelopment Agency. Also, a lot of toxic sites there.
  
• What about Mission Bay? Redevelopment agency also has control there as well as Rincon Hill and TransBay terminal land. Need to ask what type of open space need there and who will pay for it, eg., developers?
  
• Redevelopment Agency Land: If redevelopment owns the land, how does RPD and the community have input? The public must be involved.
  
• Edgehill Mt. and Page St. Community Garden: Are these the best use of open space funds (expansion of Edgehill Mt. and purchase of community garden at 438 Page being considered)? The Page St. property may be by-passing PROSAC and going directly to the BOS.
  
• Tom Ammiano Response: If you have any concerns about a purchase, contact my PROSAC representative (two per district) and/or meet with my aides to develop a unified policy. Any of the purchases must be approved by the RPD commission and then go to the BOS and first to the Land Use Committee of the Board that I am on.
  Community: It is troublesome when talk about purchasing new properties and can’t maintain existing parks and open space.
  Response: The Budget Committee is concerned about RPD and knows that it has suffered in this proposed budget. BOS want to change this—still not over for this year. RPD took an unfair hit this year and will try to rectify next year.

V. Community Updates

• Rolph Playground (Leora): Community garden planted (pix shown)—all perinnials, This was a one year effort. Good Samaritan kids are maintaining some of the plots. Garden is attracting people to the park who have stayed away in the past.
  
• Esprit Park (Frank K.) Maintenance and upkeep are suffering now, not getting watered, garbage accumulating.
  
• Ninos Unidos (Pat D.): To open July 26. Have been working on getting this park for many years. PODER got involved in 1999. Working on getting maintenance (Tom A. to help). Capped toxic areas with two feet of covering.
  
• Lower 24th St. Mini Park (Alfredo and EricK): Received a $15,000 grant from the Mayor’s Neighborhood Beautification Fund to restore one of the murals at the park, and create a mosaic tile floor mural at the entrance. Eventually want to restore all the murals there. Park is closed now for pre-demolition by the CA Conservation Corp. Will re-open 7/21 for about 6 to 8 months and then close again to complete renovation (6 to 8 months). Park will have signs to enforce the kids only park with adults accompanying. Have plans for activities at the park such as movies.
  
• India Basin: Jill Fox’s statement about India Basin: "The Trust for Public Land, which got a huge grant to install a playground, is taking a very, very long time to accomplish very little. They have alienated all local stewardship, they have designed a very stupid playground then close for about 8 months for completion of restoration. Design plans on-going. that does not serve the ages of the local children, they have designed "art" that is completely negative in nature and refused input from any of the nearby artists at the Hunters Point Shipyard and local businesses that wanted to contribute, they refuse to disclose any financial information, and they have such poor project management that we have a second summer of fenced off park to look at. They have been using grant money for this park since 1999 and accomplished nothing. They have held only 2 public meetings on this park. Compare this with the Crocker Amazon project and you see why I am so upset. The Trust for Public Land should never be allowed in another San Francisco park. I can give specific examples for all of this. I am sorry I can't be there to share the details."
  NPC: Unfortunately, the Trust for Public Land was not represented at this meeting to respond to the above comments directly. While they adamantly refute this statement, they do welcome anyone with concerns to contact them directly. Deborah Schoenbaum, TPL’s Bay Area Urban Programs Director can be reached at 415/495-5660.
  
• Joseph Lee Rec Center: This is a 50 year old facility. There were three plans from RPD presented to community to renovate it from completely demolishing and rebuilding (16 mo.) to completely remodeling (24 mo.). RPD will be meeting with community again soon to present two new plans.
  
• Little Hollywood: $750,000 renovation to begin soon. Park has two levels, with upper level leased for a minimal amount from NorCal which has there own park on other side of fence. Would like public access to their green space. Sup. Ammiano may be able to help with this.
  
• Holly Park: Contract awarded and breaking ground soon on renovation.
  
• Garfield: Moving forward now with renovation of playground.
  
• Potrero del Sol/La Raza: Community meetings have taken place regarding renovation, including soccer field and skateboard park.
  
• Bernal Hill: To go to bid soon with no changes to natural area, just renovation of hard surfaces.
  
• Precita Park: Working with Precita Valley Neighbors to replace trees. "Looking good."
  
• Need for Gardeners at Neighborhood Parks (Franco): As discussed previously, we have a real problem with low numbers of gardeners for neighborhood parks; numbers are down to under 80 gardeners. Yet golf courses, harbor, Candlestick park, all the special interests, fully staffed. We are not putting enough into the neighborhood parks for the amount of land they have. This is a policy issue at RPD.
  
• Sup. Tom Ammiano’s Response: I Don’t want to politicize this, but a new mayor can change politics of situation. District election has helped. There was political gridlock before but now BOS must respond to the neighbors about these issues. He is looking at an assessment for maintenance of parks-- transfer tax for property sold over $3M with money earmarked for parks and schools.
  

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