SFPA 2013 Impact Report
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2013 Impact Report Lafayette Park reopening, June 2013 The San Francisco Parks Alliance’s mission is to inspire and promote civic engagement and philanthropy to protect, sustain, and enrich San Francisco parks, recreation, and green open spaces. SFPA is dedicated to fulfill a vision of parks that acknowledges and supports their critical environmental functions while striving to ensure that they are accessible, beautiful, safe, clean, and fun and managed in a manner that makes them accountable, open, and welcoming to all. Board of Directors Staff Kelly Nice, President Matthew O’Grady Ana Vasudeo Steve Bowles Courtney Klinge, Executive Director Blue Greenway Manager Development Associate Vice President [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Jonathan Rewers, 415.621.3260 x109 415.621.3260 x116 415.621.3260 x115 Vice President Phil Arnold, Treasurer John Stoner Julia Brashares Stacey Kaiser Christine Gardner, Secretary Director of Finance & Operations Stewardship Manager Development Assistant Rosemary Cameron, [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Immediate Past President 415.621.3260 x117 415.621.3260 x105 415.621.3260 x104 Lana Adair Leith Brooks Barry Janice Vela Sam Vittoria Sonia Suresh Connie Goodyear Baron Director of Development Manager of Park Partner Finance Program Assistant Mollie Ward Brown [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Nancy Conner 415.621.3260 x108 541.227.8505 415.621.3260 x102 Chris Guillard Steven Gwozdz Rachel Norton Steve Schweigerdt Michael Yuen Jaime Jones Director of Communications Park Partner Program Manager Accounting Clerk L. Jasmine Kim [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Jim Lazarus 415.621.3260 x112 415.621.3260 x118 415.621.3260 x107 Mary McCue Leah Pimentel Michael Taylor Lorren Butterwick Kaitlin Fitzmahan Tricia Sellman Director of Institutional Giving Park Partner Project Leader Executive Assistant Mike Seidenberg [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] John Ware 415.621.3260 x103 415.621.3260 x101 415.621.3260 x109 Marcel Wilson Park Partners Amphitheater at McLaren Park (AMP) Friends of Lafayette Park and PG McCoppin Hub Union Square Live (formerly Athens Avalon Friends of Larsen Playground McCoppin Square Jewels in the Square) Bay Area Open Space Council Friends of Laurel Hill Playground Mercury Parklet Urban Sprouts Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema Friends of Lincoln Park Steps Mission Bay Families Vermont Street Neighbors Bicycle Music Festival Friends of Marina Community Mission Community Market Visitacion Valley Greenway Bloom Justice Friends of Michelangelo Neighbors Improving Bernal Boeddeker Park Friends of Mountain Lake Park Ney Street Neighborhood Watch From our unique collaboration Playground BRANCH NOMAD Gardens on the Conservatory of Buena Vista Neighborhood Friends of Muriel Leff Mini Park Northridge CommUNITY Garden Association Friends of Noe Courts Pennsylvania Gardens Flowers to our work supporting City Guides Friends of Noe Valley Rec Center Pioneer Park Committee park volunteers, advocacy Climate Action Now! Friends of Oak Woodlands Plant*SF and philanthropy, the Parks Community Partners United Friends of Penny Lane Potrero Sustainable Living Group Alliance could not have the Corbett Heights Neighbors Friends of Portola Park Precita Valley Neighbors Dahlia Society Friends of Presidio Heights Produce to the People impact we do without the Dogpatch Playground Working Group Playground Progress Park partnership and hard work Dolores Park Works Friends of Rossi Playground Residents for Noe Valley of the men and women of Douglass Street Steps Coalition Friends of Upper Douglass Dog Park Town Square the Recreation & Parks Earth Day San Francisco Friends of Washington Sq Park Russian Hill Improvement Association FACE (Crocker Amazon) Friends of Waterfront Playground SailSFBay Department. Fair Oaks Community Coalition Friends of Youngblood Coleman Park SF Bee-Cause Francisco Reservoir Finance Garden for the Environment SF Disc Golf Committee Gateway Park SF Lawn Bowling Club Friends of Alemany Farm Geneva Community Garden SF Tennis Coalition Friends of Alta Plaza Park GreenTrust SF SF Urban Riders Friends of Balboa Park Playground Guerrero Park Neighbors Shared Schoolyards Project Friends of Bernal Gardens Hardly Strictly Bluegrass South End Rowing Club Friends of Cabrillo Playground Hayes Valley Art Coalition South End Rowing Club Boathouse Friends of Dolores Park Playground Help McLaren Park Renovation Friends of Esprit Park Hidden Garden Steps South Park Improvement Association Friends of Fallen Bridge Mini Park Howard Langton Community Garden Storrie Ord Neighborhood Group