RECREATION AND PARKS: Safe Places to Play for All Kids

San Francisco has an infrastructure of over 200 parks and recreation centers, in addition to several excellent publicly-run museums. They are located in every neighborhood in the City. These facilities have the potential to comprise the City’s most comprehensive child and youth service network. Our goal is to build the capacity of our recreation and park system to meet a wide variety of children’s needs - for sports, summer programming, early childhood programs, youth services, latchkey programs, experience in the arts, environmental education, employment and training, and violence prevention. We believe that our recreation centers should be hubs of our community, providing opportunities for children, youth and their families to have fun, get exercise, and develop their creativity and their social skills. We want recreation and park services to be free, if at all possible. We oppose privatization and fee increases that make these precious resources for children out of reach financially for low- and moderate-income families. This applies to zoo fees, as well as summer camps, art programs, and museums. We also believe that our city parks should be safe, well-maintained and accessible, and able to serve as the backyards to all of the city’s families.

• OUR PAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND STRATEGIES
  · Issuing four report cards on the status of our parks and recreation centers, an action which was the spark for a major revitalization of our park system and a new public and policy focus on the parks.
  · Advocating for the creation of Operation Parks in the Police Department, which has improved safety in the parks for children.
  · Leading the campaign to have the city’s major museum remain in Golden Gate Park, a successful effort that mobilized thousands of San Franciscans to support the cause.
  · Providing essential support to the first bond to repair parks and recreation centers in 25 years – a measure which passed overwhelmingly in 1999.
  · Providing leadership for sensible dog leash laws, which allow children and dog-owners to share precious park space.
  · Fighting budget cuts in the Recreation and Park budget, and getting many proposed cuts re-instated in the budget.
  
  
  
• OUR STRATEGIES INCLUDE· Leadership on public and private bodies that oversee and plan for the park system. This includes the Parks and Recreation Oversight Advisory Committee, the Leash Law Task Force, and groups that monitor various neighborhood parks.
  · Advocacy to increase public support and funding for recreation and park programs, including public museums. We survey parents and youth, and propose new programs and improvements in existing programs.
  · Advocacy to maintain clean and safe parks, including clean bathrooms in the parks and dog leash laws that are balanced and child-friendly.
  · Monitoring the expenditure of funds from the recent park bond in order to ensure that funding is distributed fairly throughout the city, and that the priorities of parents for safe play structures and decent bathroom, get addressed.