What did You Know, and When...
SF Rec & Park GM Phil Ginsburg should answer that... where is Sen. Howard Baker when you need him?
Yesterday I reported on the Order from Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California — The Parks Belong to the People — which requires that San Francisco address the city’s systemic failure to ensure that all San Franciscans, including those with disabilities, have access to the city’s parks, playgrounds, outdoor recreational facilities, and pedestrian rights of way.
This was a massive victory for the class of plaintiffs and for advocates for persons with disabilities. Judge Martinez-Olguin, in no uncertain terms, found SF Rec & Park to be fundamentally deficient in addressing access issues for disabled persons to Rec & Park sites and facilities. She issued a systemic injunction, in full recognition of the systemwide failures in both policy and practice that led to “dozens of violations at 10 facilities throughout San Francisco…” according to U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin in Kirola, et. al. v. San Francisco.
“I keep saying, if the people — all of the people — cannot use it then it isn’t a park. Hey Rec & Park, you need to, you have to fix this park that you installed so quickly and haphazardly and that you are so proud of that you inflate the visitor numbers every chance you get. Because if all of the people cannot use it that it isn’t a park. You need to, you have to make Sunset Dunes accessible to people with disabilities. And it is not just me saying it, it’s also the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. I told you so.”
John Crabtree, Substack Notes
I will wager that San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu hates it when I say things like that. But enough about City Attorney Chiu, for now.
Yesterday I promised to begin peeling this onion of issues that is Rec & Park’s abdication of responsibility to make parks, playgrounds and other Rec & Park areas and facilities accessible. Today’s question is a simple one. Where does the responsibility lie for Rec & Park’s systemic failure to make parks accessible?
Simple, as I said, and easy to answer. Phil Ginsburg is responsible. There may be others with whom he can share some blame, but first and foremost, Phil Ginsburg was the General Manager of SF Rec & Park for over 16 years, since July 2009. I believe, whether others agree with me or not, in “the buck stops here” as a standard for responsibility among government officials in leadership positions.
[For a brief history of — The Buck Stops Here — and the sign in President Harry S. Truman’s Oval Office, read the beginning of my Substack at that link. Also, a good read there about how Mayor Daniel Lurie needs to understand that phrase too.]
Moreover, Phil Ginsburg ran Rec & Park like his personal fiefdom. Things that happened there did not happen without his knowledge nor his approval. Do not take my word for it, ask some Rec & Park employees.
General Manager Ginsburg also fails some other tests that make it impossible to “pass the buck” on this issue. That brings me to the title of this report — What did You Know, and When… [did you know it]?
During the 1973 televised Watergate hearings, U.S. Senator Howard Baker (R, Tennessee) repeatedly asked witnesses this question — “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” — to establish a timeline of knowledge and responsibility concerning the illegal activities and cover-up.
However, instead of asking that here, I will just offer an answer in the form of public records, my research and my own knowledge of this matter to answer for GM Ginsburg. And please do not worry, I am not shutting the door on Phil and denying him the opportunity to provide his own answer. He has my number; I have requested interviews and sent interrogatories to him. He has not made himself available to me for comment or response.
Phil Ginsburg knew that there were issues with ADA compliance and accessibility at Rec & Park parks, playgrounds and other facilities on the first day he assumed the position of General Manager. Kirola, et. al. v. San Francisco was filed in 2007, two years before Ginsburg took the helm at Rec & Park.
Moreover, Mr. Ginsburg was Chief of Staff for then-Mayor Gavin Newsom for several years prior to taking over as Rec & Park GM, including during the entire year of 2007. He would have been fully briefed on Kirola, et. al. v. San Francisco during that time.
During the summer of 2024, SF Public Works (DPW) staff raised the issue during the efforts of Controller David Wagner and Deputy Controller Chia Ma to compile a cost/cost savings analysis letter that officially informed the Department of Elections’ Voter Information Pamphlet for Proposition K, the ballot measure introduced by Supervisor Joel Engardio to permanently close the Upper Great Highway to vehicles — Lock, Stock and Two Smokin Barrels.