Friends of Golden Gate Park Band Jerry Day Sunnyside Park Families Friends of Harvey Milk Rec Center Jungle Stairs and Neighbors Friends of Huntington Park Kids in Parks Sutro Stewards Playground Linden Living Alley Sutro Stewards Odwalla grant Friends of the Japanese Tea Garden Lower 24th Street Community Sutro Stewards REI grant Friends of Joe DiMaggio Playground Action Plan Sutro Stewards UCSF CGR funds Friends of Kezar Triangle Marina Earthquake Monument Sutro Stewards UCSF FM funds Friends of Lafayette Park Group Tigers on Market Board members gathered in late September to elect new Board members and board leadership, and honor several Glenn Snyder addresses SFPA Board and staff members departing members after his final board meeting as Connie Goodyear Baron and with a champagne outgoing Board President Rosemary Cameron looks on. Dr. Veronica Hunnicutt toast. Glenn Snyder will leave the Board after 12 years of service to the San Francisco Parks Trust and the Parks Alliance, and his legal expertise and institutional Fran Martin Patty-Jo Rutland Rosemary Cameron knowledge will be sorely missed. Fran Martin, Patty- October 2013 Jo Rutland and Dr. Dear Park Lover, Veronica Hunnicutt It’s now been two full years since the San Francisco Parks Alliance was born from the merger of the will also leave the Neighborhood Parks Council and the San Francisco Parks Trust. While 2012 was about helping the Board—the staff and new organization take root, 2013 has been about watching our efforts bloom. For example: leadership of the Parks Alliance thanks In the wake of the overwhelming success of Prop B — passed in November 2012 with 72 percent of the them deeply for vote — the Parks Alliance and the Recreation & Parks Department are collaborating to evaluate their service to the which of the City’s 30 most dilapidated playgrounds will receive bond-funded upgrades. organization. We provided intensive logistical and management support to volunteer groups involved with renovations at Lafayette Playground and Waterfront Playground. We advocated with the Recreation & Parks Department and Noe Valley residents to gain unanimous Board of Supervisors approval for the purchase of a parking lot on 24th Street that will become a new park — the Noe Valley Town Square. We distributed $25,000 under our new Action Grant program to fund 12 promising park projects — including $5,000 to the Northridge Cooperative CommUNITY Garden in Bayview/Hunter’s Point and its Volunteer of the Year Mishwa Lee, and $2,000 to the drop-dead gorgeous Dahlia Garden at Cabrillo Playground. We entered into an innovative stewardship arrangement with the Emerald Fund, which created a conservation easement creating Emerald Park, a half-acre of prime open space in San Francisco’s park-starved South of Market neighborhood. We raised almost $400,000 at our annual Party for the Parks fundraiser, including the last $50,000 needed to renovate the Sunset District’s historic Larsen Playground. Board President Kelly Nice We completed our first Board leadership transition, thanking outgoing Board President Rosemary Cameron for shepherding us through the first two years and welcoming incoming Board President Kelly Nice to lead the Board of Directors. We remain so grateful for the support from our members, donors and partners that has enabled the San Francisco Parks Alliance to thrive, and we’re pushing ahead on the Blue Greenway — a massive land acquisition plan to transform the southern waterfront — and other big ideas that will keep San Francisco one of the nation’s premier cities for parks, open space and recreation. Onward! Kelly Nice Matthew O’Grady Board President Executive Director 2013 Parks Alliance Impact Report 1 Executive Director • Matthew O’Grady This is a smart, very special “ gift to the City. ”— Mayor Ed Lee Emerald Park 2013 was a major year for advancing our value of stewardship. The innovative conservation easement that created Emerald Park will ensure that San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood has a new half-acre park that is closed off to development in perpetuity. Our Strawberry Hill restoration project celebrated its third anniversary, still going strong with a core group of volunteers and regular work days. And our Street Parks program and partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Works has added ten new projects this year. Emerald Park In July, the Parks Alliance announced that it would become the steward of one of San Francisco’s largest privately-owned public spaces — a 24,000 square foot oasis of green lawn in the middle of one of the City’s most green-starved districts: South of Market. The announcement settled the future of the park, which was created through an agreement between Mayor Ed Lee and SFPA Executive