McKinley Square Park futures meetings

[Cris Rys]

 

Unofficial notes for the McKinley Square futures meetings have been posted at

http://mckinleysquareblog.blogspot.com/

 

Pictures & full video are included. 

 

Discussions of these meetings will be part of the McKinley Square Community Association meeting this coming Wednesday, 6:30pm at Downtown High School, but you are welcome and encouraged to post here in the Potrero Boosters forum. 

 

Please create an account and upload your picture for community discussion as you can discuss with your neighbors online "face to face".  Blank accounts are not encouraged as they are suspect to be fake accounts.

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

[Cris Rys]

October 1st, Downtown High School 10:00am-12:30pm

Some viewpoints put together from various discussions and the community meetings so far.  

Your thoughts? Feel free to agree or disagree.    All is fine.  Just want to open up discussion. 

Overall it will be hard to reach consensus on major changes for the upper park.  The hillside there is a lot of opportunity for improvement and consensus.  Target the hillside for the large portion of the improvements.

The Hillside

• Make it hospitable for dogs (zero foxtails) zero.  2 weeks in spring maintenance must be budgeted for at least 5 years for this to happen. 
• Perhaps have flat area with grass
• Native / sustainable planting
• Improved trails (lower trail connecting to community garden in enclave Vermont future community garden)
• Solar lighting
• Drinking fountains
• Benches
• Tables
• Public art
• Connecting stairs on west side of vermont
• Extend cal-trans fence out so that there is more trail area, more park land

Upper park

• Put canopy / tent roofing above playground for sun, wind, rain protection
• Have some (or all) grass area for people only (safe & clean zone)
• Put a circular track around park so kids can ride bikes, people can walk. Trail should not be asphalt, recycled rubber? or decomposed granite? or ?
• Designate a dog poop area that is not grass where people want to sit or lay down

Put a slide between Upper park to middle trail of hillside.   Promotes more use of hillside area

Long term (controversial?) considerations

• If leveling the park lowering the park is be a long term option that is wished to be pursued, as it will create a larger flat area, plant the trees now, so they can be ready if that option is every pursued. 
• If the park is going to be leveled, perhaps close 20th street, and acquire more space for the park. 
• Research a bathroom facilities.  Other parks such as Holly Park in Bernal heights  do have bathrooms and they are fine.  
• Its possible to have thick (but non native) grass on the slope.  Crissy field has this.  Do we want this? 

Anything else? Am I missing anything?

Also I have suggested to Park & Rec (& John Merten) that a diverse group of community members who have time work closer with them to help in this process, because I don't think we can complete this in 3, or even 4 short meetings.  

[Jean Bogiages]

Hi Cris,

I put together my thoughts on the park improvements you listed. These are only my thoughts and probably quite different from the thoughts of other people.

Also, I went to look at the Holly Park bathroom. It looks like it's been there for 30 years or more. It doesn't look like there are problems with it. I think the Potrero neighborhood has changed since the time when it was necessary to remove the bathroom because of drug use. I'll attach photos of the Holly Street bathroom.

Cris’s Ideas	Jean’s Comments	H/M/L
It will be hard to reach consensus on major changes for the upper park. The hillside there is a lot of opportunity for improvement and consensus. Target the hillside for the large portion of the improvements.	The children’s play area in the upper park is well used. There doesn’t seem to be a pressing reason to change it. The grass area is green, but I don’t often see it being used except for the occasional game of catch, occasional birthday party and frequent dog exercise. If it is really off limits to dogs, then there should be a good place for dogs, as a lot of folks seem to have them. The only changes I’d make to the upper area are adding a bathroom/changing station (I do not believe that the issues the lead to the removal of the original bathroom in the 1970s still exist in the neighborhood).	M
The Hillside.
Make it hospitable for dogs (zero foxtails) zero. 2 weeks in spring maintenance needs to be budgeted for at least 5 years for this to happen.	Removing the foxtails and removing the weeds that grow 4 ft high seems like a requirement.	H
Perhaps have flat area with grass	Putting a gated dog play area on a flat portion of the hillside is an idea worth considering. I don’t see a lot of flat area, however. What is a reasonable size for a dog play area?	M
Native / sustainable planting	I’m strongly for this.	H
Improved trails (lower trail connecting to community garden in enclave)	A lot of progress has been made on the trails. I’m strongly in favor of continuing the mulching of the paths and keeping a rustic pastoral setting.	H
Solar lighting	Seems like the trees would interfere with the ability to gather sunlight. You may need to tap into the grid for lighting.	L
Drinking fountains	Fountains should be at the top. Trails should be rustic	L
benches	Rustic Benches are a nice idea	M
tables	Not in the Rustic hillside. Hillside should be for walking, dog walking and sitting and enjoying the view.	L
public art	Not high on my list.	L
put in connecting stairs on west side of vermont	Important, especially for the BYOBW events.	H
extend cal-trans fence out so that there is more trail area, more park land	The lower you go, the louder it gets. Need a lot of vegetation to break the freeway noise.	M
Upper park -
put canopy / tent roofing above playground for sun & rain protection	Not sure that the sun is such a problem. Folks with kids won’t come out in the rain. Rain is full of wind and you can’t keep out of it unless you are in a building.	L
have some (or all) grass area for people only (safe & clean zone)	If there is a special dog area, it makes sense to tay the top area is only for people.	M
put a circular track around park so kids can ride bikes, people can walk. trail should not be asphalt, make it recycled rubber, or decomposed granite.	Seems like a nice idea, but not recycled rubber. Isn’t there a partial path already on top?	M
Put a slide between Upper park to middle trail of hillside. Promotes more use of hillside area	Seems like it would be fun for the older kids. There was once a really cool play structure there that included a bridge and slides….in the area between the top and the community garden…on 20ht street. Something like that would be nice.	M
Long term (controversial?) considerations:
If leveling the park lowering the park is be a long term option that is wished to be pursued, as it will create a larger flat area, plant the trees now, so they can be ready if that option is every pursued.	Seems really excessive with no great benefit to me. Too much money which could be spent better.	L
If the park is going to be leveled, perhaps close 20th street, and acquire more space for the park.	Too excessive.	L
Research a bathroom facilities. Other parks such as Holly Park in Bernal heights do have bathrooms and they are fine.	Good idea.	H
Its possible to have thick (but non native) grass on the slope. Crissy field has this. Do we want this?	Thick grass may crowd out other types of tall weeds. Theoretically, native grass is better.	M