Recreation & Fun

Monday, August 31, 2009

This morning I went to City Hall for a Department Head meeting. The Mayor led a discussion of a couple of interesting issues that affect Rec and Park:

• The Federal Stimulus Bill includes $25 million for San Francisco to significantly expand subsidized employment opportunities between now and September 2010. Rec and Park has already applied for 18 jobs using these funds and we are angling for more.

• On October 15th and 10:15am, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, the City will conduct a disaster preparedness drill called "the Big Rumble." Rec and Park staff will be participating in the drill and will be required to review emergency action plans at each of our facilities and call in to our department emergency operations center which we intend to activate.

• In the coming weeks San Francisco will be organizing free H1N1(swine) flue clinics throughout the City, utilizing a combination of schools, community centers, libraries and possibly rec centers. The first shipment of 100,000 doeses of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine will arrive in late October. The H1N1 flu clinics will accommodate a three-tier system of priority, different from traditional seasonal flu recommendations. Tier one, or the first group to receive the vaccine, will be pregnant women, children 6 months to age 24, care givers of children younger than 6 months and emergency responders and health workers. The next tier will be for anyone 24-65 with chronic conditions. The final tier is reserved for people over 65. To help prevent the spread of the flu virus, Rec and Park will be installing hand sanitizers and will be posting culturally competent information about prevention at all its facilities this Fall.

In the afternoon I took a tour of the Botanical Garden and met with Botanical Society Executive Director Michael McKechnie. Formelry Strybing Arboretum, the Botanical Garden is 55 acres and include

s over 7,500 varieties of plants from around the world, making it one of the largest on the West Coast of the United States. Originally laid out in the 1890s by Park Superintendent John McLaren, funding was insufficient to begin construction until Helen Strybing willed funds in 1926. Planting was begun in 1937 with WPA funds supplemented by local donations, and the arboretum officially opened in May 1940. As a part of the Golden Gate Park, the Garden is officially managed by the City, but we partner with the SF Botanical Garden Society which plays an important role in providing educational programs, managing volunteers and raising money. The Society, operates the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture, a bookstore, monthly plant sales and offers a wide range of programs for kids and adults. The Society also raises money for new projects and Garden renovations. Planned renovations include a new Center for Sustainable Gardening to replace an aging nursery, new pathways and a new Southeast Asian Cloud Forest.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Today, my highlight for the day was my mountain bike ride around Golden Gate Park with Dan Schneider, the Executive Director of SF Urban Riders. SF Urban Riders (www.sfurbanriders.org), advocates for safe, fun off-road bicycling in City Parks. There is much work to be done in and around our parks to ensure mountain biking is a safe and fun activity within our parks. Dan and I spent some time discussing how to improve the mountain biking track within Golden Gate Park.

This evening, I attended a reception hosted by the San Francisco Parks Trust (www.sfpt.org) on the top floor of the De Young Museum. On a beautiful night, overlooking Golden Gate Park, I spoke about the need for strong philanthropic partners to help our park system fulfill its incredible potential. Please consider joining the San Francisco Parks Trust so that together we can make sure our Parks have the resources they need.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

This afternoon, I held my first bi-monthly employee office hours. Every other month, I will be devoting a weekday afternoon to 15-minute meetings with any department employee on any topic they wish to discuss. Today's GM Office Hours lasted for over three-and-a-half hours, and I met with 15 different employees. This is a great way for me to learn more about issues at Rec and Park outside the boundaries of our organizational structure and hierarchy. Today's meetings ran the gamut from the "I-just-want-to-meet-you" meeting to the "my-supervisor-sucks" meeting, to the "what-do-you-think-about-this-idea" meeting. I certainly know I won't be able to satisfy the wish list of everyone who showed, but the perspectives offered were very illuminating and well worth an afternoon. Next month, I will be holding GM Office Hours for community members. If you'd like to meet, please contact my assistant, Margaret McArthur, at 831-2701, and, time permitting, she will pencil you in. First call, first scheduled.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Very busy day today. It started at 8:30 a.m. with a walk through Golden Gate Park with Outside Lands and Rec and Park staff. I am very proud to say that Outside Lands has left Golden Gate Park in better condition than they found it. At 10 a.m., I met with a group of City officials and the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Steve Kawa, to provide an update on City preparations for the President's Cup coming to Harding Park Golf Course from October 6 to 11. The Pr

esident's Cup is a biennial golf competition pitting the best U.S. golfers against the top non-European international players. This year's event is the eighth President's Cup and San Francisco is only the second U.S. city selected to host the event. This year's U.S. team is led by captain Fred Couples and the world's best player, Tiger Woods. While we had a setback after a gardener over-fertilized the greens (ignoring his supervisor's direction), the greens have recovered nicely and the gardener no longer works with us.

Next, I visited Sunnyside Playground with several members of my staff and park advocates, Andrea O'Leary, Miriam Moss and the beloved Bill Wilson. Sunnyside Playground, a one-acre park located in District 7, was renovated in 2007. Phase II of the project utilizes $843,500 of surplus funds from the first phase on clubhouse improvements. This is a park that has benefitted from strong community advocacy and looks terrific....

Then, Thursday afternoon the Rec and Park Commission held its monthly meeting. The Recreation and Park Department is governed by a seven-member Commission appointed by the Mayor to four-year terms. In accordance with the Charter, the Recreation and Park Commission is primarily a policy-making body, establishing the policies by which the Recreation and Park Department operates. At the meeting, the Commission approved the Restroom Task Force recommendations which will result in several new and refurbished restrooms paid for through the 2008 Parks Bond and renovation designs at West Sunset and Mission playgrounds.

At each Commission meeting during my General Manager's Report, I have the great pleasure of presenting Department certificates of honor to a Rec and Park employee and park volunteer (or volunteer organization). Today, I honored Michael Gay, a 30 year employee who keeps Candlestick Park functioning (with band-aids and glue) and Cathy Moyer from VoCal (Volunteers for Outdoor California) for organizing and leading a trail rehabilitation project in McLaren Park earlier this summer.

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Today, I spent my morning with Rec and Park's Urban Forestry Unit. Under the leadership of Kelly Cornell, the Urban Forestry unit is comprised of approximately 10 people who are responsible for the upkeep of over 500,000 trees (approximately 100,000 in Golden Gate Park alone). After touring with the reforestation unit - where I got to see a "time-lapse" compression of three reforestation plots (newly planted, mid-growth and mature) in one small area on middle drive. After spending some time on the ground with the tree planters, I headed up...and up...and up to learn first hand, how our tree-toppers keep our aging forest maintained...from the top, down.