Welcome Neighbors!

CSFN Meeting with Mayor Newsom

Wednesday March 15 City Hall.

Members of CSFN, both delegates and individual neighborhood group members, may contact Judith Berkowitz to attend this meeting.

To focus the meeting, there will be an emphasis on three topics:

• Proposed Better Neighborhoods Planning & Implementation Process Policy

• Seismic Safety

• Garbage Rates Contact Info: 824-0617 sfjberk@mac.com

Music Concourse Landmark Celebration at City Hall

On February 9th Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board celebrated the landmarking of the Golden Gate Park Music Concourse. The ceremony was held on the Mayor’s Balcony overlooking the dramatic City Hall Rotunda. Over 100 members of the public and city officials attended. Landmarks Board President Bridget Maley, Mayor Newsom, Supervisor President Aaron Peskin, and Sponsor Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi spoke eloquently of the importance of the Music Concourse to San Francisco and the value of preserving our historic heritage.

President Maley thanked the members of the public, the commissions and the many organizations who contributed to this process, including the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods. After the ceremony, everyone shared a cake hand-decorated with a picture of the Concourse.

…Kathy Howard (RCA)

Rec and Park Audit Resolution
Rec and Park Audit Resolution Every time Harvey Rose publishes an audit, at least $250,000 of City funds is spent for a report that usually goes on the shelf. Rec and Parks has the third highest budget of all City departments and comes under intense criticism from Harvey Rose because it is chronically short of funding for the most needed projects. Last year they diverted $16 million to the Harding Golf Course make-over from Open Space programs intended ?gfor the most heavily populated and economically disadvantaged areas in each jurisdiction.?h No division or function is spared criticism; the audit suggests remedies for each of the oversight and accountability problems that plague the Department year after year, but nothing will happen unless the public?fs voice is raised. The recently published audit of Recreation and Parks Department should not go unnoticed. SPEAK Board recommend to the Coalition that they endorse our motion calling for a public hearing before Rec and Park Commission and afterwards, before the Board of Supervisors, to bring to light the continual mismanagement and malfunction of the Recreation and Parks Department.
On January 16, 2006, SPEAK Board voted unanimously the following Motion and transmitted it to CSFN Assembly on January 17, 2006 for vote at the February 2006 meeting. Whereas, the recently completed audit of the Recreation and Parks Department reveals numerous examples of financial and managerial malfunction which wastes money and often lacks even minimal oversight and accountability;
Whereas, one glaring example, the transfer of gardening staff and millions of dollars in money that was meant to be used for underserved neighborhoods to the revamping of Harding Golf Course, should be held up to public scrutiny;
Whereas, fees for the use of Recreation and Parks facilities are often increased but service to residents is decreased and fees are often not collected from promoters of special events in a timely manner;
Therefore be it resolved, that the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods hereby request that the Recreation and Parks Commission hold a special meeting, apart from their regular monthly meeting, in order to hear, as soon as possible, public comment on the Department audit, so that the suggestions made for improvement which were brought to light in the audit may not be filed away and forgotten;
Be it further resolved, that the SPEAK Board suggests to the many groups that belong to the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods that they read and study this important audit and, as individual groups, join with SPEAK to request this special hearing; and that the Coalition as a body vote to endorse this request. ?cSubmitted by Mary Anne Miller (SPEAK)

India Basin — Trashing the Promise

India Basin Park was intended to be the showpiece of Mayor Willie Brown’s program of shoreline park development. Only blocks from the Hunter’s Point Shipyards and the Projects, India Basin Park [on Evans Ave. near the PG&E plant] boasts carefully-crafted slides and swings, a basketball court, walks and lawns with special areas for wheelchair-bound children, and a magnificent view of San Francisco Bay. Whatever he meant to do, Mayor Brown made a promise to the children of this neighborhood in India Basin Park and India Basin Open Space. It should have been kept.

Sadly, we have but to walk 100 feet in any direction from the SS India Basin play structure to witness the trashing of that promise by the Newsom administration’s Recreation & Parks Department (RPD).

To the north and south, we find symbols of RPD maintenance — abandoned shopping carts not removed for 8 months or more. One hundred feet to the east, a “picturesque” truck tire graces the beach looking out over the Bay. One hundred feet to the west, at the entrance to the park, is the Dumpster overflowing with trash. Old couches and clothing greet you as you drive into the park.

Around the shoreline from India Basin Park is India Basin Open Space. It has a true sandy beach and grassy hills, with a bench-and-table dotted walk just above the beach. If India Basin Park is the playground for younger children and for basketball players, then India Basin Open Space is for older, adventurous children to exercise their imaginations. Except for the hazards of trash. While hiking up one of the sandy hills, I tore my heavy leather hiking shoe open on a jagged piece of “rebar” sticking out of the hillside. Lucky I wasn’t wearing the sneakers most of the children wear! India Basin Open Space has mounds of broken glass, graffiti-covered benches and tables, and strange iron objects that appear to have been dumped on the beach.

If Mayor Brown made a promise to the children of the Hunter’s Point neighborhoods, then what does San Francisco’s failure to keep that promise say to those children? India Basin Park and India Basin Open Space had — and still have — that promise. All that is lacking is proper and regular maintenance.

…Wayne Lanier (PRO-SF)