A Summer Night at the New Dolores Park Playground in the Mission

On a summer evening in July, I visited the recently refurbished playground at Dolores Park in the Mission neighborhood in San Francisco. The amazing Hellen Diller Playground, designed by Koch Landscape Architecture out of Portland, was full of kids of all sizes, ages and ethnicities. As far as playgrounds go, it was so enticing I nearly dropped my gear and joined in the fun of swinging, climbing, sliding, digging, and bouncing with the tots. Why didn't playgrounds like this exist when I was a kid?

The playground is a success thanks to a small but powerful group of neighborhood residents who banned together and formed a non-profit to inmprove their local playground facilities. Sound familiar? If you read my first post about Minneapolis, you might recall a similar grassroots organization of local parents that raised funds for a playground in the North Loop neighborhood. Here in the Mission, The Friends of Dolores Park Playground was formed to transform the playground. According to their website, they are

a group of almost a dozen organizers and more than 1,500 supporters who are committed to a safe and clean playground at Dolores Park. We also sponsor social events at the playground for the enjoyment of parents and children and strive to bring greater vitality to Dolores Park and the wider community. We are proud of our collective achievement in commisioning a full renovation of the playground. Our long-term mission is to remain stewards of the playground for years to come.

Rachel Gordon of the San Francisco Chronical noted in a recent article that plans for the playground have been in the works since 2006.

A recent post, albeit a sarcastic and intentionally humorous one, on the SFist questions the location of a park in a city with so few children, noting that

as of the 2000 Census, families with children represented one of the smallest proportions of our population of any major city in the U.S. You know why? Because it's super expensive to live here, our schools suck, we're surrounded by beautiful places to live that are a mere 15- to 20-minute drive or BART trip away, and our city population is relatively small compared to other major cities that attract hip youths and young professionals.

Yet in all of the cities I have visited, including my recent trip to Chicago last weekend, there are involved parent groups changing and shaping the city to suit their needs - the needs of families with children. They are raising money for playgrounds and better school facilities. They are attending public meetings so their voices are heard. They are contacting school boards and demanding quality public education in their neighborhoods. In short, families are choosing to live in the city and molding the city to fit their lifestyle.