— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
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
racistxenophobic. - 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.
Comments (21)
I’m a twenty year neighbor, rather than a twenty something, and I like that the park has become a destination park, rather than just a neighborhood park. The popularity of the park has made it safer, cleaner, better. .
Excellent summary by Kevin, with one almost unimportant correction, that the soccer field never worked out as a soccer field for the children. The lack of upkeep, and holes in the field kept it from ever being popularly used for children’s soccer.
I also wish that the police would spend more time on Mission Street doing cop things.
You made a HUGE fool of yourself last night with your little rant… Classic!
oh and by the way in regards to this… “The neighbors were complaining about issues that are not even remotely Dolores Park specific.” I am pretty sure that was you.
I wasn’t… I was referring to the writer of this blog ruining the meeting…
Kevin, you fucking ignor- oh wait, this post is well-reasoned and makes perfect sense. Cheers. :)
When a homeless guy pees on my front step, it bugs me, but he’s a homeless alcoholic, so I accept it as an “urban issue.” When a 26 year old freelance designer / barista / middle-class college graduate pees on my front step, that pisses me off. That is voluntary uncivilized behavior. Living in a city does not give you carte-blanche use of the “urban” excuse. Grow up and be a better neighbor.
I think that most of the young people have been good visitors and good neighbors. The park is the best it has been in years, and that is more becaause more people are using the park. (and by the way, no complaints about the people who clean the park, compliments to the new guys in charge of the sprinklers system, but eye on the painter.)
Instead of digging on young people who are doing what young people are supposed to do, the attention should should instead be pointed at our our representative and park bosses, that they did not update the restrooms. Its been OBVIOUS for a long time time that the restrooms should be improved. The rest is biology.
May you be showered with gold for your troubles
I see what you did there…
Bevan Dufty is rapidly proving he is not up to the job of being Mayor. He can’t handle controversy, wants everyone to like him, and can’t go against rich people. In other words he’s our Obama - pleasant person to chat with, not fit to be a leader in tough times.
As always people are nostalgic for a past that really was never there. They think things were “better” Back Then, choosing to forget the rampant crime. Of course, some people in SF love criminals and love crime (think like our DA, David Campos, John Avalos, etc.) and many “long time residents” were patrons of the drug dealers and the violent criminals, so it’s natural that they’re upset this is now a destination park.
Fuck ‘em!
It’s just a park.
This whole post/thread makes me so happy. Who knew that there where reasonable people left in the world? <3
Lafayette Park doesn’t have these issues and it’s prettier there. There ya go. People go to DP to be douch bags. It’s a fact.
I would amend that to “Douche bags go to DP because they are so boring and bored with themselves that all they have left to do is go somewhere interesting… and do the only thing they know how to do – be douche bags.”
Dolores Park is in fact just a park, and like every park it has neighbors, people with their dogs, moms, bums, and so on.
Currently DP has become something else, a phenomenon. A glorious, phantasmagoric little hotspot on the hind of Saint Francis’ cosmic animal/city. And so its attracting the douche bag crowd in droves and everyone is sick of it.
Word to the wise: savor DP in its rare old-time moments, because you will move on and the DP will someday return to being what is used to be: just a park.
People who fixate on their fantasy, usually because for a brief glorious moment when that fantasy was real, usually become Neil Diamond or Elvis tribute performers, or dictators.
Absolutism is born of stubborn infantile, nihilistic attachment to a thing or idea that by its nature is not something you can recreate on demand, no matter how demanding you are about it.
Savor, and let things move on gracefully.
Ciao. (yes, the Italians do get it)
Kevin your post here was succinct and good your input at the meeting was not.
