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Playgrounds for Children, or Convenience for Maintenance?


After reading this update, please take the Richmond Playground survey and tell SF Recreation and Parks Department by Friday, November 8, how important sand is for you.

Richmond Playground held its first community meeting to begin the renovation design process. Attendees were asked to rate how important a variety of play elements were to them on a scale of “not important” to “very important”, and to add any additional comments on post-it notes. Because of all the advocacy that we all have done together over the last few years, sand was included as one of the options. This was not the case 2 years ago at playground renovation meetings. People were also free to note the importance of sand along with other elements, rather than forcing people to choose between sand and slides or swings (though we fully expect this at future meetings). We were pleased to see the progress that has been made since we began this journey. Despite this progress, the sand talking points were on full display. Every mention of a sand play area by SFRPD representatives was followed by “if the community wants one” or “if it’s important to the community”. Some even went as far as to say the community has to show they REALLY want it because “maintenance doesn’t really like sand...” And then we witnessed something concerning. A representative wearing an SFRPD name tag began voting on the elements. While marking most elements as “very important” to him, he marked sand as “not very important”. It’s bad enough that someone would be voting at all while in an official role representing SFRPD, but when asked about it, he explained that he voted that way because SFRPD has been moving away from having sand in playgrounds. He obviously hadn’t gotten the talking points memo. So not only is the “voting” process tainted, but this encounter shows that SFRPD is still having internal conversations about removing sand from playgrounds. We need your voice even more now. Please take the Richmond playground survey if you live or play in the Richmond, or care about the children who do. Vote and leave comments. If you want to learn more about why sand is important for EVERY child, read our section on Why Sand? Take the survey by Friday, November 8, and if you haven’t already, sign the save the sand petition to show SFRPD that you value sand in SF.


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