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Conflict August 2009

By Steve J. Moss

Whenever a new park is being planned, or an old one renovated, conflict inevitably surfaces between those who want more space for (unleashed) dogs and those who want a larger dog-free area for their children to roam, with athletic playing field advocates occasionally getting into the mix. Tempers flared over the right size and place for the dog use area when Esprit Park was being remodeled a few years ago. Dog-lovers have fought efforts to replace the natural grass with artificial turf on the baseball diamond cum dog run above the Potrero Hill Recreation Center. And heated conversations are occurring over how best to accommodate dogs and families as part of a campaign to reclaim McKinley Square’s denuded grassy area and surrounding trails.

While the conflicts often turn on arguments about how damaging dogs can be to grass, or the political power of the dog lobby, they’re really driven by something much larger: a lack of green space, particularly in Southeast San Francisco. We’re nipping at each other because we’re increasingly feeling caged-in. And unless we act soon, it’s going to get worse.

Roughly a quarter of a million dogs and children share our seven by seven miles peninsula, with dogs making up the better half. The Dogpatch, Mission Bay, and Showplace Square neighborhoods are expected to house or employ tens of thousands of additional people, along with their pets, over the next two decades. Yet rather than creating the kind of vision that led to Golden Gate Park more than a century ago, current planning efforts mostly focus on turning a few wide streets into plazas and pocket parks. Unless we ratchet-up the public conversation to a completely different level, chances are by mid-century dogs, families, athletes, and the homeless will be stumbling over one another on small patches of grass wedged between (non-gasoline-powered) car-choked streets.

On a sunny weekend Dolores Park – outside of Golden Gate Park, the City’s premier urban space even with its patchy grass, unusable restrooms, and odd lack of logical pathways – attracts upwards of 10,000 hipsters, soccer players, kids, and dogs, all neatly ghettoized into their few hundred yards of paradise. Although Esprit Park serves a similar, if smaller, role, and there’s hope that significant open space will be created as part of Pier 70 redevelopment, Southeast San Francisco deserves multiple Dolores Parks.

Given current land use patterns, the most likely candidate to play that role is Jackson Park, combined with a public-private partnership to turn the fallowed Goodman Lumber site into a field-intensive sports complex. Jackson Park should be re-imaged as a larger open space that’s designed to meet the community’s future needs. The park should be extended onto Carolina Street, and, if a deal can be struck with the developer, include all or part of the lot to the west. One or both of the athletic fields, which mostly cater to sporting teams from outside the neighborhood, should be removed, to make way for larger play areas for local singles and families, pet-less or otherwise. Reserving more than half the park for use by athletes from throughout the Bay Area doesn’t makes sense in a community that needs more room to roam.

Although Lowe’s has an option to turn the Goodman Lumber site into another of its outlets, the national chain already has a store less than 10 miles away. Transforming this block into a multi-level sports complex, with athletic fields, indoor play spaces, ice skating rink, and pool, would be a better use for it then creating another overgrown hardware outlet. Since it’s dominated by light manufacturing uses, it’s a an appropriate area to place fields that cater to athletes that travel multiple miles to compete.

Well-resolved conflict, focused in the right direction, is the pathway to a better future. Rather than pitting our dogs and kids against each other, let’s join packs to create enough space for all of us. Politicians have a weak-spot for well-mannered canines and cute children. And if they’re not willing to play ball, our dogs and kids should be encouraged to vocalize together in a mighty howl.