MARCH 2009 |
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IN THIS ISSUE |
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NPC QUICK LINKS |
Neighborhood Parks Council
451 Hayes Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
PHONE: 415.621.3260, FAX: 415.703.0889
Click here to email NPC.
Click here to find out how to take public transportation to our office.
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SUPPORT NPC |
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GET INVOLVED
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Click here to check out NPC's volunteer opportunities on Volunteer Match.
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| ACTION ALERT |
Extreme Layoffs at RPD; Budget Crisis Cuts Deep: Write Your Supervisor!
The Recreation and Parks Department issued layoff notices to 78 people on February 27th. The majority of the layoffs were among recreation staff. Six vacant gardener positions were among those eliminated to reach the nearly $12M in cuts the Department needs to make to their $140M annual budget. Click here to read all the details, and contact your Supervisor right away!
Update Your Park Group’s Contact Information
We need to hear updates from our park groups so we can be sure to keep our website up to date. If your group has changed its contact information (click here) or scheduled workday (click here) in the last year or two, please let us know. Also, if you are starting a new group we’d love to hear about it too--we can help! Please contact Outreach Coordinator, Matthew Silva, at msilva@sfnpc.org or 415.621.3260.
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Nice Weather Brings Workdays to Playfields
In February, maintenance took top priority at two of San Francisco’s newer athletic playing fields, Franklin Square and Silver Terrace. Each site hosted park workdays as part of the City Playfields Initiative, a partnership between the Recreation and Park Department, the City Fields Foundation and the Neighborhood Parks Council. Click here to read more and see photos from the recent workdays.
If you are interested in participating in our efforts, or would like to join a park group at any of City Fields Initiative sites (Crocker Amazon, Franklin Square, Garfield Square, Silver Terrace, and South Sunset), please contact Matthew Silva at msilva@sfnpc.org or 415.621.3260.
Funding Opportunity
The Community Challenge Grant Program (CCG) provides matching grants to local residents, businesses, community groups, and nonprofits to make physical improvements to their neighborhoods. The CCG focuses on projects that directly engage residents and businesses in working together to create green spaces, gathering places, public art, and other neighborhood amenities. The application deadline is Wednesday, March 25, 2009 by 4:00 PM, and award notification is June 2009. For more information about eligibility and to find out how to apply, click here.
Park Patrol: A Vital Part of Park Stewardship
 Community member Kathy Howard noted that the San Francisco Park Rangers (also known as Park Patrol) have been very helpful with answering visitor’s questions at the Golden Gate Park Music Concourse, and particularly with traffic problems, which have been quite difficult since the opening of the new California Academy of Sciences. “They are essentially ambassadors to the community. They are friendly and helpful and give us an added sense of security,” added Howard. To learn more about the history of park patrol and their duties, click here. To contact Park Patrol, email park.patrol@sfgov.org or call 415. 242.6390.
Seeking Contributions of Park News
Calling all park groups! Do you have a story about your park that you would like us to convey in our monthly E-news? Submit your text to Lucien Sonder at lsonder@sfnpc.org by the 20th of each month.
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Mayor’s Open Space Task Force
The community outreach portion of the Mayor's Open Space Task Force continues through March with the Open Space Workshop Series. The series solicits the ideas and the priorities of neighbors and neighborhoods around the City. The goal is to capture what each community in San Francisco experiences, needs, and hopes for as it relates to the various types of open space, from neighborhood parks, to large natural areas, to safe, accessible and green bicycle and pedestrian routes.
Approximately half of the scheduled workshops have been held to date, and the remaining ten workshops will be held this month. Please visit www.openspacesf.org/event to find an upcoming meeting near you. Click here to read more about the goals of the community outreach process, and find out why we believe it is imperative to develop transparent policies about open space. You can also read notes from past meetings here.
Playground Initiative
2009 Play Day Coming Up in March!
The 2009 phase of the Playground Initiative will begin in late March with Play Day. Stay tuned for exact details of the event. There will also be many opportunities to improve San Francisco playgrounds this spring, summer and fall as NPC and RPD staff continue to lead Playground Initiative workdays at the city’s failing playgrounds.
Want to receive playground Enews? NPC has recently created an email list specifically related to playgrounds, for individuals who are interested in receiving Playground Initiative updates, playground volunteer opportunities and information about San Francisco playground issues. Click here to subscribe.
Blue Greenway
On February 10th, the Port of SF received Commission approval to start the Blue Greenway Planning Process. The Staff Report on this item can be found here. We'll be back in touch soon about starting the process.
Embarcadero Design Standards Study
The Port is initiating a project to evaluate and improve The Embarcadero Promenade/Herb Caen Way as a pedestrian circulation corridor. The Staff report on this topic can be found here. Contact Dan Hodapp at the Port (415.274.0625) for more information. This study will inform the Blue Greenway planning.