My notes (copied from another comment section/blog):
The ‘keep the park loose and free’ contingent didn’t make much headway tonight;
Kevin Montgomery took the lead on discussing the heavy-handed tactics in relation to other enforcement actions, but I think his comments were perceived more as an attack on the cops and their policies and less on the issue at hand, whereas my comment got truncated and made it sound like the only reason I was upset with the 11:30pm crackdown was that I was personally disturbed by it, so I don’t know that the ‘fun side of the house’ really got an airing – but I don’t know if it would have mattered. At the core, I think that an education campaign sounds like a strange measure, but it may be the only palatable solution – if people don’t clean up and instead keep doing visible things that offend neighbors, then I imagine that the calls and emails will still get to the police station, and Captain Corrales will still get pressure to act. I don’t think he really enjoys cracking down on Dolores Park – but I do think that he knows that he needs to be responsive to constituents with local addresses and affiliations and will prioritize that over turning a blind eye to law infringement. Making alcohol legal in the park would be a good step, and should be explored further – and I think this whole thing will calm down when *the supervisor for the District isn’t running for Mayor* – but those are longer term than this and next year.
Someone in the audience commented (to the side) that the tenor set now will have an influence on the post-construction park – I’m not sure if that will be the case, but it may – in any case, I’ll bet this is a fresh issue once that’s all said and done.
Incidentally – Bevan – *please*, please don’t take more time than the other panel members and all neighborhood voices when you really don’t have anything substantial enough to warrant the time. Now I know why I can’t stand local politics – between the introductions, the chest-puffing and the off-topic forays, there was probably 20 minutes of meaningful conversation in the meeting. I do think that attendance at the Tuesday Mission Station gatherings may be wise…
Choice note from the 19th street stop-sign portion: SF is allowed to install 5 to 6 traffic lights per year for the entire city, each one costs $350,000, and takes 2-3 years to implement (at minimum). That seems like as much of a systemic way to forestall change as… well… as having a neighborhood discussion where some panelists specifically drag their feet to reduce the amount of actual content that hits the floor.
ADDENDUM:
Tom Radulovich (BART Board of Directors) gave a strange endorsement to “the process for the evaluation of 19th St. / Dolores, and the 6 options presented” – not where I expected him to stand on the issue, nor did it seem that contextual for him to appear and voice in – I don’t know what the backstory is, but I think there may be one – maybe an ‘all friends’ gesture to the joint-powers MTA?
- Mike
BRO KEV WHY WOULD YOU EMBARASS US LIKE THAT? I THOUGHT WE WERE BROS!
“On to the comments which, like on a Mission hyper-local blog, is where things get a little tense.
This guy whose name rhymes with “Tevin Tontgomery” said that SF has a history of not enforcing laws and that the city often pioneers the legislative destruction of outdated laws. He added that cops should be busting killers and stuff, and not jerking around fun-loving 20-somethings which is “ageism”. Corrales shrugged and said, “speak for yourself, dude. I have been enforcing the law for 40 years”. Wow! That guy is cucumber boy, as in “cool as a”. Bevan Duffy got HELLA PISSED and said some stuff about how immigrants are protected by law and that he visits crime victims in hospitals, which was sorta confusing, but got some woo-hoos and applause.”
BRO DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD JUST BLOG YOUR WAY INTO MORDOR BRO?
BRO YOUR MOTHER AND I ARE VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!!!111!!!!
yeah this post was about right, just another whine-fest for the oldies to complain about whatever entered their heads at the moment. and my main question was the 20+ year neighbs who are complaining about how people go to the park to have fun as opposed to the “good ol days” when they were taking down drug dealers’ license plates and apparently being “fire-bombed”.
ah the good ol days.
this was my first community-ish meeting around here and it turned out exactly like i thought. the nervous girl mediator not wanting to say anything controversial, uptight whiny neighbors talking about how long they’ve lived here and feeling hecka mad entitled to complain about their current issues with life, and nothing really getting accomplished.
pick up your trash! build us some goddam bathrooms! gimme a trash can!
It was a battle between Bevan and the guy from the Bike Coalition as to who was more enchanted with the sound of their own voice. Who would have thought that KevMo would be battling for the bronze medal?
purple monkey dishwasher, Kevin.
These “community” meetings seem to be “members of the community who have a chip on their shoulder and are unwilling to talk sensibly, compromise, or make intelligent decision” meetings.
Until we have someone sensible RUNNING the meetings, this won’t change, and I don’t see any point in attending. Step 1 is to get rid of Bevan Dufty.
Dear Kevin,
Keep fighting the good fight. This post is right on. There’ll be more opportunities for consciousness raising. Life is like baseball or chocolate boxes or shit I’m confused, nevermind