While originally scheduled to open in May and June respectively, Mission Bay’s new one-acre Children’s Park at the intersection of Long Bridge and China Basin Streets and the 2.4-acre Mariposa Park at the corner of Mariposa and Owens, on the southern most portion of Mission Bay between Interstate 280 (as it currently stands) and UCSF’s Medical Center, are now expected to open by the “end of summer.”
In addition to a large multi-use lawn in the middle, Mariposa Park will include a plaza and picnic area on its northeast corner, a small children’s play area near the Medical Center, and gabion rubble wall benches throughout.
And the new road, which will bring traffic from the Mariposa off ramp straight down to 16th Street, eliminating major backups on local streets.
The shameful truth of these parks is that both have been fully complete, with no further work required on them for over a year.
The city has refused to open them as DPW has not yet accepted the streets adjacent (Owens between Mariposa and 16th, Long Bridge St and China Basin St) and they have been unwilling to evaluate the total nonsense of this stance.
The fact is that kids have been living in the housing that watches over the complete and wonderful playground behind a chain link fence, but unable to play. Sick kids and their siblings at the children’s hospital have been treated to a similarly tempting and forbidden space.
The year of use these parks could have had will never be given back. And it’s a shame.
way to be dramatic about it. better late than never.
appreciate the fact that you now have two beautiful, now mature and untrampled (and more resilient for it, unlike Dolores), parks nearby to enjoy.
take stock of your fortunes.
We don’t “now” have the parks to enjoy. Even though they appear to be complete now, this article says they’ll be fenced off until the end of the summer. If the reason for their current closure really is as Dogpatch Mc says, that’s a shame.
What he says is completely true. Mariposa park has seemingly been done since late last year. I bike by it sometimes hoping it is open, but alas it is always fenced off. What is crazy is that it’s easily accessible from the nice bike path and infrastructure at the children’s hospital. It seems unlikely anyone is going to want to access the park from the other side where the streets are not yet complete.
Some parent cut the chain link fence for the other children’s park at one point and sent out an email on next door, and kids were able to play in it for a few hours until some security guards kicked them out. It’s not like there’s a whole lot of traffic in mission bay in the first place on non game days, and parents walking their kids to the playground are probably the most careful crossing the street. So it’s a little bit crazy that parks and rec cares about dpw anyway.
DPW needs to build a wall to keep the kids out. At no cost to the general taxpayers, which will be easy if they simply charge UCSF children’s hospital for the costs of the wall
You could be a speech writer for the government. Why have a sense of urgency? It’s ridiculous that this park has been ready for a year and the city can’t get it’s act together. There is huge demand.
Could it be that due to ongoing construction (road and structures) adjacent to them meant that they were deemed unsuitable until it was fully completed.
What a bunch of wimpy kids. They should have cut a hole in the chain-link fence and played in it anyway.
Let’s not forget Esprit Park two blocks south. Heck compared to western SOMA which has zippo green Mission Bay is like the Amazon. Oh year don’t forget the blue and green (or is it green and blue) trail along the bay.
Oh and one more….Koret Quad on the UCSF campus
Why are they so short – should be 10 stories taller.
AnonAnon for the win
It is awful that the lack of coordination between city departmemt silos is keeping kids from making use of the Mission Bay playground. I too understand it has to do with DPW, SFFD, and a few other agencies signing off on the streets around the playground. Seems like the Mayor could crack a whip and get the administrative work done in a week or so if he wanted to.
We have a rapidly growing population and a declining recreational base. SOMA has almost zero recreation space. Nice effort in Mission Bay, but they dropped the ball.
Hi there. I’m a reporter from the SF Chronicle writing about the parks. If you live in Mission Bay and have a comment, please feel free to send me an email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com.
UPDATE: Waylaid Mission Bay Kids’ Park Should Open next Month
UPDATE: New Mission Bay Park Now Open for Picnicking and Play