In Lock, Stock and Two Smokin Barrels I showed through Rec & Park, DPW and the Controller’s public documents and communications obtained through SF Sunshine Ordinance public records requests that DPW staff raised the issue of ADA compliance for the later-named Sunset Dunes Park. DPW knew. The Controller and Deputy Controller knew. Rec & Park knew, ergo GM Ginsburg knew, or more accurately was reminded, that Rec & Park was going to build a new park that would bring them further out of compliance with U.S. and California disability access laws.
GM Ginsburg was reminded once again during the summer of 2025 by none other than yours truly and my good friend Patricia Arack. We poked, prodded and cajoled Rec & Park staff, including meetings and multiple follow-up conversations with Jack Avery, Manager of Policy and Public Affairs for Rec & Park. We provide input in the form of letters and emails, filled out surveys and finally filed a complaint about Rec & Park’s fundamental failure to address disability access and safety on Sunset Dunes for persons with disabilities as well as persons with mobility limitations.
It is all right here — If people can’t use it, it’s not a park and Dawn, Twilight, Shadows — take a look when you have a moment, it is an impressive body of work which draws us to my final answer for the Phil Ginsburg question.
Conclusion
What did Phil Ginsburg know about Rec & Park’s complete failure to address systemic disability access issues and scores, if not hundreds, of ADA and CA disability access law violations? Everything, he knew it all. And he knew it going all the way back to 2007. He had 18 years to bring redress of the grievances of disabled persons denied fair access to SF parks, playgrounds and other facilities and yet he did nothing. In fact, he doubled-down, installed every manner of theme-park amenities he could imagine at Sunset Dunes so that he could brag about his park on a highway, all the while refusing to lift a finger to address the well-know and well-established disability access concerns.
Why? Because he did not care. People in wheelchairs and elderly people walking with a cane simply do not fit into Phil Ginsburg’s vision and narrative about turning a highway, The Great Highway, into a park.
But a new day is dawning in The Sunset. Phil Ginsburg is leaving Rec & Park to take a high-paying job in the non-profit conservation sector.
The Great Highway is in better hands now, you need not worry Phil. I say we open it back up to traffic 5 days a week, bring back the compromise, and then Patricia and I can set our minds, hands and words to turning Rec & Park into a champion of access to parks, playgrounds, pedestrian walkways and recreational facilities for persons with disabilities.
We will keep an eye on these issues for you Phil, more of an eye than you ever lent to these issues. And Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California will be helping us keep an eye on Rec & Park too.
[author’s note — below I have embedded and linked to my report from yesterday for your reference and reading enjoyment… JBC
The Parks Belong to the People
September 29, 2025 — Federal District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin for the Northern District of California rendered judgement in the case of Ivana Kirola, et. al. vs. The City and County of San Francisco, issuing an Order granting plaintiffs’ motion for systemic injunctive relief.
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin’s decision finds that San Francisco has routinely and repeatedly failed to comply with state and federal laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which require public buildings and facilities, including parks and recreational areas, to be fully accessible to persons with disabilities.
The court rejected assertions by the city claiming that no more than a “handful of isolated” obstructions existed in SF Recreation and Parks Department (Rec & Park) locations. Judge Martinez-Olguin found that inspectors had located many more than a handful.
“… [inspectors found] “dozens of violations at 10 facilities throughout San Francisco that had undergone new construction or alterations since 2000,”
U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin, Kirola, et. al. v. San Francisco
Judge Martinez-Olguin ordered the city to “survey the City’s parks, playgrounds, outdoor recreational facilities, and pedestrian rights of way that were newly constructed or altered after January 26, 1992…” The Court also ordered the city to allow plaintiffs to review, comment on and object to the scope of the survey as well as the survey instrument and procedures. The city will next prepare a proposed remedial plan with plaintiffs’ input and will submit to the Court for review and approval, again allowing plaintiffs to comment and object.
