Dolores Park Community Meeting – Mission Loc@l — San Francisco Mission District’s News, Food, Art and Events.

This just in from Andrew W.: Hey San Francisco! We’re in town still and want to keep giving you ice cream, so we got together with our friends in Still Flyin’ and are doing just that. Tonight at 6:30 in Dolores Park we are having a free ice cream social as well as a mini show from Still Flyin’ that we’ll be recording for Road Trippin’ with Ice Cream Man. So get over those mid-week blues with some upbeat music and delicious Ben & Jerry’s treat … Read More

via Mission Mission

Local food cart pioneer, Abraham Espiritu of Lumpia Cart brought a small caravan of food vendors into the park Saturday afternoon and quietly set up by the big palms. Abraham said he had been staying away from Dolores but, found other spots, like Precita park more welcoming. It seemed it was time to stop by Dolores though. Accompanying Lumpia cart were soul Cocina, Ninja Pie Cart and Evil Jerk Cart, with great chicken.

Abraham keeps in contact with his fans with his iphone.

Sean, one of the guys heroically producing this eventover the last five years, tells us he is trying to keep a lid on it. This is supposed to be a neighborhood event. Not a mega event. Now, The Bay Guardian assures us it’s OK to bring your East Bay friends, just no mid-western tourists.  Ya right.   The Guardian did look up the ‘Back to the Future” trailer for us though.

This will mark the 19th Season for the producers of Film Night in the Park. How many of those years here in Dolores?

Dolores Park

• June 19             Dirty Dancing Grease Sing-Along
• August 7            Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• September 25    The Big Lebowski

Union Square

• July 10              Rear Window
• August 28         Lady from Shanghai

Washington Park Square

• September 11    Amelie

Bling!

With plans in place to break-ground this Fall for our a new “world-class” playground here in Dolores, when all is finished, there may be a few things missing. The Friends of Dolores Park Playground say that after raising $3.25 million from  City funds, 2008 Park Bond money, donations from individuals, private foundations, grants, and support from local businesses, they are still a little short, $287 thousand dollars short.

All is well for the most part, a grand multi-section play-area totally up to modern safety standards, filled with lots of natural plants and materials is on track and funded. However, several amenities, furnishings and art work will not be installed if the Friends can not raise these funds. They are reaching out to us, Dolores Park supporters, with the Friend’s of Dolores Park  first  public fundraising drive. Please Give! They will also continue to reach out to foundations and influential members of the community as well.

The Friends say, that because Dolores Park and playground are so heavily used, the demolition and repair of the drainage issues, the desire to use sustainable materials, and the need for the play structures to withstand upwards of 40 years of heavy use make it an extremely expensive renovation. We have from now until June 30th to reach this goal.

News broke last week (though Park and Rec was not making a secret of it) that the greater part of Dolores Park would most likely need to close for over a year in order to accomplish a long needed and anticipated renovation. Many in the community took the news as a personal attack on their lifestyle. A Facebook fan page “Don’t Close all of Dolores Park” has 1,200 member as of this writing. Rec and Park and Supervisors Dufty were again reminded of how much the residents of the surrounding dense neighborhoods depend on this park for open space. Philip Ginsburg, rec and park general manager, says he is now committed to finding a way to accomplish the renovation in stages, “if fiscally possible.”

The meeting is being billed as a forum for questions about the upcoming renovation, information about the project planning process and information on how we can get involved. Invitations went out Friday to the new park stewardship group, Dolores Park Works, the Friends of Dolores Park Playground, local neighborhood associations and other stakeholders.

The new playground project is being handled as a separate project and public input and planning for the Helen Diller Playground is closed. Construction will most likely begin in late Fall of this year and may disrupt much of the southern end of the park.

in Dolores Park has been pushed back till Fall.  Mary Hobson, Rec and Park project manager, Capital Improvement Division, told us, “I just received an updated schedule from the landscape architect working on the playground project.  Design is scheduled to be completed in late May. It typically takes us three to four months to solicit bids, award and certify a contract, and then get the contractor out and ready to start work.” We can now plan for the playground to close and construction to begin in October, with reopening in April or May of 2011.
 Park managers have been told that once construction on the play area begins, we should expect much of the south end of the park to be fenced off for 8 months.

The Friends of Dolores Park Playground have been working for a total renovation of the play area for some time. Their vision, the construction of a new “World Class” playground with an emphasis on natural materials, is soon to be a reality. The Friends group have secured a private grant for up to $1.5 million to help with the cost. Nancy Gonzales-Madinsky, the Friends Group chair has told us that there were some items on their wish list that did not fit the budget, a wind sculpture was one.  The group has decided to go ahead and include these “Bling Bling” features in the final plans and are now seeking private funding to cover the $250 thousand short fall.

Planning for a greater Dolores Park renovation is slated to begin shortly. Hobson  tells us that, “We are going through the bond sale process right now. In fact the Board of Supervisors process is kicking off on Wednesday. If all goes well I hope to have designers ready to start working right away.”  This renovation is authorized  to include the courts, field, and clubhouse; restoration of existing roads and pathways; upgrades to subsurface infrastructure, irrigation and lighting; modifications to the site to remove barriers and improve accessibility, and overall reconditioning of the park landscape.  Construction should start in December, 2011. Much of the park will be fenced off for this project, according to park department representatives. Hobson believes that her original estimate of 16 months may be too much. and it could now be  ”substantially less” , now that the playground is being handled as a separate project.

Community meetings on the greater $11.7 million renovation of the park  are  expected to begin in late May or June. We can plan for about three public meetings over the course of four months.

So, it looks like we may have the new playground open in Spring 2011 and the greater park fenced off for the winter and spring of 2011-2012, at least. This is hard to visualize and plan for. What maybe even harder to plan for is a vision of what Dolores park should look like at the end of all this dust and mud. As one prominent park neighbor told me, this is a renovation that needs to last for 30, 40 or 50 years. We need to build a park that can adapt to future changes. What would you like to see in a rejuvenated Dolores Park?

Nice hat.

Still in the dreary days of Winter, but Rec and Park’s Dolores Calendar all ready  looks pretty full.   Many of our favorites look like they are back, our neighbors Dolores Park Movie Night are holding down their regular slot, the second Thursday of the month. The Boys will kick it off April 8.

The mega Film Night in the Park has reserved three sexy saturdays, June 19, August 7 and September 25.  The undeniably patriotic San Francisco Mime Troupe has grabbed Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends. And the revered San Francisco Symphony will turn Dolores into a concert hall July 25.

Arguably the most popular city hall sponsored event of the last ten years, Sunday Streets returns to The Mission June 20 and July 11. This year the streets will stay closed an hour longer (10 am to 3) for all of you who can’t make it out of the door on Sundays till 1 pm..

Friday and Saturday, June 25, 26 of Pride Week are of course reserved for the Trans March and Dyke Rally. You would have to prey these dates out of their cold dead hands. And the Cinco de Mayo Festival will again be the Saturday after the fifth, May 8.

We don’t as yet see the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s traditional Easter Spectacular or a Mission neighborhood favorite, Latino Pride. Times a fleeting kids. You need to book your beer soaked turf early. Let’s also hope that the park deptment will be able to continue to accommodate the many smaller cultural events that request to use Dolores. Such as last years The Taming of the Shrew, produced by Women’s Will. And the all peddled powered Bicycle Music Fest. So far, these arts groups are attracting small, polite crowds and both have no large sound systems. Win, win win.

Corection: Dog Fest 2010. Held last year in Duboce Park, stays in Duboce.  Sorry for the missinformation.

Womens Will