Recreation & Parks Department Headquarters | |
Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1871 |
Preceding agency |
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Jurisdiction | San Francisco |
Headquarters | McLaren Lodge |
Employees | 850 |
Agency executives |
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Parent agency | City and County of San Francisco |
Website | http://sfrecpark.org/ |
The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department is the city agency responsible for governing and maintaining all city-owned parks and recreational facilities in San Francisco, as well as Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica and Camp Mather in Tuolumne County. Current facilities include 4,113 acres (1,664 ha) of total recreational and open space with 3,400 acres (1,376 ha) of that land within San Francisco. The department runs 179 playgrounds and play areas, 82 recreation centers and clubhouses, nine swimming pools, five golf courses, 151 tennis courts, 72 basketball courts, 59 soccer fields, numerous baseball diamonds, and other sports venues. [1]
The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department began in 1871 when city officials responding to residents' demands for a large public park established the Park Commission to oversee the development of Golden Gate Park. [2] As San Francisco grew over of the years, parks and facilities were added all over the city. Separately the city was running playgrounds, athletic fields, and recreational facilities under the direction of the Recreation Commission. In 1950 the two commissions were merged and the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department was born.
The general manager is appointed by the mayor of San Francisco. General Manager Phil Ginsburg oversees a staff of over 850 that includes gardeners, foresters, natural resource, pest management and nursery specialists, recreation and summer camp staff, lifeguards, park rangers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, metal shop/welders and painters plus many many more from the historic headquarters inside McLaren Lodge at the east end of Golden Gate Park.
The Recreation & Parks Department is governed by a seven-member commission who are also appointed by the mayor of San Francisco to four-year terms. The commission president is elected by fellow commissioners. Commission meetings are held once a month at San Francisco City Hall. [3] Current members are: Mark Buell (President), Allan Low (Vice President), Gloria Bonilla, Tom Harrison, Meagan Levitan, and Eric McDonnell.[ citation needed ]
Concerns have been expressed by park advocates about the lack of diversity of opinion on the commission and in the department, due to the fact that all of the positions are appointed by the mayor of San Francisco. In the past, there have been efforts to change the selection process for commissioners. A prior proposal included having three commissioners appointed by the mayor of San Francisco, three commissioners appointed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and one additional appointment agreed to by the mayor of San Francisco and the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. [4] [5] This proposal had five votes on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors but was not able to get the sixth vote necessary to put it on the ballot.
The department is responsible for over 220 neighborhood parks and Golden Gate Park, the largest and the fifth most visited park in the United States. [6] The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is federal and is administered by the National Park Service.
Golden Gate Park is San Francisco's premier municipal park. Planted in 1871 the park covers 1,017 acres (412 ha) of land across the western edge of San Francisco. Configured as a rectangle, the park is over three miles long east to west and about half a mile north to south. [7]
McLaren Park is the second largest municipal park in San Francisco. Located in south-east San Francisco, the park is surrounded by the Excelsior, Crocker-Amazon, Visitacion Valley, Portola and University Mound neighborhoods.
Dolores Park is a city park located two blocks south of Mission Dolores at the western edge of the Mission District. Dolores Park is bounded by 18th Street on the north, 20th Street on the south, Dolores Street on the east and Church Street on the west.
Coit Tower is a 210-foot (64 m) tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built in 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's bequest to beautify the city of San Francisco. The tower was proposed in 1931 as an appropriate use of Coit's gift.
The Zoo is owned by the Recreation & Parks Department and managed by its partner non-profit San Francisco Zoological Society. [8]
Candlestick Park was home of the San Francisco 49ers through the 2013 season and was home of the San Francisco Giants until 2000. In 2014 the 49ers moved to the new Levi's Stadium and Candlestick Park has been being torn down.
Kezar Stadium is and outdoor 10,000 seat multi-purpose stadium located in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. Before being renovated and downsized in 1989 it was the former home of the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders. [9] The adjacent Kezar Pavilion is an indoor arena built in 1924 and seats 4,000.
Boxer Stadium is a 3,500 seat soccer-specific stadium built in 1953 within Balboa Park. The primary tenant is the amateur men's San Francisco Soccer Football League. [10]
The Marina Harbor is a public 671 slip small craft yacht harbor located in the Marina District across from the Marina Green. [11] [12] Also located in the marina is the St. Francis Yacht Club and Golden Gate Yacht Club.
The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still situated on its original site. It was rebuilt in 1965, and renovation of the lagoon, walkways, and a seismic retrofit were completed in early 2009.
Corona Heights Park is a 15-acre park in the Castro and Haight districts that commands a view of the city, downtown financial district and the bay. [13] The park features the Randall Museum, which focuses on science, nature and the arts and features live animals, and is operated by the department.
The Recreation & Parks Department has five golf courses in Pacifica and San Francisco.