 ParkScan
NPC recently launched a new, much improved version of ParkScan for San Francisco! The site has a brand new look, and it is now easier to navigate, submit observations, and search. Visit http://parkscan.org/new-improvements for a list of the site's new features, or click here to submit an observation today! Special thanks to Justin Fraser at Digipop.com in San Francisco for his hard work in designing the new website.
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Friends of Grattan Playground Stay Active Through the Years
On Saturday, February 21st, over 20 adult volunteers, as well as many young playground lovers, gathered at Grattan Playground for one of the park’s regular cleanup days. For the past four years, the Friends of Grattan Playground and the Haight Ashbury Community Nursery School (HACNS) have worked with the Recreation and Park Department (RPD) to host official workdays at Grattan. These workdays have significantly beautified the park and built an even greater sense of community around Grattan Playground. Click here to learn about the Friends’ stewardship activities throughout the years.
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 NPC relies on the generosity of donors and volunteers to continue making a difference in our parks. Our success would not be possible without your support. Share your passion for parks, playgrounds and open space by making a donation today. For more information, please contact Lyn Spataro, Development Director at lspataro@sfnpc.org or 415.621.3260.
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For this month's park interview with Cathy Smart at Rossi Park, please visit http://www.sfnpc.org/ilovemypark0309.
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RPD Commission Approves Layoffs, Increased Fees and Parking Meters
Photo Credit: Robert Cheetham
On February 20th, the Recreation and Park Commission unanimously approved a departmental budget that will cut 72 jobs, install parking meters at Balboa, Palace of Fine Arts, Lincoln Park Golf Course, and Golden Gate Park, and increase admission fees at the Botanical Garden to help bridge an $11.4 million budget gap. In addition, a Japantown cafe owner will take over the concession at Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. No parks or recreation centers will be closed. For more details, see RPD’s most recent budget presentation here.
Park/Recreational Facility Reopenings
For a complete list of opening and closure dates for RPD capital projects, click here.
Neighborhood Service Area Quarterly Meetings
RPD is now offering quarterly meetings in each Neighborhood Service Area so that the public can discuss park-related issues with key RPD staff members. Visit http://www.sfnpc.org/NSAcommunitymeetings for the dates and locations of all future meetings, and a list of parks in each Service Area. The March meetings are listed below:
- NSA5: March 17th, 7-8 PM, Upper Noe Rec Center
- NSA 4: March 25th, 6-7 PM, Potrero Hill Rec Center
Keep Up With RPD Commission Meetings: 1st and 3rd Thursday of Every Month at 2PM
Click here for up-to-date schedules of Commission meetings. Public comment is now at the beginning of every meeting
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 To read all recent park-related news headlines, click here.
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COMMUNITY EVENTS |
 Earth Day 2009
Change SF is partnering with Green Apple Festival to co-present volunteer action opportunities in support of Earth Day 2009. If you are interested, contact James Hanusa at Change SF: 415.235.9640 or james.hanusa@gmail.com.
Earth Hour: March 28th, 8:30 PM
 On March 28, 2009, at 8:30 PM, the City and County of San Francisco will partner with thousands of residences, businesses and local community and environmental organizations to turn off the lights for at least one hour as part of the World Wild Life Fund's Earth Hour Event. Facilities from historic landmarks to private homes across the City will turn off their lights and take advantage of the time to install energy efficient light bulbs, turn down their water heaters and take other actions that will help reverse climate change. For more information about how to become an Earth Hour Partner, contact Daniel Homsey: daniel.homsey@sfgov.org, 415.554.7114.
Eastern Neighborhoods Transportation Task Force
Utilizing a grant from the San Francisco Foundation, Urban Ecology together with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the San Francisco Planning Department would like to invite you to participate in the development of an interim Task Force to inform the upcoming Eastern Neighborhoods Transportation Implementation Planning Study (EN TRIPS).
The interim Task Force will consist of representatives from stakeholder groups who are willing to participate in decision-making processes directly affecting future transportation improvements in the Eastern Neighborhoods. For more information, please contact Linda Roberson of Urban Ecology at 415.617.0166 or linda@urbanecology.org.
See the full event calendar here.
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 Eleanor Beaton: ParkKiosk Volunteer
Our website currently hosts a pilot version of ParkKiosk, a series of pages about specific parks which provide information regarding facility hours, park staff hours, and upcoming events. There are also links to photos of past events and volunteer workdays. To read more about ParkKiosk and see sample pages, click here.
This month we feature Eleanor Beaton, our ParkKiosk Content Manager, as our Volunteer of the Month. Click here to read an interview about why she thinks ParkKiosk is such an important program for our city.
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