In the final Conclusion section to her Order Judge Martinez-Olguin sets out an aggressive timeline, ordering city officials and advocates for persons with disabilities to “meet and confer and file a joint proposed form of injunction,” and submit it to the Court no later than October 20, 2025. At that time the Court will finalize the Order and issuance of systemic injunctive relief to Plaintiffs.
The City might consider appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. However, in 2023, during an earlier phase of this same case, the 9th Circuit ruled that San Francisco “has engaged in widespread and repeated violations” of U.S. disability laws. Appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals may not be an attractive option. Judge Martinez-Olguin repeatedly referenced earlier 9th Circuit decisions regarding this case in explaining her decision, which I believe boxes in the city even further.
There will be a furious flurry of activity over the next 17 days while the city works feverishly to finish surveying Rec & Park properties and facilities, prepare a remediation plan and negotiate with disability community advocates in advance of the Court’s October 20th deadline.
I do not know if there will be official channels through which the public will be able to participate or communicate concerns in the process compelled by the Court. I imagine that San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu will have little interest in hearing from the plaintiffs that Judge Martinez-Olguin ordered him to confer with, let alone hear from anyone else. And he certainly does not want to hear from me.
That seems to me a robust reason for me to turn up the volume, to speak and write about all this even more. And so, I will. I was not the first to report on this decision and I will not be the last, but as my friend and mentor Robert Leonard taught me once, I can be the one that is asking questions others are not asking.
Here is a short list of questions that I am going to write about over the next 17 days. If you all have other questions you think I should be asking, please weigh in.
Rec & Park loves to brag about their newest park, Sunset Dunes. How did the haphazard construction of this “park” on The Great Highway exacerbate the systemic issues at Rec & Park regarding access to public parks for persons with disabilities?
What role did Phil Ginsburg, soon-to-be the former General Manager of Rec & Park, play in the systemic failure of Rec & Park to abide by U.S. and California disability access laws?
Did Phil Ginsburg’s and by default Rec & Park’s rush to build Sunset Dunes as quickly as possible further Rec & Park’s deficiency in disability access? In other words, what did they know and when did they know it?
Clearly Rec & Park leadership, including Phil Ginsburg, were notified that converting The Great Highway to a park would create additional disability access burdens even before Prop. K was placed on the ballot — Lock, Stock and Two Smokin Barrels — they knew and yet they chose to bury their heads in the sand and forge ahead, full-steam, regardless of who was left out or left behind. I believe that evidence of a systemic failure of both leadership and policy within Rec & Park is readily evident. I am happy the District Court saw that as well.
Others have already contacted me with information about when Rec & Park knew as well as why, how and from whom they knew about the disability and safety issues at Rec & Park.
Will Rec & Park include in their remedial plan efforts to remediate the considerable disability access issues that exist at Sunset Dunes?
Will the non-profits and astro-turf groups that advocated for closure of The Great Highway and creation of Sunset Dunes advocate for remedial action to address disability access concerns?
Will those same organizations take responsibility for their own part in rushing to build a park that cannot be accessed by all?
Since Phil Ginsburg and Rec & Park oversaw the transfer of some $700,000 from a 2020 general obligation COVID recovery bond to cover non-eligible expenditures paying for temporary, non-depreciable Sunset Dunes amenities on The Great Highway, will anyone, other than me, ask why a portion of those funds were not directed to addressing the disability access issues at Sunset Dunes, which would have been more consistent with allowed spending of general obligation bond monies?
OK, that’s a good start, and again you can insert your question here — [???]
If you are not angry about all this yet, just give it time, and keep reading. I promise you, the more you look into this the worse it gets. As a reminder, here are a few links to past reports that I have written here on this general topic, feel free to read them at your convenience. But I warn you, it adds to the anger, just so you know that going in.