Recreation & Fun

If you’ve been around some of the city’s more popular soccer destinations lately, you probably have seen the byproducts of the Foundation’s good work. The Foundation has helped renovate fields or install lights at six parks across the city, including Franklin Square, South Sunset Playground, Silver Terrace, Garfield Square and the amazing soccer complex at Crocker Amazon Park. Next up is the athletic field at Kimbell Playground in the Western Addition, a heavily used facility for neighborhood kids and schools alike.

By the way, the Beach Chalet is a fantastic and historic building that is waiting to be discovered or rediscovered. The building’s WPA murals, originally completed in 1936, tell the story of the city and its denizens in a long-forgotten era.

Late Friday afternoon, about 20 RPD staffers and Parks Trust representatives participated in an team-building educational scavenger hunt at the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park. We spent about 90 minutes chasing down clues prepared by RPD operations director Denny Kern that helped us identify about 15 different monuments and statues in the park. I have been in the Concourse hundreds of times, and I don’t think I ever fully appreciated how many monuments exist there and, frankly, what they are. It was a great team-building and educational experience, something I hope we can repeat from time to time with RPD staff and our park partners.

Did you know?
There are two monuments in Golden Gate Park honoring U.S. Presidents--- Ulysses S. Grant and James A. Garfield. The broken sword on the Garfield statue symbolizes his assassination.