Dolores Park was renovated a couple of years ago. It’s a beauty, with big lawns, tennis courts, a children’s playground and views of the city. It’s a public park and anybody is allowed to go and sit in the grass and take it easy, or nap, or read, or jump up and down. Recently, city officials thought it would be a good idea to get some of that tech money by allowing people the ability to rent grassy areas in parks like Dolores.
The test policy by the parks department, which began at the beginning of May and was supposed to last two months, had caused outrage among local residents. The cost to rent a grass area for “permitted picnics” would have been between $33 and $260, depending on the size of the group.
“It’s the invasion of the techies,” said Ken, who declined to give his last name but who said he had been coming to Dolores Park since 1977. “This park has become a techie playground … with [Mark] Zuckerberg’s house looming above us.”
When people have some money, not even a lot of money, they can go places where there is something called “the paywall.” This is the nice term for what in essence is a cover fee that will keep out the “riff-raff.” Like all public spaces in cities, everyone must coexist, and trying to create a paywall in order to make some money is a weak solution to your city’s inability to get the rich to pay their fair share. Scott Weiner is on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors:
Wiener wrote in a statement on Medium: “Despite this program being consistent with long-standing policy in Dolores Park, I do share concerns about reserving lawn areas in the park, given that green space is extremely limited on weekends due to large crowds.”
To address this concern,” he continued, “I worked with Rec & Park to change its reservation policy by limiting reservations to picnic tables. Thus, Rec & Park will not be allowing additional reservations of the lawn area.”
Enjoy that grass!