Camp Mather is an overnight summer family cabin camp in Tuolumne County, California on Highway 120 near Yosemite National Park. [19] The 337-acre site is often referred to as the jewel of the department. [20] Before becoming a camp the site was used by the construction workers who built the O'Shaughnessy Dam and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in the 1920s. [21]
Summer child day camps include Pine Lake Day Camp at Pine Lake Park and Silver Tree Day Camp at Glen Park. [22] [23] [24]
The department has nine swimming pools spread all over the city. [25]
San Francisco (SF) Park Rangers, also known as SF Rangers, is a department within the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department who are responsible for the public safety, preservation, and peace therein within all Recreation & Park properties and jurisdictions. Park Rangers are also first responders who respond to medical emergencies, and low-level crimes including but not limited to; vehicle break-ins, burglaries, arson, vandalism, noise complaints, thefts, trespassing, loitering, etc. Park Rangers enforce the park code and have the authority to issue notices to appear citations to persons and parking citations to violating vehicles.
Although park rangers have limited peace officer status, their primary role is to ensure the safety and security of San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department properties. Using various vehicles including sedans, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), utility terrain vehicles (UTVs), and e-bikes, SF Park Rangers patrol on sites and respond to a variety of calls for service at more than 260 San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department facilities situated on 3,400 acres of land throughout the City and County of San Francisco. These include neighborhood parks, playgrounds, recreation centers, playing fields, natural areas, tennis courts, golf courses, park stadiums, and administrative park offices.
William Hammond Hall, San Francisco's first Superintendent of Parks, established the Park Guard in 1874. San Francisco Parks have had their own special security unit since that time. From the beginning, Hall recognized that the park's own officers could serve the public in a way that could not be provided by the regular city police.
Under immediate supervision, San Francisco (SF) Park Rangers provide fixed post and patrol services in assigned areas of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department in connection with preventing damage, destruction, or theft on park and recreation grounds and facilities. SF Park Rangers report incidents including arrests to law enforcement, the fire department, and emergency medical response. Furthermore, their duties and responsibilities include closing parking lot gates and locking/securing recreational centers, bathrooms, other properties, etc. at night; opening parking lot gates and unlocking recreational centers, bathrooms, other properties, etc. in the morning; posting signs; inspecting equipment, buildings, facilities, and grounds; removing road obstructions; reporting safety hazards; providing information and directions to assist the public around the park system and park events; prevents improper or prohibited use of recreational facilities and equipment by park users; excluding persons in the parks after park posted hours or for violation of the San Francisco Park Code; continuously patrolling all San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department facilities, greenways, natural areas, and waterfronts; performing passing checks and parking enforcement in and around San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department properties; and issuing parking and "notice to appear" infraction citations for park code violations when necessary. As the designated employees on San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department sites, SF Park Rangers respond to emergency calls from the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department Dispatch, including scene-safe urgent situations, alarm response, non-police calls, non-criminal calls, park code violation complaints, and park use permit disputes. However, SF Park Rangers also respond to crime in progress calls, person with any weapon calls, suspicious vehicle calls, safety risk calls, and other calls requiring initial law enforcement presence and clearance to assist. SF Park Rangers may also be tasked with crime prevention, public safety assistance, and maintaining the preservation and protection of park wildlife and arboretums. SF Park Rangers often provide support to emergency services personnel such as sheriff's deputies, police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians/paramedics.
San Francisco (SF) Park Rangers are San Francisco governmental civilian employees and only act as public officers under California penal code 836.5 on San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department sites. SF Park Rangers enforce the rules and regulations of the San Francisco Park Code but may also enforce other applicable San Francisco ordinances, and applicable local and state parking violations on San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department sites. To enforce the park code safely, SF Park Rangers utilize many de-escalation and non-confrontational interview techniques when contacting suspected persons of park code violations. If park code enforcement can be done safely while solely relying on voluntary compliance, SF Park Rangers utilize verbal warnings and infraction violation citations to enforce park code violations. When faced with any potential physical confrontation, SF Park Rangers request assistance from the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) which includes; persons who are non-compliant with the park ranger's requests, individuals with mental health conditions, and incidents outside the course and scope of the SF Park Rangers' training, duties, and authority. Though SF Park Rangers are identified as peace officers in the California penal code under section 830.31(b), currently, they only act as public officers under penal code 836.5. Like most park rangers within Northern California, upon observation of a crime in the presence of the park ranger, the park ranger may apprehend the suspect engaging in specific crimes and temporarily hold the suspect, which includes handcuffing, on the scene for law enforcement officers arrive to further handle. SF Park Rangers making arrests for misdemeanor or felony offenses do so only under the authority of penal code 836.5(a) and within the department's arrest policy of the park ranger manual. Park Rangers must immediately report the arrest to SFPD Dispatch and must turn the arrested person over to SFPD officers for booking.
San Francisco (SF) Park Rangers do not carry firearms but do carry department-issued self-defense equipment including batons, pepper sprays, and handcuffs. SF Park Rangers are issued ballistic vests, Motorola two-way handheld radios, and body-worn camera systems much like the ones worn by local police officers. For vehicle patrol on sites and transport to different San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department sites, SF Park Rangers operate marked park ranger patrol vehicles installed with only amber (yellow) warning lights and white spotlights. At times, SF Park Rangers utilize a public announcement (PA) speaker and air horn installed on their patrol vehicles to communicate with the public on San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department properties.
