Neighborhood Park Council's Summer Social

There was a small crowd at "Patricia's Green" in Hayes Valley early Thursday evening...



...with quite a few children running around eating healthy treats.



It seems that the occasion was the Neighborhood Park Council's annual "Summer Social" where they give out awards to 11 volunteers from the different supervisorial districts such as "D5: Henry Ostendorf, Patricia’s Green Partners."



From what I could make out, the awards involved a potted plant, which various people were hugging awkwardly.



The Neighborhood Parks Council, with offices nearby on Hayes Street, is the creation of a formidable woman named Dr. Isabel Wade (above, on the right) who started the group out of her Buena Vista Park home in 1996 when she became frustrated dealing with the Rec and Park Department. In the ensuing years, she's become a deeply entrenched power broker, with corporate sponsors like Wells Fargo, McKesson and PG&E on the masthead and notoriously corrupt characters such as lawyer Jim Sutton on her Board of Directors.



Dr. Wade also hates golf courses and has been the primary person in the move to shut down San Francisco's inexpensive municipal golf courses such as Lincoln Park surrounding the Legion of Honor Art Museum.



Still, in all fairness, the local musical group with drummers and improvisatory singers playing at the affair was simply wonderful. If it hadn't been so outrageously cold, I would have listened longer.