Mission Creepy

I'm still looking for a little more playground justice, and I have another question.

Here is a question for SF Rec & Park — how (and why) were you able to find the resources to build Sunset Dunes on the Upper Great Highway in six weeks but it takes years to address the deterioration of conditions on Sunset Boulevard — 8 Years and a Recall — or repair and resurface the Rec & Park playgrounds in The Sunset?

Just a reminder for my readers and for Rec & Park, it took 13 years to renovate the Stern Grove playground after it was determined to be one of the worst 13 (out of 138 Rec & Park playgrounds city-wide) playgrounds in San Francisco — Let Justice Be Done...

#Let’sPlaySF! and the Failed Playground Task Force that emanated from the 2012 bond issue was obviously never intended to tackle failing playgrounds and deteriorating playground surfaces with toxic crumbles in anything remotely resembling timeliness let alone urgency.

I am not making a long argument here. I am asking a simple question. How is it possible for Rec & Park to take years — in the case of Stern Grove Playground, more than a decade — to get around to replacing the playing surfaces in Sunset playgrounds and yet they can throw down approximately $700,000 to throw up some lame, theme park decorations on the Upper Great Highway so they can call it a new park and name it Sunset Dunes?

Morever, that $700,000 was just what Rec & Park spent on park stuff. Eventually DPW and SFMTA will throw down millions of dollars on traffic lights and other band-aids to try, and fail, to address the traffic congestion they have caused with their road closure. SFMTA will throw down money on traffic studies to try to convince everyone that closing down the Upper Great Highway won’t adversely impact traffic and safety in The Sunset, which is utter bullshit. And they will probably spend more on those traffic studies than they would if they fixed the playground surface at another Sunset Rec & Park playground.

I know it is rude to ask you all a question and then turn around and answer it, but perhaps you will indulge me in this. Perhaps Rec & Park has forgotten something about their mission. Perhaps Rec & Park’s real mission has crept off-path, and meandered into a place where they prefer to build new public spaces, even at the expense of caring for existing parks and recreational spaces. Or maybe their mission creep is even deeper and more troublesome than that?

We will see, we will see… because I’m not going to stop asking these questions. And come hell or high water I intend to find answers. I would love to hear thoughts from you all as well… john

For comparison, here are two pictures, Upper Great Highway looking north (oh so many visitors) and then the second photo is the crumbling surface of the playground surface at Sunset Recreation Center (taken last night).

[The Upper Great Highway - photo credit, John Crabtree

[Playground surface at Sunset Recreation Center, taken on August 13, 2025 — photo credit, John Crabtree]