ParkKiosk is a web portal that offers City residents a web page dedicated to their local park or playground. Users will be able to contribute park histories, photos, event listings, etc. to their ParkKiosk page, thus creating what is essentially an online community bulletin board for all parks and playgrounds in San Francisco.
Find your park's kiosk in the A-Z list located in the left sidebar!
PARK KIOSKS -- WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
Park Users Need Information
Neighborhood Parks Council (NPC)’s coalition of park groups has been advocating for physically placing community bulletin boards (kiosks) in the city’s parks since NPC was founded in 1996. Park groups need a location to post their schedules of workdays and community events, contact information, and park histories. Kiosks can provide important information and promote stewardship and public support for the park.
The Duboce Park kiosk (shown in the picture to the left) is an excellent example of how a kiosk provides a central location for community members to post relevant information and thereby create an active, vibrant park space. Kiosks can also provide an opportunity for the Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) to comply with Prop C standards, which require RPD to post gardener schedules, park maintenance standards, and park audits for the public. The kiosks allow this information to be prominently displayed to communities and create a higher standard of transparency and accountability for RPD.
Unfortunately, the process of getting the kiosks approved and built is burdened with bureaucratic obstacles and significant cost (currently estimated at $5,000 per kiosk). NPC will continue to fundraise and advocate for physical kiosks to be placed in as many of the 200+ parks in the city as is desired by neighborhood park groups. Clearly, this will be a long term process.
Park Kiosk -- The Web 2.0 Version
Alternatively, we now offer an exciting new web-based solution called ParkKiosk. Many of the neighborhood advocates and organized park groups in the city have expressed an urgent need for conveying important information about their treasured neighborhood park. Building on the overwhelming success of ParkScan, a web-based tool for gathering, analyzing, and reporting maintenance issues in city parks and playgrounds, NPC is now developing an online kiosk, called ParkKiosk, available to every neighborhood park and playground group in the City of San Francisco. ParkKiosk essentially provides a user-friendly portal through which park advocates and stewards can promote their parks and playgrounds, offering a dedicated web page with many user-friendly features that park advocates can control and contribute to.
ParkKiosk can offer:
•Park/playground description
•Facts, features, & facilities
•Park/playground history
•Map(s)
•Volunteer opportunities
•Current activities and events
•Recreation & Park Department links, including gardener schedules
•Send a post card of your park to a friend!
•Quick links to existing web sites (Friends of XYZ Park, The XYZ Playground Committee, etc.)
•Support your neighborhood park/playground: donate, sponsor, etc.
•Link to Park & Playground standards (Prop C)
•Healthy park activities
•Park photos and art
•Link to Parkpedia (online park encyclopedia)
Sponsorship Opportunities are available for citywide sponsorship of ParkKiosk as well as local sponsorship of individual (neighborhood park) ParkKiosk pages.
For more information, please contact:
Matt Silva, Outreach Coordinator
Neighborhood Parks Council
msilva@sfnpc.org
