Recreation & Fun: Celebrating Buena Vista Park Improvements

Celebrating Buena Vista Park Improvements

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Saturday January 23rd

On Saturday morning, about 60 neighborhood folks braved the wind, rain and, yes, even hail, to help celebrate the recent renovation of Buena Vista Park ’s southeastern slope.

The result of the project is stunning. Improvements include an ADA-accessible pathway, new stairs, landscaping, irrigation and new retaining walls. I meandered through the new pathway and enjoyed every step along the way. I highly recommend that you take a stroll up the mountain and visit Buena Vista Park , which happens to be, by the way, the city’s oldest official park.

Richard Magary of the Buena Vista Neighborhood Association helped organize the event, which included appearances by District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty, District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, city treasurer José Cisneros, Mike Farrah from the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services and our esteemed Recreation and Park commissioners, Michael Sullivan and newly elected president, Mark Buell.

While Richard handled most of the acknowledgments and thank-you’s in an extremely thorough speech, I had the distinct honor of announcing that Rec and Park has secured $280,000 in grants for a second phase of work at Buena Vista that will begin later this year. Working with the San Francisco Conservation Corps, Rec and Park will utilize the funds to rehabilitate the southeast slope trail and to create a gathering area on the southeast lawn.

$115K --- California State Parks Land and Water Conservation Grant

$164K --- San Francisco Conservation Corps