The Presidio of San Francisco is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Dunedin is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Dunedin is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area and is the fifth largest city in Pinellas County. The population was 36,068 as of the 2020 census.
The Sunset District is a neighborhood located in the southwest quadrant of San Francisco, California, United States.
Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond and Sunset districts of San Francisco, United States. It is the largest park in the city, containing 1,017 acres (412 ha), and the third-most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 24 million visitors annually.
The United States Park Police (USPP) is the oldest uniformed federal law enforcement agency in the United States. It functions as a full-service law enforcement agency with responsibilities and jurisdiction in those National Park Service areas primarily located in the Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and New York City areas and certain other government lands. United States Park Police officers have jurisdictional authority in the surrounding metropolitan areas of the three cities it primarily operates in, meaning they possess both state and federal authority. In addition to performing the normal crime prevention, investigation, and apprehension functions of an urban police force, the Park Police are responsible for policing many of the famous monuments in the United States.
The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecological diversity of the city's natural areas, and furnishing recreational opportunities for city's residents and visitors.
Coyote Point Recreation Area is a 670-acre (270 ha) park operated by San Mateo County, California in the United States. Located on San Francisco Bay, it is south of San Francisco International Airport on the border of Burlingame and San Mateo. Facilities within the park include a large playground, the CuriOdyssey junior museum, a sandy bathing beach, a marina and yacht club, hiking trails, and picnic areas. In addition, the San Mateo County Sheriff's office has a shooting range on-site for training of law enforcement. It is adjacent to the Peninsula Humane Society and the municipal Poplar Creek Golf Course.
The Great Highway is a road in San Francisco that forms the city's western edge along the Pacific coast. Built in 1929, it runs for approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) next to Ocean Beach. Its southern end is at Skyline Boulevard near Lake Merced; it extends to Point Lobos Avenue and the Cliff House at its northern end. In 2020 a portion of the road was closed to vehicular traffic, opening back to traffic in 2021 during weekdays.
John McLaren Park is a park in southeastern San Francisco. At 312.54 acres (126.48 ha), McLaren Park is the third largest park in San Francisco by area, after Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. The park is surrounded mostly by the Excelsior, Crocker-Amazon, Visitacion Valley, Portola and University Mound neighborhoods.
State Route 480 was a state highway in San Francisco, California, United States, consisting of the elevated double-decker Embarcadero Freeway, the partly elevated Doyle Drive approach to the Golden Gate Bridge and the proposed and unbuilt section in between. The unbuilt section from Doyle Drive to Van Ness Avenue was to have been called the Golden Gate Freeway and the Embarcadero Freeway as originally planned would have extended from Van Ness along the north side of Bay Street and then along the Embarcadero to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Fort Mason, in San Francisco, California originated as a coastal defense site during the American Civil War. The nucleus of the property was owned by John C. Frémont and disputes over compensation by the United States continued into 1968. In 1882 the defenses were named for Richard Barnes Mason, a military governor before statehood. Fort Mason became the headquarters for an Army command that included California and the Hawaiian Islands from 1904 to 1907. In 1912 the Army began building a port facility with piers and warehouses to be a home base for ships of the Army Transport Service serving Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines and other Pacific Army posts and focus of Army supply for the Pacific.
The Randall Museum is a museum in central San Francisco, California, owned and operated by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department with the support of the Randall Friends. The museum focuses on science, nature and the arts. On exhibit are live native and domestic animals and interactive displays about nature. Other facilities include a theater, a wood shop, and art and ceramics studios.
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting 82,116 acres (33,231 ha) of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United States Army. GGNRA is managed by the National Park Service and is the second-most visited unit of the National Park system in the United States, with more than 15.6 million visitors in 2022. It is also one of the largest urban parks in the world, with a size two-and-a-half times that of the consolidated city and county of San Francisco.
Fort Baker is one of the components of California's Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Fort, which borders the City of Sausalito in Marin County and is connected to San Francisco by the Golden Gate Bridge, served as an Army post until the mid-1990s, when the headquarters of the 91st Division moved to Parks Reserve Forces Training Area. It is located opposite Fort Point at the entrance to the San Francisco Bay.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appointed by the Governor and accepted by the Natural Resources Commission. Currently the Director is Scott Bowen. The DNR has about 1,400 permanent employees, and over 1,600 seasonal employees.
Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove, locally called Stern Grove, is a 33-acre (130,000 m2) recreational site in the Parkside District. It is administered by the city's Recreation and Parks Department and is the concert setting for the Stern Grove Festival, which has taken place annually since 1938.
The government of the City and County of San Francisco utilizes the "strong mayor" form of mayoral/council government, composed of the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, several elected officers, and numerous other entities. It is the only consolidated city-county in California, and one of only thirteen charter counties of California. The fiscal year 2019–20 city and county budget was approximately $12.3 billion.
Lake Bardwell is a lake in Ellis County, Texas. The lake was constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1965. Lake Bardwell is not used for military operations, and is accessible to the public for recreational purposes; it has seven facilities, but the state public ramp is closed.
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