The room was full, the discussion lively. Photo by DJ Wallstrom
Where to start…I survived. We survived.
Mission Mission does a great job of recapping the meeting. Mission Local offers a context and various perspectives on how the meeting went. Uptown Almanac provides the hipster POV. KGOs also did a bit. Robert Brust did a great job in his tv interview.
At one point in time, there were 88 people in the room, not counting the city reps on the panel. Good turn out. There were definitely people on opposite ends of the spectrum, but mostly everyone was pretty much middle of the road in their opinion.
The purpose of the meeting was to bring all the diverse groups of Dolores Park together to talk about enforcement of park policies and 19th & Dolores pedestrian safety and traffic calming, the latter of which I’ll discuss in a separate blog posting. Unfortunately, the discussion was mostly one-sided.
My Big Takeaway: Cause & Effect or Effect & Cause?
When dealing with any problem, the best practice is to tackle the cause. In this case, I think we’re asking people to tackle the effects because the cause is part of our culture in San Francisco and Dolores Park. This is definitely not the approach being taken by the police or RPD and I understand their rationale. I do, but I don’t think it strikes the balance that I think the majority of us want.
That was my big takeaway from the meeting. I’m still processing. If only there were a 3 day weekend ahead where I could ponder.
What’s Next
There is still a lot of work to do. There were many, many action items that were brought up in the meeting. Since I was facilitating, I didn’t take any notes, but my good friends at NPC did. I’ll be reviewing the notes and following up early next week with a blog posting.
What I do know is there was a lot of momentum around the Leave No Trace campaign. I’m looking for volunteers to serve on the working group, so email me if you are interested. I’ll post more info soon.
A Plea
If you were pleased that we organized this meeting, and have been pleased with the work we have done, and want us to continue to do this great work, please donate to Dolores Park Works. We need your financial support. Donate here.
A Big Thanks
Last but not least, I’d like to say a big thank you to all of you that came out and to our city staff and officials.
Our speakers. Photo by DJ Wallstrom
- Captain Corrales, from the Mission Street Police Station
- Supervisor Bevan Dufty
- Eric Anderson, RPD Neighborhood Service Area Manager (replacing Bob Palacio)
- Bob Palacio, Former RPD Neighborhood Service Area Manager
- Manito Velasco, Engineer, SFMTA
- Ilaria Salvadori, SF Planning Department (Streetscape project)
- Adrian Field, RPD Park Section Supervisor for the Mission Complex
- Marcus Santiago, RPD Park Ranger
- Meredith Thomas, Executive Director, Neighborhood Parks Council
- Vickie Bell, Deputy Director, Neighborhood Parks Council
