News from my desk . . .

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.)

·  I spoke in favor of the 8 Washington Street development at a northern waterfront advisory group meeting last week.  The development would reconfigure the Golden Gateway Tennis & Swim Club and provide two new open spaces.  This is also a very controversial project because a private club would be impacted and a condo development would be built. However, the condos will only be 84 feet tall (while the buildings behind them are 215 feet tall) and will be LEED certified. The development also calls for closing a couple sections of streets to allow for pedestrians.

·  NPC will be working closely with Rec and Park in the upcoming weeks to set budget priorities. Rec and Park needs to cut $12M from the $33M General Fund money which they get as a part of their overall $117M budget.