Uptown Almanac

UPTOWNALMANAC PROTIP: if you don't want people peeing in public, unlock the goddamn portapotties

Note: if you want to read the meeting minutes, check out Mission Mission.

As you can imagine, last night's meeting was mostly neighbors having a good cry about the park and 'those damn kids' and nothing really getting done.  To briefly recap:

• Neighbors only think three types of people use the park: 1) People with their kids, 2) people with their dogs and 3) wasted people.
• Bevan Dufty spent most of the time talking about himself.
• Bevan Dufty thinks I'm racist xenophobic.
• It's the children.
• The neighbors were complaining about issues that are not even remotely Dolores Park specific.

Honestly, I don't have a lot to say about this meeting.  Even if you didn't attend, you can guess exactly how it went down.  This was the third meeting in the past 12 months I've attended about Dolores Park in which I heard neighbors complain about drugs, trash, urine, weed, and beer.  After seeing an increase in park usage over the years, they've seen an increase in people peeing on their doorsteps and trash left in the park.  Believe you me, I'd love to not have to scope out a spot on the dying grass that isn't littered with trash every time I go to the park, and I recognize that it is important to try and clean the park up, but these neighbors are missing the big picture: these are not park issues, they are urban issues.  Anyone who lives in the Mission, Potrero, SOMA, Haight or many other neighborhoods know that vomit and piss on the doorstep is not uncommon.  Trash piles up on York and Treat.   People get stabbed and shot on Mission and 24th constantly.  I could go on and on.

Yes, we could do things to improve the park.  More bathrooms are an easy win, as are more trashcans.  Doing a "leave no trace" campaign may do some good--certainly it won't do any harm.  But I don't think this is what the veteran park neighbors are really concerned about.  For years no one ever went to the park because of the crime.  Muggings, stabbings and drug sales were not the anomaly they are today, they were a fixture of the park.  For this reason, Dolores was all but deserted.  Because the crime happened at night, the neighbors never had to see the crime.  They could enjoy peace and quite during the day.  Play with their dogs.  Have their kids run around the soccer flats.  But that's all gone.  On a Saturday afternoon, it's impossible to play fetch with your dog.  The park is a scene, not a place of peace.  The neighbors fundamentally don't like that their backyard turned into the Bay Area's backyard.  A few rational neighbors have accepted it is never going back to "the good old days" and just want less pee on their doorstep, but what is being communicated to SFPD is to stop the drinking and smoking entirely.  Signs telling patrons just that are all over the park.  The dirt bike patrols have issued 28 citations for booze and weed over the past few weeks, yet no citations for littering or public urination were issued.  It's a carrot and stick issue, but it's clear how they want the issue tackled.

I don't have a solution.  I can't tell neighbors to move to the suburbs, just like they can't tell San Francisco to not enjoy the park.  But their dream park is dead and they need to come to terms with that.