Sunday, April 16, 2017

New Civic Center Children's Playgrounds

The two childrens' playgrounds in Civic Center Plaza along Larkin Street have been fenced off for the last couple of months for major redesign, and a couple of weeks ago a fence appeared in the middle of the plaza on the long stretch of dirt.

Not that many years ago, there was a beautiful ornamental fountain that ran the entire stretch of the central plaza. This was eventually replaced by a lawn, which was torn out in 2008 for a "Victory Garden," a boneheaded collaboration between celebrity chef Alice Waters and then-Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Since 2008, the space has been a stretch of packed earth, but now it has a kid-friendly play space which was being used today by parents and their children waiting on a rainy morning for the Cherry Blossom Parade to begin.

It seems an odd site to place a playground since there are so many large gatherings in the plaza, from protest marches to parades to outdoor rallies, not to mention all the drug-addled street people who hang out in the neighborhood.

Still, it's a nice design and the little boys crawling around in the cubes under their father's watchful eye looked like they were having a blast.

3 comments:

  1. During the Tax March stand-around phase, it was a pleasure to find myself stepping onto this unexpected soft surface. Kids were all over the structures; they know what it is for.

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  2. Dear Jan: Good to hear that report.

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  3. Dunno. It's very odd looking.

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